Running Header: Bullying

Bullying
Shay Pearce
Arizona State University
PPE 310
13OCT2015

Bullying

The subject of bullying in school is a sensitive one. There are many people who believe
that it is a case of kids simply being kids but as the number of suicides resulting from bully
victimization rises, so too does awareness of the true harmful nature of bullying. Traditional
forms of bullying have been with society for countless generations but a new form of bullying is
on the rise and is a truly modern, 21st century issue cyber bullying.
There is often overlap between traditional forms of bullying and cyber bullying (Hase et.
al., 2015) and this is an important thing to note. Bullying victims often experience both forms of
bullying but some research suggests that cyber bullying leads to more suicides, perhaps because
cyber bullying can happen at any hour of the day and at any location (McConnell, 2014). So the
question presents itself what is a teacher to do about it?
The answer is education. By educating students as to the effects of bullying, society
takes a first step in stopping bullying at its source. The science classroom is an excellent place
for such education to take place and during the course of a lesson on ecology, a short block of
instruction on preventative measures would fit very well. A lesson which involves the students
role and responsibilities in their world can be expanded to include a short social example about
how being a responsible member of the school also involves helping to cultivate a positive
environment among classmates. This includes understanding the extremely harmful nature of
cyber bullying and how to change behaviors which often lead a person to begin bullying a
classmate. There would be absolutely no victim-blaming within this lesson such as suggesting
that they not post certain photos or opinions, instead, the lesson will focus strictly on preventing
the act of bullying from even beginning in the first place.

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Citations
McConnell, K., Corbin, C., Corbin, D., Farrar, T. (2014) Health for Life. Human Kinetics, Inc.

Hase, C. et. al. (2015) Impacts of Traditional Bullying and Cyberbullying on the Mental Health
of Middle School and High School Students. Psychology in the Schools. 52(6) Pgs. 607-617.
Retrieved from http://pl8cg5fc8w.search.serialssolutions.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/?
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