BULLYING IN SCHOOLS: DIFFICULT TO END?

Bullying and schools are seems so mutually connected to the extent of their
existence in one’s thought is somehow considered a norm. Bullying also known as a
way of treating people roughly in order to show one’s strength. The weakest always
become a slave to the stronger one. it is a repeatedly-performed aggressive attitude
in either physical or psychological manner towards the victim. Norshidah and Khalim
(2014) categorized bullying into two types; physical bullying such as hitting,
punching, slapping and pushing and psychological bullying through insults and
teasing. For many years, Malaysian schools have been plagued with bully cases. Our
Malaysian school, have been plagued with bullying case for a long time ago despite
our education system, teacher, environment keep changing for geting better. Based
on statistic that Malaysian Education Ministry released on 2016, there seem a
terrifying trend on the number of bullying casses from 2015. Only 2015 in, 3,011
cases are reported(Utusan Malaysia,2016). It was a big number. Without doubt, I
totally agree that bullying is difficult to be eliminated in school. This issue already in
culture. Sometime they do it without knowing it.

First and foremost, it is difficult to eliminate bullying in schools because some

of the oppressors do not even recognize themselves as bulli. They might be not
realize that they are actually intimidating other people with their characteristics and
behavior. This type of oppressor may come from dysfunctional family.
NoBullying(2015) said, dysfunctional family is family that have misbehavior, conflicts
and sometimes abuse happens on a regular basis. Dysfunctional families can be a
result of alcoholism and drug abuse, untreated mental disorders, or even parents
continuing a previous pattern of dysfunctional behavior. The oppressors who come
from this dysfunctional family usually grow up with bad manners because they
affected by their family behaviour. Example of bad manners that this family could
bring are calling people in bad ways, insulting or even physical violence towards
someone else and believe that their behaviors are perfectly normal. Some of them
actually do not have any intention to hurt others but their actions are already wrong to
others perspective. With these lack of communication and bad manners cause them
to insults or physical violence as a way to communicate or express themselves with
others; which in other word, bullying. So, in order to get rid this issue, behaviour in

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family member need to be changed to good behaviours. Manners maketh man
(William,1519). Politeness and good manners are essential to humanity.

Ragging, one of the forms of bullying has been accepted as a culture

especially in boarding school. The act of ragging usually happens in boarding school
where some of senior students force their juniors to do anything for them. If they
refused to do so, they might be beaten. Having the sense of superior in themselves,
the seniors are keen to perhaps show the “seniority” that they have. , juniors are
forced to do errands, wash dirty clothes and extortion. Even worse, they are
physically harmed for pleasure by the seniors although most of the time, not to the
extent of causing a serious injury. Suprisingly, the oppressors and victim accepted
the activities as part of boarding school culture and no one would report them to the
school authorities untill it is too late; or someone dies. In Bangi, a form 2 student has
been beaten by his seniors causing him to get 8 stitches on his lips. His parent found
out about their children from the hospital after the victim already hospitalized. Before
this, the victim frequently got beaten by these seniors but he keep it secret because
he thought this act is normal (sinar,2016). The worse thing is when this culture
become so normal untill junior who got bullied will take revenge at their next junior.
Accepting ragging as a school culture makes it tough to eradicate bullying in schools.

Other than that, teacher’s responses towards indirect bullying also make it
hard to eliminate bully in schools. Usually, direct bullying among students followed by
strict disciplinary actions taken by the discipline teacher every time cases happen.
Different for indirect bullying. There is no strict or specific action taken from teacher
to handle it. Based on Mishna, Scarcello, Pepler & Weiner (2005),

” Most teachers reported that they did not know how to deal with indirect
bullying. As well, most of the teachers had never received training on bullying
and expressed the desire for such training.”

This situation happen caused by teachers’ lack if knowledge and experience in

handling indirect form of abuse such as insulting, teasing or public shaming in front
the students. For example, during a lesson and then the teacher ask the particular
student to answer the question but unfortunately the student can not answer that
question and end up the whole class laugh on him. Teacher would not notice it that
action actually some kind of bullying and then continue the class as usual. The
student who can not answer the question will feel bad and discourage. This kind of
response too makes the students thinks that it is absolutely fine to ridicule anyone

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and the student shall gladly do it again. So, faulty response by teachers towards
indirect abuse makes it complicated to put a stop to bullying in schools.

In a nutshell, I have stated a clear stand that bullying in schools difficult to get
rid based on the three arguments written. Bullying already become one of culture in
schools and also in real life. bullying is a critical problem in our country and it brings a
major concern to all. It is my deepest hope that one day, our country would be free
from bully and our children would go to school with head full of curiosity instead of
anxiety.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

“Buli Tiada Berkesudahan” (22 October 2016), Saturday Special Report,

Utusan Malaysia (Local Newspaper), Page 22.

F. Mishna, I. Scarcello, D. Pepler & J. Weiner. (2005). Teachers’

understanding of bullying. Canadian Journal of Education, 28, 718-
738. Retrieved on 13th of September, 2017 from William of
Wykeham, Bishop of
Winchester,http://www.ed.gov.nl.ca/edu/k12/bullying/importance_teac
her_response.pdf

Muzaffar Syah Mallow. (2017). School Bullying in Malaysia: Cause, Effect

and A Possible Solution. Proceedings of SOCIOINT 2017- 4th
International Conference on Education, Social Sciences and
Humanities, pp. 154-159, 10-12 July 2017, Dubai, UAE. Retreived on
13th of September, 2017 from http://www.ocerint.org/socioint17%20e-
publication/abstracts/papers/131.pdf

NoBullying.com. (2015). Facts About the Dysfunctional Family. Retrieved on

15th of September, 2017 from https://nobullying.com/dysfunctional-
family/

Norshidah Mohamad Salleh & Khalim Zainal. (2014). Bullying Among

Secondary School Students in Malaysia: A Case Study.
International Education Studies, 7(13), 184-191. Retrieved on 13th of
September, 2017 from
http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ies/article/view/43615

Nur Farhana Abdul Manan (22 Februari 2016) “Kes buli : Pelajar Terima
Lapan Jahitan Dibelasah Senior”, Sinar Online. Retrieved on 13th of
September, 2017 from http://www.sinarharian.com.my/edisi/selangor-
kl/kes-buli-pelajar-terima-lapan-jahitan-dibelasah-senior-1.488173

Shazwan Mustafa Kamal. (2017, June 18th). Three things we learned from:
Bullying in Malaysian schools. The Malay Mail Online. Retrieved on
11th of September, from
http://www.themalaymailonline.com/malaysia/article/three-things-we-
learned-from-bullying-in-malaysian-schools#ZgasRqHAu8RhYwm2.97

William H.(1519). Vulgaria Uiri Doctissimi Guil. Hormani

Caesariburgensis. Retrieved on 13th of September, 2017 from
https://books.google.com.my/books/about/Vulgaria.html?
id=18EzAQAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

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