Anti - bullying

Why do we keep reading articles with the headlines of “child committing suicide?”

Or dying from an unnatural death that could have been avoided in so many ways?

Why am I seeing headlines of a murderer who is also under-aged because their actions were overlooked until another child died?

Why is the system failing to protect our future generations from bullying?

All these questions are left unanswered as the world pays its respects to those who lost their lives due to the unfair system that we label “safe” and “equal”. For the past few years, I have seen a massive increase in bullying, which has resulted in death because adults chose to ignore the constant fear a child endured as they were targeted by others.

Why are they being ignored? Does the system not care for its children as they grow and mould into society, barely fending for themselves as they try to build status and titles among everyone else? What can we do in order to help our children, siblings, cousins, and anyone prone to targeted bullying?

What is bullying?

According to google, a bully is a person who “seeks to harm, intimidate, or coerce (someone perceived as vulnerable).

Various studies show that bullies seek empowerment and control over other individuals. They believe the easiest access to these factors undermines those who are more vulnerable and creates a hole of self-doubt among those people. This makes victims believe they are of a lower status than everyone else, which causes them to self-isolate from the group.

Bullies pick a unique aspect that is different from everyone such as a person’s race, gender, disability, family status, etc, and use it to their advantage, making a positive feature into a negative factor.

Bullying consists of the following:

• Cyberbullying – A person who uses technology with social networking sites to intimidate or harass another user.

• Name Calling – An individual who uses abusive language or insults.

• Threatening behavior – Using insults, threats, or abuse against another person.

• Social Bullying – To cause humiliation or harm one’s status/reputation.

• Physical Assault – When an individual or group uses physical actions to harm another whether that is with or without weapons (or threatens to assault.)

• Sexualized bullying – It is harassment, which is in relation to one’s sex, body, sexual orientation, or sexual activity.

What are the effects of bullying?

Bullying has an effect on victims such as feeling anxiety, depression, loneliness, isolation, and other mixed negative emotions. It takes effect the way they perceive themselves and their life, causing them to be less engaged in activities and communicate less with people. It can affect a child’s performance at school as they are more stressed about the school bully hitting them than their classes that they are failing due to ignorance adults choose to use daily. This can continue into adulthood as they have low self-esteem and cannot pass the labels permanently glued to their back by those around them.

This can cause an individual to seek peace in extreme behaviors such as committing suicide or harming others through actions like school shootings, which is common in America.

A television series that perfectly demonstrated this is ‘13 Reasons Why’, in which they focused on each character’s stories and emotions within a high-school setting and how it led them to commit extreme acts that could have been avoided if the school did not fail to support their students in matters they had full control over. It shows the broken and unequal levels within the school’s structure and how it has an overall effect on a child’s emotions towards themselves and others. – Netflix.

However, bullies also do not receive the attention and treatment they need in order to prevent them from becoming passive-aggressive and abusive to others. Various studies show that a huge percentage of those who choose to bully others have gone through a traumatic and life-changing event, which resulted in them handling their emotions by harming others. Children, whether they are the bully or the victim, should receive equal opportunities for improvement to avoid future generations handling their stress and anxiety through other methods such as drug use, suicide, committing crimes, and being in toxic/problematic relationships with others similar to them, etc.

So what can we do in support?

The Anti-Bullying Alliance has created an anti-bullying-themed week that is implemented across England and Wales to highlight the importance of supporting young children through their development.

Due to the success of the campaign in 2021 with 80% of schools marking the week and reaching over 7.5 million young people and children, it has now become a yearly campaign to continue fighting against negativity and to promote a healthier environment.

This is scheduled for the 14th – 18th of November 2022 with the week starting with “socks off”, which is a day individuals wear uncoordinated socks in recognition of everyone’s unique qualities.

This is not only recognizing bullying within a school environment it also encourages Parents, politicians, and the community in becoming one known figure to be against any bullying.

We as a whole can express our concerns when united as it gives us a stronger and louder voice that can be heard across all cities.

It encourages children and young people to also seek help from adults as we are demonstrating an example of how we deal with bullying, which is together.

If you are a parent reading this blog, don’t be afraid to ask your child how their day has been. Let’s get out of the stigma that speaking about problems or emotions is showing weakness, don’t let your children grow up never expressing their true feelings. Everything begins at home, be the first option your child chooses instead of a weapon.

“Hope you enjoyed this blog and always try to make a positive impact on others!” – Aamena Patel