Online Class: Middle and High School Bullying

Courses Frequently Bought Together:

Bullying in Elementary School

Building Self-Esteem in Children

Solving Classroom Discipline Problems

Course Motivation

Tween and teen bullying has become a problem that has reached alarming levels. While some people claim that teasing, and even bullying, among middle and high school students has always been around, others claim it's gotten worse. Some people would argue that it's gotten much worse, and if we don't as a society begin to do something about it, we are raising a generation of people who will live with the consequences that bullying behavior brings about. 

There are a lot of consequences that the nation is facing when it comes to bullying at the middle and high school level. One scan of the weekly news highlights from around the nation will yield stories, most of them somber ones that tell the dark tales of teens and tweens being bullied to the brink. 

Take, for example, Rachel Ehmke, Joel Morales, and Whitney Kropp. All three of these people were bullied in their middle and high schools and were pushed to the edge. Rachel, a seventh-grader from Minnesota who had been bullied for a while, hanged herself because she couldn't get the bullying to stop, despite her parents and the school believing that she was working through the bullying issues. Joel, a 12-year-old boy from East Harlem also hanged himself because of the bullying he was enduring at school.  

Whitney Kropp's story ends on a happier note. From Michigan, others in her high school would bully her, and they pulled a prank that almost led to her death. As a joke, they voted her to be on the homecoming court for their school. She contemplated suicide over the bullying prank, but her family convinced her instead to take a different route. They, and others in their small community, supported her in standing up to the bullies by taking the honor of participating in that homecoming court at the festivities. She took the role on the homecoming court, made headlines around the nation, and became a role model for standing up to bullying. Her story is a happy one, but most bullying stories do not end on such a happy note. 

So what is it that makes tweens and teens engage in bullying behaviors? What makes some kids decide to end their life over the bullying? How do you get a teen like Whitney Kropp to stand up to the bullying and turn it all around? And how do we as a parent, teacher, community, and country, stand up to bullying so that we can protect the youth of our nation? These are the questions that will be answered throughout this course. The answers to these questions can be the difference in how bullying is perceived in your community, handled at your school, and may even be the difference in life or death when it comes to the outcome for the bullied victim. We will look at everything from how bullying is defined, to how peer advocacy can be created, and many issues in between. 

What is Bullying?

Although bullying is a term that many people are familiar with, they may not know exactly the term includes. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), bullying is behavior that takes place when a person or group repeatedly try to harm someone they perceive as being weaker than they are. Bullying may include teasing, hitting, taunting, name calling, excluding someone, and spreading rumors about someone. Bullying can be both physical and verbal. 

Decades ago bullying existed, but it was a term that we didn't hear about nearly as much as today. People used to assume, and many still do, that the behaviors included in bullying are just part of growing up, and that they are something that everyone goes through. This idea can be harmful, especially to those who overlook the dangers involved in bullying. Tweens and teens who are bullied may go on to engage in violent behavior, commit suicide, or may go on to have a variety of social problems as they become adults.  

The impact of bullying can be far reaching and last a lifetime. Because of this, it is important that it always be taken seriously and addressed immediately. Bullying is a form of abuse. It is emotional abuse and can lead to both physical and mental health issues. 

The Bullying Facts

The term bullying has become well known in recent years. This isn't because bullying wasn't taking place a couple of decades ago, because it was. As people have learned how important an issue it is, they have raise the awareness about it, as well as worked on ways to help people prevent and address it. We hear about it more today because we have better and quicker access to the news stories that ring out from around the nation about bullying. 

Bullying is happening more than most parents and teachers would care to believe. It's an ongoing problem that is taking place not only on school grounds, but it also happens in neighborhoods, on playgrounds, and even at the local mall or theater. Bullying even takes place when the victim is spending time with family, or napping on the sofa. This is because cyber-bullying has become a major issue, which we will discuss in Lesson 8. 

According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, about half of all children are bullied at some point during their school years. The academy also reports that around 10 percent of students are bullied regularly. Additional facts surrounding bullying by the National Association of School Psychologists find that: 

• Bullying is the most common form of violence that takes place in our country.
• Of those who have been bullied, two-thirds feel the school responded poorly to the problem.
• They also report that 25 percent of teachers find nothing wrong with bullying or teasing and only end up intervening in around 4 percent of the incidents. 

Bullying most commonly happens on school grounds. But there are other places it can happen, as well. It can happen at home (through cyber-bullying), in the neighborhood, on the school bus, or any place where tweens and teens are meeting up. If they are going to the movies, the mall, or to a community function, it can take place. Once there are a number of tweens and teens gathering in one place there is an increased risk that bullying can happen. 

Because bullying today takes place beyond the school grounds, it is important that parents and those in the community also be aware of it and know how to prevent it, as well as to address it if it does happen. Cyber-bullying is a growing trend that has taken some of the bullying outside of the school walls and put it in the hands of the victim, wherever they may be.  

That being said, the majority of bullying still takes place on school grounds. As such, the National Crime Prevention Council reports that each day in America, there are 160,000 students who miss school because they fear bullying. This is an issue that is impacting our middle and high school students both at school, and when they are at home.