Bullying in schools.Types of Bullying.Factors Contributing to Bullying

Bullying in Schools
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Bullying in Schools
Watching and reading the recent news, the issue of bullying cannot be swept under the carpet. School bullying has escalated into a global issue, but it had been receiving little to no attention in the past. In recent years, the issue has attracted attention where numerous studies, surveys, and polls have been carried out to explore the incidence rates, the individuals involved, the associated negative effects, and the effectiveness of the anti-bullying programs in place. According to the Department of Educational Skills guidelines, bullying is defined as the psychological intimidation, physical assaults, negative verbal and gross behaviors such as name-calling, teasing as well as social isolation and exclusion conducted by an individual or group towards another person(s) and repeated frequently over time. Specifically, school bullying refers to any bullying directed to school properties, among old and young students or towards a teacher. A report by the FBI in 2016 revealed that the percentage of students reporting cases of bullying every week was steadily increasing, an indication that problem remains as one of the largest problems in American schools. The problem has recently escalated because of the pervasive impact of cyberbullying impinging from the students’ usage of social media as Facebook and Instagram. Since many researchers around bullying have dwelt so much on individual contexts, this paper explores the issue of school bullying in the cultural, societal and institutional contexts within which it occurs.
Types of Bullying
The two distinct categories of bullying include, pack bullying and individual bullying. Pack bullying refers to a bullying undertaken by a group of students. Pack bullying is highly prevalent in high school level and tends to last longer compared to individual bullying (Olweus, 2013). A pack of student perpetrating bullying is likely to repeat the heinous behaviors to their victims more frequently than individual bullies. On the other hand, individual bullying refers to the one led by one person against their victims, which can either be face-to-face or online through social media platforms (Olweus, 2013). The forms of bullying is more prevalent in elementary schools. In addition, both the two types of bullying are likely to cause physical or emotional destruction to victims. Physical bullying emanates from acts such as shoving, fighting, spitting, hitting and tripping whereas emotional bullying can come from insults, teasing and other derogatory remarks (Olweus, 2013). Unlike physical bullying, emotional bullying can take place at both in person and through cyber-bullying.
Factors Contributing to Bullying
Schools provides an environment that has inadvertently fostered the culture of bullying. There are two components that undermine the schools' ability to combat the culture of bullying. First, the administration tends to act with negligence on the signs and actions that promotes bullying. School bullying goes uncontrollable when the school administrations and other concerned faculties become unaware of the degree of bullying within the school, and hence failing to protect control the problem (Garrett, 2012). The increasing rate of bullying basically suggests that schools’ response to bullying has been ineffective in the eradication of the issue. Particularly, many schools have not been holding the bullies responsible for the actions, even when the cases are presented to the relevant faculty (Garrett, 2012). Failure of attending to reported cases of bullying also indicates a failure in addressing other schools' social problems such as alcohol and drug abuse, teen pregnancy, and other forms of gross misconduct among students (Garrett, 2012). Sometimes, schools may be focusing on face values of the serious problems within the school while ignoring significant initiators and the origin of these behaviors.
The second component that promotes the culture of bullying in schools is the behaviors and reactions of bullying witnesses, the bystanders. Many students choose to be passive onlookers in the scenes of bullying thinking it’s a rightful act and part of school life. Few students are known to intervene and stop an incident of bullying (Rigby, 2013). The bystanders are always reluctant to intervene because of the fear of the imminent consequences in an environment where perpetrators go unpunished. Thus, the victims cannot rely on their fellow students to defend them against the bullies (Rigby, 2013). Sometimes the incidences of bullying turn violent when bystanders choose to be become active participants and defend their close peers from bullying which might turn violent. The students’ fraternity perceives bullying as an act of school tradition that a student has to pass through it at one point in time (Rigby, 2013). Therefore, it is justifiable to assert that the culture of bullying is growing rampant in educational institutions because the school administration and student body have failed to impart a message that bullying is an uncalled-for behavior.
The Bullies and the Victims
Bullying actions are interpreted from the psychological point of view, and they are viewed as individuals suffering from poor self-image and low self-esteem. Also, viewed bullies are seen as depressed, bitter and angry individuals that have the habit of acting impulsively. Unlike their normal peers, bullies are characterized by aggression and skirmishes to resolve problems and attain their objectives (Qureshi, 2013). Also, the psychological profiles of bullies paint them as students who perform below average and the school provides them with a negative environment that renders them unhappy and acrimonious. In ...