A National Problem: Bullying in Schools

                                                                                                                                                                            By: Haniyah Bilal

The little girl stood silently in the corner dreading what would happen next….the inevitable.Everywhere she went they haunted her with their echoing laughter, evil sneers and arrogant strides. Slowly, as not make any noise the girl sat down. But then her eyes widened and fear filled her as a towering shadow came in view. The girl jumped up and then she heard the laughter and saw the pointing. The children pointed their nose in disgust and walked away. Years later the girl grew up and grew stronger protecting others when she couldn’t protect herself. The girl realized that one friend was missing. She found her friend sitting next a bully quite irritated and vexed. Anger filled the girl at the injustice. She could not stand it so she did the first thing that came to mind.She stamped his shoe and walked away saving her friend from the ill-fate of being bullied.

Research shows that this event is not an anomaly. In fact,one out of three people are bullied every day. Fayza Elshafie, an 8th grader of the Islamic School of San Diego and a previous public school student, said ” My thoughts on bullying in school is that it’s a serious problem, as a few words can affect and change a young mind forever…Bullies pick on others simply because of insecurity or because they think they are  better than others. Bullying is caused because of envy, anger, and stress.” According to statistics more than 3.2 million students are bullied and victim of bullying each year. Each day 160,000 teens skip school out of fear of bullies or of being bullied. Public school teachers however only intervene with bullying 4% of the time.This causes frustration and despair among teens and increases the number of depressed teens.2.8 million teens are depressed in the U.S. Due the amount of depression teens face, suicidal thoughts follow as well. 6,078 teenagers commit suicide every year due to different types bullying.Bullying in schools has become an increasingly bigger problem especially in public schools.The most common reason for bullying in schools is popularity and many students threaten to humiliate the other student to gain social status.Many psychiatrists insist that there are three different ways victims of bullies are affected. They may become depressed and commit suicide, become a bully, become a criminal or use it to build confidence and to help care for others. 

This needs to be stopped. Simply educating students from a young age and providing the necessary supervision can solve the problem. So why not give it a try?Organizations like Pacer and DoSomething are helping. They help educate youngsters about this so that they can prevent other bullies, report incidents and not become a bully themselves. We can teach students to stand up for the rights of others and themselves. The world can make a difference!