Argumentative Essay - Bullying and Violence in Schools
Ndukauba J. Nwosu
Professor Absalom
English 101, section 13
2 November, 2016
Argumentative Essay - Bullying and Violence in Schools
Bullying is a repeated aggressive behavior where one person (or a group of people) prove him/ herself to be is more superior than an individual, which leads them to deliberately intimidate, abuse, or coerce the individual with the intention to hurt that person physically and emotionally. Bullying has been a huge dilemma in schools and it seems to be unstoppable but controllable. Teachers need to suppress bullying in schools because it can affect the way students perceive school, the student’s education, and their attrition rate. Bullying leads to numerous negative effects to the victims, many of whom are often students. It could lead those students to commit violent acts like conducting a massive school shooting, which could end up hurting innocent students. The negative effects of school bullying could go beyond childhood into adulthood.
Many people believe that school shootings are becoming an epidemic, (Muschert & Ragnedda 2). However, there are approximately 10 events of school shootings per year, on average (Schildkraut 2). School shootings are a form of retaliation by victims of school bullying. Those students believe that taking the life of their oppressor is probably the best way to end their problem, even though it is not, especially because most students have no experience handling a gun. The reason why killing their oppressor is an ineffective solution is because they are actually harming themselves. The premeditated killing of another human being is unlawful, which could put them in jail for a long period of time. In addition, students who have never handled a gun tend to lose control of the weapon, which may put innocent lives at risk.
Students who are bullied, are often physically smaller, have fewer friends, lack assertiveness, are more submissive than peers of the same age, have negative perceptions of themselves and others, and tend to react to the victimization by crying or withdrawing (Carney & Merrell 1047, Schwartz 1047). Bullying has been discovered to be a widespread problem in education, affecting students around the world (Hilton et al. 187; Karatzias et al. 187; Molcho et al. 187; Nansel et al. 187). Teachers need to suppress bullying in schools because it can affect the way students perceive school. When students don’t see the adults at school acting to prevent or intervene in bullying situations, they may feel that teachers and other school staff have little control over the students and do not care what happens to them. Students may negatively perceive school as a place where bigger and stronger students get to take advantage of weaker students. A child’s perception of school starts from kindergarten. If the child is to realize that school is a place where students of the same age or older tend to torment them, it could lead to attrition rate.
Attrition rate is also a reason why teachers need to suppress bullying in schools.
Studies have demonstrated that students who are bullied are more likely to avoid school (Kochenderfer & Ladd 39) or even drop out (Fried & fried 39). Victims of school bullying figured out that the best way to hide from their bullies is to stay away from school. Avoidance from school might be a good method of preventing yourself from being bullied, but it is not a smart idea. Jaana Juvonen, a professor of psychology at UCLA, quoted saying, “students who are repeatedly bullied receive poorer grades and participate less in class discussions and those students may get mislabeled as a low achiever because they do not want to speak up in class for fear of getting bullied” (Kate Barrington 1). School is a place where a child goes to learn and interact with his/her fellow classmates. If a child constantly gets bullied and it leads to an attrition rate from school, they will lack trust, social interaction, confidence, and self-esteem. Nonetheless, if a child was to drop out of school, it would be difficult for them to find a job willing to hire someone that lacks social interaction; most jobs are not based on how smart an individual might be but on how well they communicate with people.
If bullying could affect the victim’s attrition rate in school, can you guess what else it could affect? Bullying could also affect the victim’s education. The victim’s education can be affected through lack of concentration in class, lack of class participation or maybe worse do poorly in school. Students who are bullied are at some risk for demonstrating poor achievements in schools, Woods and Wolke claims that “only victims of relational bullying had significantly lower academic scores”, but other studies indicated victims in general score lower academically (Glew et al. 188; Schwartz et al. 188) and the risk increases if the student receives little support from their parents and is already disengaged from school (Beran 39). And if a child was to do poorly in school, it could affect their job opportunities because they lack their academic skills like reading and writing. Many jobs require the employee to at least know the concept of calculation to get some work done, so if the student does not have such math skills they might not be able to get the job. In the case of reading and writing, you must be able to read the job rules, you must be able to read emails, and you also need to be able to read out information to help customers or patients, depending on what job you choose to do. So, if a student does not get the required education from school, they will have less job opportunities. And for the jobs they get, it might not be able to pay most their bills or put food on their table.