Hello everybody, today my blog will be about school climate – bullying issues.
Were ever you bullied as a kid? If you were, I expect it was not the greatest experience in the world. Today, I’m going to tell you if I have ever been bullied and how that made me feel. Fortunately for me, I have not been bullied. Now don’t get me wrong, I have been left out of things in past, but that was because of my abilities not because someone was picking on me. I don’t know the reason(s) that the bullies left me alone. They might have been intimidated by the sheer size of my wheelchair. You might be wondering if I think that a child with special needs is a bigger target for bullies. The answer to that question is yes. I think because bullies sometimes see a person with a disability and think that they are weak and unimportant and they also think that they are an easier target.
While I have not had the experience of being bullied, I have heard that a lot of school age children have been bullied. I went on the Internet to look up facts about bullying and I want to share them with you. According to NoBullying.com…
64% of children who were harassed or bullied do not report it.
35% of kids have been threatened online.
Three out of four school shooting incidents have been linked to bullying or other harassment.
49 states have anti-bullying laws, but 70% of students think that the schools respond poorly to bullying reports.
6 out of 10 teenagers say they witness bullying in school every day.
One in three children in grades 6 to 10 are bullied. So that means that if there were 30 children in a classroom, 10 of those children would get abused or bullied.
What I think should be done about bullying is that every state should be required to have anti-bullying laws not just 49 states. I think that the stats are appalling and they need to change! It should not be just 49 states it needs to be the whole country. 6 out of 10 students who witness bullying should change to zero.
Those are my thoughts. Now I want to hear yours. We can make a difference. We can change the world. Remember, it only takes one person to change the world.
Have a great day and I will see you next week, Chandler 🙂
Although I can thankfully not relate to this blog for myself, I have definitely seen bullying take place in school (especially middle and high school). It is a horrible thing, especially after reading the stats, it’s very surprising… Or am I really surprised…? I also believe it is important for teachers to be aware of these stats and be on a look out for changing behaviors and attitudes in students. Maybe by having more awareness will bring these heartbreaking numbers down!
Chandler,
I loved your blog and am grateful that you have never been bullied! This is such an important subject these days and one that many people think they know about but really don’t have all of their facts. The facts you state are so important and so sad at the same time! I hope too that it will change.
There are so many thoughts that I have it’s hard to pick. We talk about this in our school.
Some people don’t do anything because they don’t think an action or words said are bullying. Understanding bullying is the first step.
True bullying is made up of 3 components:
* It is intended to hurt
* It is repeated (the same person is repeatedly bullying either 1 person or many different people but they keep bullying)
* There is an imbalance of power (due to age, physical size, group vs individual, boy to girl just to name a few)
In bullying there are also three groups or individual:
* the bully
* the target
* the bystander
People always think of the first 2 yet fail to realize the power of:
1. standing up for yourself and
2. the role of the bystander
John Quinones has a show “What Would You Do”. He focuses in on the bystander. While the situations may not be founded bullying cases he is bringing to light to power of the bystander and our duty to help each other especially the targets of the world!!
I love you and am so proud of all that your are accomplishing! Keep it up Chanman!!
Love Aunt Donna