Schools Must Take Stopping Bullying Seriously

In light of the tragic suicide of Adriana Kuch, two days after a video was posted of her being assaulted by bullies, the question of whether schools are doing enough to prevent bullying comes up. The answer is obviously no. While I do not necessarily believe that bullying is widespread, when bullying occurs, clearly not enough is being done by schools. But the approach to bullying cannot be the standard anti bullying messaging usually heard in schools.

Thankfully I never had to experience physical or emotional bullying, and there was almost no physical bullying at my high school ever. But from what I’ve seen, the way bullying occurs is quite different from how its portrayed in tv and movies. The bullying is not done in as much of an open embrace of being the bad guy as on tv. But when it is done, it is done more severely than on tv.

Bullies are either people who convince themselves that they aren’t actually bullying, or are sociopaths who do not care if they are. Therefore, the standard exercise of trying to convince would be bullies not to bully, by showing the negative effects they have, often does not work. They either say that they aren’t bullying, or can’t be reached through teaching empathy. Because of this, much more must be put into stopping bullying the moment it happens, and severely punishing those who do bully.

In any part of the school where there are large amounts of people, adults must be there. The amount of locations where bullying can be done without being noticed must be reduced. For social media bullying, schools must teach clearly and thoroughly what to do if they are harassed on the platform. How to save it and report it, and shown that actions will be taken swiftly. Schools must teach students how to spot signs of bullying and act quickly. And schools must outline severe punishments for bullying.

If there needs to be more resources made available to schools and teachers to accomplish this, then give more resources. We must ask those in schools to have a higher standard in this regard, and we must give them the extra compensation and resources to do it. We must teach young people right and wrong, and empathy. But unfortunately, there will be some who it does not get through to. For those people, the punishment for bullying must be harsh enough to dissuade them.

The problem of bullying is not just confined to school. It can occur in any walk of life. It is complicated and difficult to observe in many settings. But we have enough knowledge to make real steps in curtailing it in school settings. It’s time to stop talking about combating bullying and actually do it. There are too many things in life that we have to navigate. Being severely bullied or having our child or friend severely bullied should not be one of those things.