Understanding Different Factors Surrounding Harassment and The School’s Responsibility

When it comes to bullying, it’s always a double-edged sword. On one side you have the fact that bullying in one way or another is beneficial for an individual. And of course on the other side you have the fact that bullying can be taken too far and have dangerous consequences. In this debate paper I will be talking about both sides of bullying and cyberbullying. Also, I will be discussing the school’s role bullying.

Now, when I say that bullying is beneficial, I don’t mean that it’s necessarily ok or right for someone to bully another. When I mean beneficial, I mean that bullying can show people that the world isn’t always a nice place and not everyone is going to like you. As unfortunate as it is, no one will ever respect everyone else. That’s how it’s always been and that’s probably how it always will be. No matter where you go, there’s always going to be someone somewhere that doesn’t like you for whatever reason. Bullying in schools allows students to experience that the world isn’t always fair and it isn’t always nice. Bullying also allows an individual to stand up for themselves and make their self-esteem stronger. When people learn to tolerate bullies, that’s when they can put themselves above a situation and be the bigger person.

The flip side to this is the fact that bullying can get to an extreme level. It’s at this point that it’s no longer just an act where someone can stand up for themselves, but a situation where a person could get themselves hurt. If anyone takes anything to an extreme, it can become dangerous. If a bully is not only verbally abusing, but also physically abusing someone, then that’s when the bullying has gone too far. It gets too a point where the victim can’t stand up for his or herself. This can lead to the victim dropping out of school, being diagnosed with depression, or even suicide.

On the topic of cyberbullying, I think it’s a bit farfetched. I understand that technology allows bullying to be done virtually and without any human contact, and I know that people do experience cyberbullying. However, I believe that as much as someone has the ability to send a text or post something through technology, that the receiver also has the ability to block or reject that. If someone is being bullied on the internet, the victim can simply log out. Now I am not saying by any means that what the victim is experiencing isn’t hurtful to them. I understand that they’re feelings are being hurt by what someone posted about them or texted to them. The thing is, we have the power to stop that virtual bullying by logging out of the account, turning off the computer, and blocking the number on the cellphone. There are ways to prevent cyberbullying way more so than straight up human contact bullying.

As for the schools, they can only do so much. This goes back to our discussion in class about values in schools. The schools should try every bit to reinforce respect and empathy, but at the end of the day it’s up to the individual if he or she wants to listen to that and practice it. Also, bullying happens both inside and outside of the classroom. The school can take whatever measure they’d like to stop in the classroom, but once that bell rings it’s a free for all. This goes back to cyberbullying too. There aren’t teachers and principals on there to stop students from posting hurtful things. It’s all the responsibility of the individual who chooses to do that.