Do Schools Do Enough to Prevent Bullying

According to a study, 1 in 5 students ages 12-18 get bullied during the school year, yet not much is done about bullying. Bullying is considered a form of violence against those who are weaker and less dominant than those with power. It can take place in different locations, but it is most frequent in schools and workplaces. It usually consists of a group of bullies who like to isolate and torment a student by insulting and taunting the student. Some even force the student to perform actions that publicly shame the student. Bullying is becoming very prominent in schools and is resulting in some very severe consequences. In some severe cases, it has resulted in physical violence in forms of fights and suicides. Although bullying has been a significant problem for a long time, schools can’t do enough to prevent bullying. This is because schools lack the resources to address the issue, they are engaged in other tasks, and bullying incidents are often not reported. So the main question of this essay is: “Do schools do enough to prevent bullying?”.

The educators of today are extremely busy as they are bombarded with marking, preparing assignments, living their own life. At times, the demands that administrators place on them may seem daunting. As a result, most educators are struggling just to meet the demanding expectations of their everyday responsibilities and obligations. While this is no excuse to ignore bullying and sends the wrong message to students, it is sometimes easier for teachers to turn a blind eye to bullying than to address the issue. For example, everybody remembers the tubing trip, we had a snowstorm so the trip was cancelled, now everybody came and left after finding out it was cancelled. But Ms.Karm had to come to school at 7:00 to inform everyone it was cancelled and she had to teach for the rest of the day.

The teacher does not have the resources to address the problem. Many teachers want to tackle harassment within the classroom, but they don’t have the administrative support to do a lot. For example, when they suspect bullying, they may send students to the office just to have them return to the classroom with no real consequences for their bad behaviour. However, most schools also lack strong strategies for bullying prevention and are behind in implementing interventions that not only change the school environment but also discourage bullying. When not everyone is on board with what needs to be done, it is very difficult for one teacher to handle bullying adequately in class. An this is one of the reasons why schools don’t do enough to prevent bullying. To be successful in bullying prevention, a group approach is needed to address the issue.

Secondly, most of the time bullying incidents are not reported or it happens out of the sight of teachers. Most bullying occurs out of the class environment. Bullying usually takes place in numerous areas throughout the school: lunchroom, hallways, locker room, bus and even online. As a consequence, it is not unusual for teachers to be unaware of bullying inside their school, particularly if they focus primarily on the environment of the classroom and not communicate much outside of that with students. According to research, only about 20 to 30% of students who are bullied notify adults about bullying. Moreover, bullies know exactly where teachers and other adults are before targeting someone. For this cause, adults are often unable to witness first-hand bullying Only those educators who make a deliberate effort to connect with the students will know what is going on outside the walls of the school.

Finally, are schools doing enough to prevent bullying? I believe schools are trying to prevent bullying as much as they can, but they only have so many resources. Some people might say that educators in the school should be held accountable for the victims being bullied while this is not the case. I believe that is outrageous because often teachers are not aware of the situation, they can’t deal with a situation they don’t even know about. Schools lack the resources to deal with the problem; they are involved in other activities, and cases of bullying are not identified. This evokes the question, are schools the only ones responsible for bullying?