Amanda Todd was subjected to cyberbullying and physical bullying at school. Physical bullying that entails kicking, taking personal belongings, spitting, pushing, and hitting (Regoli, 1). Cyberbullying refers to bullying that involves the use of electronic communications.
Amanda Todd experienced several consequences as a result of being bullied, among them not getting along well with classmates, trouble making friends and feeling lonely (Regoli, 1). She attempted to deal with the physical bullying by turning down to go to school. Amanda also attempted to express herself online by posting video, which attracted further bullying in the form of social media harassment. Amanda also tried to deal with the bullying by writing cards as a means of expressing what she was feeling inside.
What Amanda’s parents could have done to reduce episodes of bullying was to ask her the concern that made her feel like not going to school. Since they know her better, they could have traced her school life to examine whether she has always been lonely and hating school. From that assessment, the parents ought to realize that there is a problem with school. Another strategy that teachers could have used to reduce bullying episodes is to check on her class participation. Probably, if she was active before and has now changed, teachers should have realized that there is something going amiss.
One of the similarities between bullying cases that take place today and those that took place when I attended high school is emotional bullying that entails spreading of rumors and engaging in social exclusion. Currently, it is very common for students to exclude some members because they do not dress in a certain manner, exclude someone on the basis of their race or ethnicity or exclude someone belonging to a different socioeconomic class. When I attended high school, exclusion was also prevalent whereby children belonging to the same socioeconomic class would garner up against another students who they thought belonged to another class. Another similarity entails verbal bullying when some students would call others names that were derogatory and undesirable. For instance, students joining high school would be called ‘mono’, meaning the first year of high school. ‘monos’ were looked down upon and could not take food before other graders.
The two main differences between bullying now and when I was attending high school is that cyberbullying now is much more as access to mobile phones and social networking sites has increased significantly. Another difference is that emotional harassment off rumor spreading was more physical than the present. Students used to gossip through the word of mouth while they now spread rumors through electronic communications such as through social media.
The key contributing factors that led to bullying behavior were need for recognition whereby the bully wants to be recognized as the kingpin at school. Peer pressure is another factor that make individuals to engage in bullying as the bully is championed by other students and celebrated.
One way in which prevention program is by making the environment inhabitable to potential bullies who might fear that they will be caught. A prevention program that recruits other parents increases parental awareness of their children behavior, thereby instilling good behavior. Finally, a bullying program that empowers children helps children to learn bullying and understand the boundaries between ordinary jokes and bullying. Once they know the boundary, they can report bullying to their parents, guardians, teachers and authorities so that necessary actions can be taken such as punishment of offenders.
Amanda Todd experienced several consequences as a result of being bullied, among them not getting along well with classmates, trouble making friends and feeling lonely (Regoli, 1). She attempted to deal with the physical bullying by turning down to go to school. Amanda also attempted to express herself online by posting video, which attracted further bullying in the form of social media harassment. Amanda also tried to deal with the bullying by writing cards as a means of expressing what she was feeling inside.
What Amanda’s parents could have done to reduce episodes of bullying was to ask her the concern that made her feel like not going to school. Since they know her better, they could have traced her school life to examine whether she has always been lonely and hating school. From that assessment, the parents ought to realize that there is a problem with school. Another strategy that teachers could have used to reduce bullying episodes is to check on her class participation. Probably, if she was active before and has now changed, teachers should have realized that there is something going amiss.
One of the similarities between bullying cases that take place today and those that took place when I attended high school is emotional bullying that entails spreading of rumors and engaging in social exclusion. Currently, it is very common for students to exclude some members because they do not dress in a certain manner, exclude someone on the basis of their race or ethnicity or exclude someone belonging to a different socioeconomic class. When I attended high school, exclusion was also prevalent whereby children belonging to the same socioeconomic class would garner up against another students who they thought belonged to another class. Another similarity entails verbal bullying when some students would call others names that were derogatory and undesirable. For instance, students joining high school would be called ‘mono’, meaning the first year of high school. ‘monos’ were looked down upon and could not take food before other graders.
The two main differences between bullying now and when I was attending high school is that cyberbullying now is much more as access to mobile phones and social networking sites has increased significantly. Another difference is that emotional harassment off rumor spreading was more physical than the present. Students used to gossip through the word of mouth while they now spread rumors through electronic communications such as through social media.
The key contributing factors that led to bullying behavior were need for recognition whereby the bully wants to be recognized as the kingpin at school. Peer pressure is another factor that make individuals to engage in bullying as the bully is championed by other students and celebrated.
One way in which prevention program is by making the environment inhabitable to potential bullies who might fear that they will be caught. A prevention program that recruits other parents increases parental awareness of their children behavior, thereby instilling good behavior. Finally, a bullying program that empowers children helps children to learn bullying and understand the boundaries between ordinary jokes and bullying. Once they know the boundary, they can report bullying to their parents, guardians, teachers and authorities so that necessary actions can be taken such as punishment of offenders.
