Commentary - Stop bullying in our schools

Editor’s note: A 9th grader at Discovery Middle School wrote this commentary for an English class assignment.

By Austin Ressemann,

Alexandria, MN

It is suspected that around 160,000 students miss school each day for fear of being bullied. If this statistic is true, it would mean that the number of kids that miss school is equal to around half of the entire population of Minneapolis. This shows that bullying is affecting kids everywhere and needs to be stopped. Bullying affects the one bullied, the bully him or herself and the people around the bullied.

First, bullying affects the one being bullied the most because he or she is faced with either physical, emotional or cyber bullying daily. Some of the effects bullying will have on the bullied is that their grades might drop, they will fear school, fake sick to get out of going to school or will become socially incapable.

If this happens, the child could become antisocial and the effects of childhood bullying will stay with them for the rest of their life. Some of the long-term effects include a higher risk of abusing drugs and alcohol, depression and sickness due to stress. No one is immune to bullying.

Second, bullying also affects the bully. If the bully is caught he can be punished with detention, suspension or in severe cases, expulsion. Also if the bully pushes the person being bullied too far, the person might commit suicide, which means that the bully could face criminal charges.

Some of the reasons a bully becomes a bully are insecurity, looking for an easy way out of a situation or the fear of being bullied in return. The second reason listed before means that instead of confronting the person that they have a problem with, they resort to making the bullied do what the bully wants, or face the bully’s physical or emotional bullying. This shows that bullies are insecure.

Third, bullying affects the people around the bully and the bullied also. The bystanders are affected because they could become the next one to be bullied because once a bully cracks his first victim or loses interest in that person, they will move on to find someone that is more fun to bully. Also, the people around the bullied person will have to deal with their friend being sad or depressed, and also possibly physically abused. This can cause stress on relationships and in some cases could end a friendship. Just because the incident involves the bully and the bullied, doesn’t mean that others will be completely unaffected by it. In conclusion, bullying is harmful to not just one or two people, but to a large portion of a school because if a person isn’t personally bullied or isn’t a bully, they probably know one of their friends that are.

Nearly 30 percent of students are either a bully or a victim, so in Discovery Middle School, that means that around 270 kids are bullied and that is equal to almost an entire grade. Next time you see a bully or are feeling like bullying, please take time to think about the kids nationwide that commit suicide because of bullying, and choose to stand up for a no bully policy.

Tags: opinion, commentary