Bullying nowadays has become a regular passage rite in any high school and this is mostly done throughout the junior stage of any student whereby a child is both physically, emotionally and mentally abused. It is both common in Christian private schools as well public school and this act happens on a daily basis and is eminent in any society therefore anybody can be a victim. In 2012-2013, the National Centre for Education Statistics and Bureau for Justice Statistics said that 22% of students age 12-18 experience bullying.
Bullying is when a person uses their strength, power or influence to frighten or hurt a weaker person; it could also be a conscious attempt to control another person through verbal abuse, threats, harsh tones, teasing etc. bullies play on the weakness of others, claiming some sort of superiority they had. Bullying is formed in different ways like through spreading of harmful rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally (name-calling/teasing), excluding someone from a group on purpose, making threats, ganging up in groups against someone and so many others. There are some things which aren’t mentioned here but anything done continuously to someone and you know it’s hurting another person in any way for me is called bullying. Maybe you gossip about someone but you think the person doesn’t know, this can also be regarded as bullying because either way you are making someone feel little about themselves. Bullies may think they are better than everyone but what they don’t know is that they portray more of weakness through what they do. A person can become a bully due to environmental and psychological reasons such as when he/she grows up in a harsh environment and always being tormented or when the person grows up with the idea of always getting what they want therefore anybody seen threatening their post becomes the enemy.
Certainly it postulates that a persons’ upbringing matters a lot in their formative process. If a child bullies others he/she shows how poor their upbringing is. When I was in secondary school I was a victim of bullying, I was verbally abused and physically beaten and threatened. I remember when I was shouted at and insulted by some girls in my class because I wasn’t disciplined as painfully as everyone else in my class. I was slapped and threatened to stay away from a guy I didn’t even like and at that point I felt bad and terrible, I kept wishing to leave the school and asking God why I was born to suffer because at that point in my life, I felt rejected, alone like nothing was going right, but writing about that now, they look like small matters that could have easily been solved but then, there was no one to guide me, talk or report to for fear of being called a caster and hated more.
Looking at it now, I only feel pity for those who hurt me then because looking at it from their own point of view I must have been really lucky and they must have felt that they were the unlucky ones thereby bullying me was a way of relieving themselves from the anger they felt. Bullying not only destroys self -esteem but also leads to depression and long-term emotional and behavioral problems. It also causes a rift between the children and their parents so besides asking for their report cards, try to ask what goes on in the daily life of your kids, parents should try to be a breathing place for their kids and listen to all their suggestions while reasoning and looking for solutions with them.
RUTH UDEMBA
