Bullying is a serious matter for children
By: Jose G. Landa
Albert is just like any typical 15 year old teenage boy who would rather hangout and play video games and surf the internet. Those are just some of the things that he shares in common with a lot of teenagers today. Albert also shares something else in common with 1 out of 7 kids from kindergarden to the 12th grade in schools all across the nation. Albert is a victim of bullying. He didn’t ask for it, he wasn’t born into it, but like a great percentage of kids all across the U.S. he faces the sad reality of bullying each and every day.
One of many eye opening realities that our children face today in the 21st century is that bullying has unfortunately evolved and morphed from being an age old problem faced by society from generation to generation. It has gone from being a problem at the playgrounds where big kids beat up on little kids. Bullying has been overlooked for many years as kids being kids and labeled as just part of growing up.
“I had to change schools,” Albert said “But they still keep bothering me, and talking bad about me, you know writing bad stuff about me on the internet. It hurts but I pretend that it doesn’t bother me, but it does, deep down inside it hurts.” Albert adds “I left my friends behind at my old school. Thinking that things would get better, but it follows you. The pain, the insults, they never leave you,” Albert said. “Now I find myself in a new school having a hard time adjusting and afraid to trust anyone, it follows you,”Albert said.
As I kept talking with this young man, I began to see the sad reality of bullying. A push, a shove, a putdown, an insult carries on in a child’s psyche., And their approach to life changes and the more they want to trust in their adolescence, they begin to put up psychological walls so as not to get hurt.
I came into this conversation with this young man carrying a list of statistics and numbers on bullying. And I was quickly awaken to a reality that all these statistics have names and faces. Local schools are not immune from bullying as the case of Albert demonstrates. Bullying is alive and well in the Eagle Pass schools. Our children need help against bullying, but sadly there are no local organizations available to provide help and counseling to bullying victims like Albert. Local victims of bullying are left alone to handle their bullying incidents and how to cope with it.
Our local children cry for help in our schools against bullying. Our community, schools, parents, and students need to make anti-bullying efforts and education a priority before more innocent victims such as Albert get hurt and a tragedy occurs. Even one bullying victim in our community is one too many. Your child may be the next bullying victim. Community action is needed now, not later.
Bullying can happen to me, you, or any child in our community .As we all at one point in our lives are prone to being a victim of bullying. It can happen and be found anywhere as it roams our school hallways as well as the workplace, and now via the internet it follows you home, relentless in its attempt to affect the victim’s way of life.
It is estimated that 90% of children from 4th to 8th grade report being victims of bullying. With 282,000 students physically attacked in our nations secondary schools each month. Harassment and bullying has been linked to 75% of school shooting incidents. 71% of students report incidents of bullying as a major problem at their schools.
Physical bullying, verbal and indirect bullying, social alienation, and cyberbullying are part of the many different forms of bullying that affect our youth and society today.
The trouble is that bullying has negatively advanced through technology and is now instigating and causing greater risk and injury to our children as bullying is not just found in playgrounds and in our schools but invading the very fabric of our everyday life and existence.
Bullying is out of control and society must find preventive solutions to school violence and bullying. It is the responsibility of all of us to take bullying seriously and intervene, or the bullying will continue to hurt our children. Although it is helpful to provide individual victims with certain strategies to handle and deal with bullying, to be truly effective schools must implement Anti Bullying Programs and forge a strong commitment to change the current painful reality of bullying. We must strongly emphasize the message to our youth that bullying is not acceptable and will not be tolerated anywhere. It is in no way possible now to avoid taking preventive actions towards the problem with bullying and using the lack of knowledge as an excuse to take on the problem head on and address the problem with goals and preventive initiative.
We must all understand that a great deal can be accomplished with relatively simple means. As parents should take the time to know what is happening in their children’s lives and reach out to them and speak to them and assure them that they are not alone in any problem that they will face growing up in today’s world.
For more information on bullying you can contact the National Bullying Prevention Center at
1 (888) 248- 0822 or e-mail them at bullying411@pacer.org or visit www.yourlifeyourvoice.org or call 1 (800)448 – 3000(boys town national hotline) or visit www.thetrevorproject.org for bullying support or talk to your teachers, counselors, administrators or parents about the problems that you are facing.
Always remember that there are people out there that are willing to help you and your child.