English Composition II - Bullying

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For years, bullying has been written from a statistics point of view and rarely written from the victim’s point of view. I have been personally victimized by bullying. I never thought I had a place to fit in and I remember that as a child, sometimes still, when there is a game to be played, I am usually the last one to be picked, unless there is a girl that is picked after me. In my head, I always thought it was something wrong with me.

FROM THE VICTIM’S STANDPOINT; OVERCOMING

When I was of the age fourteen, I was at a football game pep rally. It was homecoming, the most exciting time of the year. It was a day filled with school spirit. People put aside their differences and we all bonded. It was hot and the sun was beaming on our backs. As we stood in the home side bleachers on that wet football field, we were all filled with hype and couldn’t wait for the homecoming festivities to begin. The cheerleaders were introduced and a girl named Karey Dobbs, who was then a senior, did a stunt commonly known as a basket toss and she was the ‘flyer’. Her stunt group threw her so high in the air that all I could think to myself was “Wow, I want to do that”. It was that hot day in late September out on that wet, muddy football field that I decided I wanted to be a cheerleader.

The next year, I tried out for the cheerleading team. I was very eager to see what my parents had to say about the fact that I wanted to be a male cheerleader. I sat my parents down in our living room and told them. They were fine with the thought of me wanting to pursue a dream. Now, the biggest problem of all was going back to school and telling my peers, who have called me gay all of my life that I wanted to be a cheerleader. I knew I would face hardship for it and I knew I would be bullied even more. Word got out what I was trying to do and I was told time and time again not to do it. I was told to become a baseball player or play football because those were manly sports. Well, I did not listen to the negativity and went on and became the first junior high male cheerleader in the history of Riverside High School. While the bullying continued, I pushed it to the side and let it roll off of my back. After a while, people either grew up, or they could tell that I could care less about them saying things about me.

After junior high school, bullying pretty much altogether stopped for me. In high school, I became known as a “popular kid”. I was the person that everyone looked up to and came to for advice. I became a “go-to” person for those dealing with bullying. Kids were always looking for a way out of situations and always wanted me to help them out. I was constantly amazed at the fact that I was that person who everyone wanted to talk to. I always thought I was a good advice giver, but this topped it all off.

Learning to let the words and negativity roll off of my back was one of the best decisions I could have ever made. From my observance, most bullies are males. Females are more likely to be bullied, however. Females are targeted because most females do not defend themselves. Males normally bully because they are insecure of themselves. Males typically bully of the opposite gender because a male is usually not dominant of another male so they find someone of lesser value to bully so they can feel dominant (Kaplan). As a male, I find it very disrespectful to hit or talk down to another female.

People who experience rejection as children are more likely to pass the feeling(s) that they felt to another person (Tsui). “When I was in my junior year, I called this girl a slut. I said it to her face. It wasn’t posted anywhere. I was really passive-aggressive about it. I was pretty mean to her, but it was a joke but at the same time, it wasn’t really a joke. I was screwing with her head” says Amber. Amber later stated that she bullied that girl because she had bottled so many emotions up in her heart and could not wait to release them. Amber also claimed that she released her anger on that certain girl because she was the bully to Amber for so long and she wanted that girl to know what she had coming for her.

LITERATURE REVIEW ON BULLYING

Bullying is the most common form of violence in our society. Studies have found that approximately thirty percent of students in grades six through ten are involved in bullying, as a perpetrator, victim, or both (Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2003; Harris and Willoughby, 2003; Cohn and Canter, 2003; Bowman, 2001; Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2001). Of the thirty percent of students involved in bullying, researchers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) report that 13 percent say they bully other students, 11 percent report being bullied, and 6 percent say they are both bullies and victims (Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, 2003). Eight percent of students say they are victimized at least once a week (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 2001) (School board).

Although bullying has been around for forever, researchers have recently been studying the symptoms, causes, and preventions of bullying. Most studies are more focused on prevention rather than before since bullying has become so much more prevalent. Cyber bullying is one of the major issues of bullying as well as children bullying the school houses. Researchers want to know why people use cyber bullying rather than any other form of bullying. Cyber bullying is more prevalent because of the fact that some people would rather hide behind a computer screen and not have to deal with the people they’re bullying. “I would rather hide behind a computer screen when bullying a person because I don’t have to see the emotions that I send through others because I know I would feel bad about it” (Deere).

CONCLUSION

Bullying has many sides and views. From a personal standpoint, I have very many sides and views on bullying simply because I was both the bully and the victim. Bullying plays a huge part in my life and how my life has been severely different since I have been bullied my entire life. A bully’s personal history has a one hundred percent effect as to why a person becomes a bully (Kaplan). Victims of bullying suffer psychological consequences as well, usually all the way up until they are middle aged, with higher levels of depression, anxiety, and suicide (Kaplan). Most people that are constantly bullied growing up have a higher chance of committing suicide more frequently by the age of twenty-five (Kaplan).

Bullying plays a big part of other people’s lives and how other people cope with problems in the future. Being bullied plays a one