Bullying in the united states of america Research Paper

Bullying in the united states of america - Research Paper Example (Salamone & Pesce 2010). The list actually contained a growing number of victims and these names mentioned here were just part of many cases of bullying that occur in American schools today. These incidents should serve as a wake up call to policymakers, school administrators and the society itself in order for them to pay attention, take necessary and immediate steps to address the problem. The number of innocent lives that are being claimed by this national epidemic should not be permitted to grow even further, especially given the fact that we can do something about it. Why is Bullying Dangerous? In order to understand why bullying must be stopped once and for all, everyone should be aware of what it is. This is crucial because there might still be people out there who scoff at these incidents and regard them as some minor teasing or school scuffles that are naturally part of growing up. The number of interest groups and scholarly work on bullying has resulted to several depiction s of bullying. For example, Robert Thomas (2006) explained that it is the act of tormenting a person in a way he detests. (p. 135) JaredStory.com a cause-oriented website founded by the mother of a bully's victim went as far as calling it a smaller scale terrorism because the bully uses intimidation and terror to threaten, harass and assault a weaker individual. (2011) Then, Fried and Sosland (2009) cited taunting, ostracizing and ridiculing beyond endurance as bullying and pointed to the emergence of the word/concept called bullycide that came to refer to young people who commit suicide because of bullying. (p. 14) The sheer number of explanations does not represent differences or some semblance of debate with regards to bullying. The case is that each has his or her own version to this phenomenon, which is fundamentally about a consistent assault - physical, psychological, oral - on a weaker individual by a stronger bully. In a study undertaken by Bradley (2007), it was found that : 1) one-third of middle school students have felt unsafe at school due to bullying; and, 2) at least 10% of high school students who dropped out of school cited fear of bullying as the cause. (p. 1) Hernandez (2006) also shared grim statistics in his own research, stating, â€Å"nearly 30% of American school children have been involved in some aspect of bullying,† with 13% self-reported of being bullies, 10.6% reported being bullied, and 6.3% reported being both a victim and a bully. (p. 61) The statistics as represented by the works of Bradley and Hernandez is feared to be far from accurate because it is believed that many incidence of bullying go unreported. A very disturbing development today is the emergence of the so-called cyberbullying, â€Å"the use of information and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to harm others.† (Evans 2007, p. 14) This type of bullying is increasin gly becoming significant because it tends to magnify the effects of aggression tenfold. Due to the technological and communication advancements today, many tools are now available to students that enable them to bully individuals at a rate, degree and frequency that has never seen before. Access to mobile phones, the Internet, including its many social networking web sites are conveniently offering very potent means to hurt, harass and humiliate an