New Straight Times, By Audrey Vijaindren and Suzanna Pillay – April 3, 2016 @ 3:16pm
Bullying their way to get attention
Recently, the number of bullies in Malaysia has been escalating a lot. The main culprit of this
issue are the teenagers aged between 12-18 in high school. School can be fun for some as it is a
place where there are positive interactions with other kids and a conducive learning environment,
but if it leads to a child being a social outcast and the target of cruel pranks, school can be a
minefield. Recently, there was a case about Maisara (not her real name) was 8, she suddenly
developed a fear of going to school. This all started when Maria (Maisara’s Mother) started to
realize that some was fishy about Maria’s action as she started feigning headaches and stomach
pains and came up with all kinds of excuses so that she would not have to attend school. After
finding out that something was wrong, Maria sat her daughter down and started asking her about
what’s going on and then she came to find out that her daughter had been bullied in school.
Immediately, Maria lodge a complaint to the headmaster, who promised to take actions but after
a few day later the problem continued. Therefore, Maria decided to handle this problem directly
with the parents of the bully but the school refused to oblige, saying it would handle the matter.
It was only after Maria threatened to take the case to the Education Ministry and lodge a police
report then the school took action. But instead of counselling the bully , instead they shifted the
bully to another school. Maria wasn’t really happy with the decision made by the school. Then
Maria came to realize that the bully came from a broken home and resorted to bullying to get
attention.
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Children that come from a broken home are more likely to turn into bullies because of the lack
of attention and love that they get from their parents. Most kids would see their parents as their
role model and if their parents are doing things like hitting each other and arguing every day,
then their children would tend to follow their footsteps and start bullying other kids in school
because they are too young to understand about the rights and the wrongs. Physical aggression
between parents and children may act as a modelling behavior to youngsters, who then carry
out such behavior at school. Name-calling and verbal put-downs between parents and children
also serve as a template for children in managing social relationships. Children who lack a
sense of right and wrong, and lack awareness of their strengths and weaknesses may choose to
bully others to gain ‘popularity’ or validation from their peers, which is harmful. Not all bullying
happens physically but there are some children’s who gets cyberbullied and this is also a major
problem that cannot be ignored. Nowadays, children are most likely to get cyberbullied due to
the amount of time that they spend on social media platforms such as Facebook.
This article is heavily emphasizing about bullying being a way for children in school to get
attention. In this article, the writer could have gave ways on how to stop bullying therefore here
is one of the ways to solve this problem is parents should been given counseling together with
their child. If parents find out that their child is a victim of bully, parents should encourage their
child not to give in to a bully. Giving up possessions or giving into a bully in any way
encourages the bully to continue. Identify and role-play ways for your child to respond to a bully
– showing assertive but not aggressive behavior. Whereas if parents find out if their child is a
bully, then they should make it clear to their child that they take bullying seriously and that they
will not tolerate this behavior.
Bullying could bring a lot of negative effects to both the victim and the bully itself. For the bully,
he/she would be looked down among the society in the future. Also, the bully would grow up
with an aggressive and disruptive behavior with would then lead to depression and alienation.
This is because when a person is being aggressive, the people around him wouldn’t want to mix
around with him and this will lead him to becoming lonely therefore this can lead to depression.
As for the victim, his self esteem would decrease to an all-time low.
In conclusion, bullying is a real issue and need to be taken seriously. Bullying could be
stopped but it would take a lot of time and effort. Everyone in the society should work together
to put a stop to this issue. An environment without bullying can be created when such behavior is
frowned upon and discouraged at all cost. This article had made me open my eyes about the
severe issues happening around me. Here is a quote by the 16th U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln
saying “I would rather be a little nobody, then to be an evil somebody.”
