CLAY COUNTY, KY (August 18th, 2022) - Children in the Clay County, Kentucky public education system return to the classroom today after the original start date was postponed for a week due to flooding. The beginning of school marks a day of many firsts. The first day of grade school, the last first day of school for the senior class, the first day for a new bus driver and so on.
It also marks the beginning of one the scariest times in some children's lives. School campuses, playgrounds and even the school busses become the never-ending battlefields of just trying to fit in and being socially accepted. Snipers on hillsides are a disturbing thought but in reality, there are no known occurrences of a hillside sniper ever firing on a school. The real threat is inside.
There are social circles for the cheerleaders and athletes, the intellectuals and slackers and the more affluent and the less fortunate. Not many children fit in across all of the different groups. Then there are the children who represent the real reason why other children fear going to school. These children are the ones who terrorize their peers through bullying.
Wikipedia defines bullying as: the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imbalance of physical or social power. This imbalance distinguishes bullying from conflict. Bullying is a subcategory of aggressive behavior characterized by hostile intent, imbalance of power and repetition over a period of time. Bullying is the activity of repeated, aggressive behavior intended to hurt another individual, physically, mentally or emotionally
According to PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center 1 out of every 5 students is bullied and an incredible 41 percent of students who have reported bullying believe the behavior will happen again.
That means if a school has 850 students, 170 of them on average will experience some form of bullying. No child is immune from being the potential victim of bullying. Many children with disabilities are at an increased risk of bullying as cited at StopBullying.gov.
Bullying creates stress, depression and anxiety which cause difficulty in learning and proper social acclimation. Unfortunately, bullying has no doubt played a huge role in the upward trend of teenage suicide. The long-term damages of bullying can also lead to life-long physical and mental health issues and the victims suffer daily. This is a form of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
What contributes to bullying?
In some families, children experience or observe family violence, physical punishment, or the use of verbal or physical aggression to control others. These family experiences may lead children to initiate aggressive behaviors and become involved in bullying in early childhood settings per Take Action: | preventingbullying.promoteprevent.org. Children imitate the behaviors that they see whether that be at home, in media, or from other children. Bullying is often a character flaw and behavioral problem passed down from one generation to the next.
Mass shooting perpetrators have left manifestos and journals that detailed their own experiences of being bullied. That is one of the many reasons why bullying is no doubt the single biggest threat facing schools today.
The prevention of bullying begins at home, but it doesn't end there. Each student, teacher, bus driver and other school staff member can play a vital role in the prevention of bullying. If you see signs of potential bullying, please make others aware. Awareness is the key to prevention. If bullying is stopped during youth, then less children will grow up and think it's okay to be bullies as adults. The cycle can be broken. Most importantly, you could be the key to preventing a lifetime of suffering or another tragic suicide. The children are our future, let's keep them safe.
ClayCoNews Publisher, Editors, Volunteers, and Staff
