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Megan Zdon

Selena Wolf Berkley

ENG 101-005

7 November 2017

The Cycle of Bullying

This past summer while at church camp, I talked to a middle school girl who was telling

me how she wanted to kill herself. She told me that she was being bullied because of one of her

friends recently committed suicide. It turned out that her friend that committed suicide was being

tormented emotionally for being bisexual.

The kids at school called her the devil. They told her she was sinful and going to hell.

They sent her death threats among many other things at school and nothing was done to stop the

bullying while she was at school. When school got out, the bullies would bully her through social

media by sending hateful text messages. Eventually, she couldnt take it anymore and took her

own life.

After her friends death, the bullies then started targeting her best friend (the girl at

camp), for being bisexual also. They were sending her death threats by telling her to go kill

herself through texting and social media. They even sent her the text asking her, Why dont you

go be like your best friend and go kill yourself? After talking to her, I was able to convince her

that everything was going to be okay and that she shouldnt go kill herself.

This event got me thinking about why did this event have to happened and why is very

little is done to stop bullying in this country? Why didnt anyone at the school ever stop the
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bullying when it first started? Why did a girl end up to killing herself? Why is the bullying cycle

allowed to continue to happen in our society? To me, bullying is a vicious cycle that needs to be

stopped period.

Bullying has been a big problem for a long period of time and is getting worse in our

society with the age of technology. Technology has created new ways to allow bullying through

things such as with the use of the internet, cell phones, computers, iPods and iPads, text

messages and social media. Bullying has become a huge problem in the school system. Bullying

is also a problem in colleges, sports, work places, neighborhoods and even different

organizations including churches. Bullying is a vicious cycle in our society that needs to be

stopped because of the serious side effects that occur in people of all ages

(bullyingvaccineproject.com).

Why is bullying such a problem for people of all ages? Bullying is the use of force,

threat, or coercion to abuse, intimidate, or aggressively dominate others. The behavior is often

repeated and habitual. Bullying is a type of emotional abuse (Jantz, pg. 36). Bullying has both

short term and long- term effect on both the victims and the bullies themselves. Some of side

effects for both the victims and the bullies are similar even though the victim and bully are on the

different sides of the spectrum as far as what has happened to them. Part of the reason why the

effects are similar is because the bullies themselves are either a victim or has been a victim of

some sort of abuse or bullying themselves. The bully thinks it is okay to bully other people

because they have been bullied or abused themselves by someone else (stopbullying.gov).

There are three different types of bullying which includes: verbal, social and physical

bullying. Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things about someone. This includes teasing,

name calling, inappropriate sexual comments, taunting and threating to cause harm. Social
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bullying involves hurting someones reputation or relationships. Cyberbullying is a form of

social bullying. Social bullying includes: leaving someone out on purpose, telling other people

not to be friends with someone, spreading rumors about someone and embarrassing someone in

public. Physical bullying involves hurting a persons body or possessions. Physical bullying

includes: hitting, kicking, pinching, spitting, tripping, pushing, taking and breaking someones

things, making mean or rude gestures to someone. All three types of bullying can be devastating

and leave lasting effects on the victim. Sometimes people suffer from more than on type of

bullying (stopbullying.com).

Short- term effects are similar to anyone being bullied at any age. Some of the effects

include: anxiety and fear, depression, shame, quilt, tension, insecurity, lack of trust, anger,

loneliness, hard time making or keeping friends, relationship problems, self-esteem problems and

problems at home. For school age children and college students, the effects can also include low

school academic performance such as lower grades or failing grades, problems at home and

problems with family. Adults and teenagers can also have problems at work, getting or keeping a

job (livescience.com, Jantz, pp. 36-53).

Short-term effects get worse over time and end becoming long-term effects, especially if

bullying continues over time or if the bullying is not properly dealt with by both the victim. All

the short-term effects continue but get worse such as worse anxiety, fear, depression, lack of

trust, low self-esteem, guilt, shame, tension and loneliness. New effects tend to show and can

include: rage, constant reasoning as to why this happened, blame themselves for what happened,

looking for justice, suicidal thoughts and some cases actual suicide occurs.

The effects of bullying can be devastating and long lasting for the victim. If the bullying

is not dealt with properly or not dealt with at all, the bullying cycle is allowed to continue.
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Bullying needs to be reported to the proper authority figures and the authority figures need to

step in and put a stop it. Bullying should be taken seriously and not be allowed to continue or

taken too lightly instead of being swept under the rug or excused as people just being people.

Bullying is not just a simple misunderstanding, but rather an intentional repeated behaviors or

acts taken against someone for the purpose of hurting them. For this reason, bullying needs to be

stopped and prevented from happening again in order to stop the bullying cycle

(stopbulying.com).

Ways to stop bullying will vary depending on the situation, location where the bullying is

occurring at the time and the people involved in the bullying. There are common steps for

stopping bullying for most situations which include: speaking up and out to an authority figure,

standing up to the bully, taking action against the bully, education about and preventing bullying,

getting support for the victim from someone actually in the position to actually people the person

being bullied, and get appropriate professional help if needed (girlshealth.org and

heathline.com).

Since bullying is very common the school system especially in middle and high school,

preventing bullying is very important for the overall health of all the children involved in the

school system. If you can prevent bullying in the first place, you help both the victim and the

bully since bullying hurts all people involved. Prevention is the key too breaking the cycle of

bullying. Prevention empowers students to help themselves and each other against bullying. The

best way to prevent bullying in this age group is to offer educational programs for the entire

school staff, faculty, student body and parents. These educational programs should teach what

actually bullying is, the effects of bullying, how to stop any bullying that might be occurring now

and how the prevent bullying (stopbullying.gov and usnews.com).

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In conclusion, bullying can be prevented and should be prevented. By stopping bullying

from happening at all, the victim does not have suffer at all. The victims self- esteem and self-

worth do not suffer because of someone elses maltreatment of them. The victims then could live

a healthy, well- adjusted lives without any of the effects of being bullied.
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Works Citied

Effects of Bullying. Stopbullying.gov , US Department of Health and Human Services,

2017, stopbullying.gov/effects of bullying.

How to Stop Bullying at School. Girlhealth.gov, US Department of Health and Human

Services, 28 Aug. 2014, girlshealth.gov/girls/health.

Preventing Bullying. Stopbulling.gov, US Department Health and Human Services,

stopbullying.gov/prevention/index.html.

What is Bullying. Stopbullying.gov , US Department of Health and Human Services,

2017, stopbullying.gov/what is bullying/index.html.

Hancock, Jennifer. Breaking Bullying's Vicious Cycle. The Bullying Vaccine Project,

The Bullying Vaccine Project, 2017, bullyingvaccineproject.com/bullying-vicious-cycle.

Jantz, Gregory L. Hope and Healing from Emotional Abuse. Revell , 2009.

Koebler, Jason. Bullying Affects a Quarter of High Schools Students. US News, 24

Aug. 2011.

Pappas, Stephanie. The Pain of Bullying Lasts into Adulthood. Live Science, Live

Science, livescience.com/27279-bullying-affects-lasts adulthood.html.