BULLYING IN SCHOOL

One of the most important periods in an individuals life is, without doubt, their school
years. School is a place where children and teenagers socialize, obtain different social skills,
and prepare themselves for their future life and career. School is also a time of turbulent
psychological processes, which are typical for teen years; teenagers are especially vulnerable in
terms of influence which are both positive and negative on their psyche. In connection to this
factor, one should consider the phenomenon typical for many schools around the world, and
which can negatively affect a developing individual which is school bullying.

Bullying in the schools has negative effects on individual students and on the school
climate as a whole. Bullying can cause long-term problems for both the victims of bullying and
the bullies themselves. To explore the effects of bullying on adolescents, we will define bullying,
identify the characteristics of bullies and victims, outline the extent and consequences of
bullying, and present resources for further information and assistance.

This scenario is not something new in Malaysian school. The occurrence rate of bully is
rather high in boarding school. Bullying is any behavior that is initiated by one or more students
against a victim or victims that causes physical or psychological intimidation. Khalim (2014),
categorized bullying into two types; direct and indirect. Direct bullying involves physical contact
such as hitting, punching, kicking, threatening, slapping, pulling, pushing, or pinching to cause
injuries to the victim. This is also known as physical bullying. The most violent forms of this
bullying may cause death. Indirect bullying with insults and teasing effects the victim in
psychological and emotional ways. It is also known as a mental bully. Boys typically employed
direct methods of bullying, while girls tend to use in direct methods. Either way, behaviors must
occur repeatedly overtime to be classified as bullying

Most people know that bullying is wrong. Calling someone names has absolutely no
beneficial purpose. Moreover, hitting someone makes a bully feel good in the moment while
doing permanent damage to the person being victimized. Bullying is an issue that continues to
get attention from researchers, educators, parents and students (DeVoe et al., 2005). With the
Internet, people now have even more opportunities to bully through cyberbullying. This includes
sending crude pictures, posting fake web pages, or tweeting slanderous messages.
Cyberbullying has subsequently led to a rise in a completely new kind of bullying. Hakes (2013)
stated that now one person or a small group of bullies can exponentially raise the torment to an
unimaginable level in cyberspace. One nasty comment can be "liked" on Facebook, retweeted
or forwarded dozens or hundreds of times in an instant, making it seem to the bullied child that
the whole world is out to get her.

There are specific behaviors that bullies tend to exhibit. The bullies often need to feel
powerful and in control. They may feel no remorse when they inflict injury and suffering on
others. Bullies tend to defy authority and are likely to break school rules. They seem to have
little anxiety and appear to possess high self-esteem. Students who come from homes
characterized by physical punishment tend to be more likely to exhibit these types of behaviors.
Victims also tend to exhibit specific characteristics. They are often anxious, insecure, cautious,
and have low self-esteem. Victims tend to be socially isolated, and may lack social skills and
friends. Because they tend to be weaker than their peers, either physically or socially, victims
rarely retaliate against bullies. Students who have close ties with their parents, guardians or
who have overprotective parents/guardians are more likely to be victimized by bullies.

One of the effects of bullying is that it can change the victims personality. It can cause
people who are normally confident and happy to become self-conscious, shy, and unsure.
Additionally, victims of bullying may also become sad or depressed. Their confidence might
completely disappear, keeping them from trying new things or trusting people. Once a person
has been bullied, they may hesitate to participate in situations where he or she might be
ridiculed, such as in public speaking or in sports. A bullying victim might even begin to possess
previously absent anxious behavior. Despite all the negative effects of bullying, there are even
far more serious consequences. People who have been bullied sometimes become so upset,
scared, or depressed that they see no worth in themselves and no way out of their torment.
There have been countless reports over the past few years of students committing suicide
because they were bullied. Meanwhile, there are times when victims see no recourse but to
seek revenge by serious acts of violence against the bully and instigators.

As a result of bullying, people can lose their ability to love and trust, denying them the
chance to experience a quality relationship later in their life. They might find themselves as a
submissive partner or they may want to be completely alone. Compounding all of these
problems, victims often develop eating disorders, begin to self-injure, or require extensive
counseling. Social bullying can also leave people without a supportive group of friends that they
can lean on and spend time with.Another unfortunate consequence of this is that bullying is
often cyclic. People who have been bullied can, in an attempt to gain their power and self-
esteem back, become bullies themselves. In relation to this, bullies who are not confronted or
stopped may find themselves in future positions where they can bully as adults. This is where
manipulative bosses and child abusers come from.

Aside from its long-term effects, some consequences of bullying can be seen and felt
immediately. When one child calls another child names, the victim might cry and a bruise might
appear after a punch to the arm. However, some effects of bullying are not always obvious to
the naked eye. The results of bullying might grow and appear over time, damaging a person in
profound ways for the long term. There are so many effects of bullying that they are impossible
to count or predict. This is why it is so important to stop bullying. Engel & Sandstorm (2010)
mentioned that most important, educators need to make a profound commitment to turn schools
into genuine communities. Children need to know that adults consider kindness and
collaboration to be every bit as important as algebra and reading. The prevention step must be
taken at school level and also from their parent to prevent bully.

Schools are a primary place where bullying can happen. Helping to establish a
supportive and safe school climate where all students are accepted and knowing how to
respond when bullying happens are key to making sure all students are able to learn and
grow. As a teacher, we must care about this issue and prevent it from happening in school.

Five Tips to Help Teachers Prevent Bullying

Even when a school leader doesn't have a formal bullying prevention agenda, teachers
can create safe, bully-free zones in their classrooms:

Know Your School and District Policies on Bullying. Play your part to implement them
effectively.

Treat Students and Others with Warmth and Respect. Let students know that you are
available to listen and help them.

Conduct Classroom Activities around Bullying. Help your class identify bullying in books,
TV shows and movies, and discuss the impact of that bullying and how it was/could be
resolved. Hold class meetings in which students can talk about bullying and peer
relations.

Discuss Bullying with Colleagues. As a group, you will be better able to monitor the
school environment. Discuss both bullying in general and concerns regarding specific
students.
 Take Immediate Action. Failure to act provides tacit approval of the behavior and can
cause it to spread.

(These tips were adapted from articles by James Dillon from Principal magazine,
Sept/Oct 2010 and Ted Feinberg from Principal Leadership, Sept. 2003.)

In Malaysia, several examples demonstrate that bullying in schools should be given

serious attention. For example, a student from one of the school in Kuala Lipis, Pahang, faces
the risk of paralysis of his entire life after being kicked in the back with police cadets shoes into
a closet by a group of form five and form three students. The victim was bullied by form five
students and form three students who knocked him down with a wooden closet. Consequently,
he suffered spinal cord injuries and may be permanently paralyzed. In addition, there is the case
of another student in a secondary in Batu Pahat who lost his kidney and, spleen, and suffered
damage to his liver, and gall bladder after being beaten by a group of senior students (New
Sunday Times, 7 April 2004). Another case, a boy was beaten to death at the hostel dorm.
Cyber-bullying has also been exposed on YouTube in Malaysia. The latest victim was a form
three students from Sarawak were bullied by ten students also at the hostel dorm (Berita
www.ccsenet.org/ies International Education Studies Vol. 7, No. 13; 2014 185 Minggu, 1 March
2009). Such incident proved that bullying is a very serious matter, which gave high concern from
teachers, parents and the Ministry of Education. The following section will discuss past studies
related to school bullying.

There are several studies on the behavior of bullying in Malaysia. Abdul-Latif (2005)
carried out a study on 480 students in Johor. The study found that only 22.7% stated that they
had been bullied once. 2.5% of students said they were bullied once to twice a week, while
5.6% said they were bullied once or twice per month and 11.9% said they were rarely bullied
(once or twice a year). This measure indicates the low level of bullying behavior especially in the
Batu Pahat district. Meanwhile, Noran-Fauziah (2004) has demonstrated that 95.8% of middle
school students and 82.7% primary school students were psychologically bullied while 65.3% of
middle school students and 56% of elementary school students were physically bullied. A review
by Mahadi (2007) among students of religious school in Sarawak, found that verbal bullying is
the most dominant form of bullying among students. The study showed that physical bullying is
more dominant than emotional bullying. The study also found that the students often became
bullies because they wanted to show that they were strong, and that older students did it to
boast.
 Bullying is a problem that must be addressed in an integrated manner by parents and
teachers with support from the State Education Department and Ministry of Education. Each
need should interact effectively and professionally, and did not allow emotion to disrupt the
process. In schools, bullying must be identified at the micro before it spreads to the macro level.
Schools have to plan programs that nurture students from various ethnic groups, because
unhealthy activities such as bullying can affect inter-ethnic relations in schools. A
comprehensive program involving the entire school machinery such as teachers and parents
must be carried out with a full sense of responsibility so that we may develop quality human
capital for the sake of our beloved nation. The schools governing body must also be transparent
in reporting disciplinary problems especially involving bullying and fights, to the Ministry of
Education, which can then be more proactive at the national level.
REFERENCES

Abdul-Latif, A. (2005). Persepsi guru dan pelajar terhadap perlakuan buli di kalangan pelajar
sekolah menengah daerah Batu Pahat (Unpublished Masters thesis). Faculty of Education,
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai Johor.

De Voe, J. F., Kaffenberger, S., & Chandler, K. (2005). Student reports of bullying results from
the 2001 school crime supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey Statistical
Analysis Report. U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences National
Center For Education Statistics.

De Voe, J. F., Peter, K., Kaufman, P., Miller, A. K., Noonan, M., Snyder, T. D., & Baum, K.
(2005).
Indicators of school crime and safety: NCES 2005002/NCJ 205290. Washington, DC: U.S.
Departments of Education and Justice.

Engel, S., & Sandstrom, M. (2010, July 22). Theres one way to stop a bully. The New York
Times.
Retrieved from : http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/opinion/23engel.html?_r=0

Hakes, F. (2003, September 5). Schools bullying chilling newfront. CNN. Retrieved from
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/05/opinion/hakes-bullying/

Mahadi, K. (2007). Tingkah laku buli dalam kalangan pelajar Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan
Agama Di Sarawak (Unpublished Masters thesis). Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia, Skudai Johor.

Norelawaty, S., Zuria, M., Noran-Fauziah, Y. (2008). Tingkah laku buli dalam kalangan pelajar
perempuan sekolah rendah. Jurnal PSIMA, 20(1), 1-20.