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Words Can Kill

Once again, it has been raised to my attention the alarming increase of bullying incidents in schools. More than 1,700 cases of child abuse and bullying was documented by the Department of Education for SY 2013-2014*. While not particularly new, people usually have their attention and action against hazing activities.

Before you read on, take a clean sheet of paper. Crumple it, stomp on it, mess it up, but don’t rip it. Try to unfold it, smooth it out after and tell it you’re sorry. Look how scarred and dirty it is now. Nothing you do will make it look brand new. the scars are left behind. Imagine this is how a child feels when another person bullies them, no matter how you try to fix things or tell them you’re sorry..

It’s a common misconception that bullying only involves physical harm, but in reality it goes beyond that. Any of these familiar to you?

If you said yes to any of these, welcome to our world.

What Is Bullying?

First, let’s define what bullying is. According to stopbullying.gov:

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time.

Some real, personal examples

Types of Bullying

Given my personal experience, you can see different types of bullying happened. There was:

Identify The Victims

Image source: stefanpotter’s Tumblr

Most of the time, we do not recognize someone as ‘bullied’. Let us define the characteristics of a victim. According to a post I read on Tumblr:

Typical Characteristics of Passive or Submissive Students who are Bullied:

Typical Characteristics of Provocative Students who are Bullied:

Cause and Effect

Words hurt too, you know.

So what do people get from this? I think it’s the feeling that you are superior over someone, the attention, and a better status (just like in the movies). There are also cases where the bully was actually a former victim and tries to get revenge by doing it to others.

But what happens to the victim? There are short term and long term effects, mostly psychological. For me, I felt like what they’re saying was true. There were times I feel so alone or I was so confused and stressed out as to why that was happening to me that I got depressed to some point. There are other who can’t take it anymore and commit suicide 🙁

There’s a Way Out

What if I didn’t have friends to talk it out to? Or what if we do, but we don’t tell them? That’s usually the case for victims – we are afraid for people to know about the real deal.

Bullies will never get the last laugh – unless you let them.

What should you do when you are being bullied?

Take for example this news anchor, Jennifer Livingston of WKBT, who received an email complaining about her weight. Watch her awesome response:

What should you do when you know someone is being bullied?

Image source: ~temari9100 DeviantArt

Don’t be just a bystander – be a supportive one! Here’s what you can do:

For parents, it is important to build a relationship with trust and openness.

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There’s a lot more we can do and I can’t elaborate further. This is just based on what I know.

I am glad that there’s an existing law to protect these people now. For the bullied, take a stand. For the bystanders, make a difference. For the bullies, I pray that such destructive behavior will be put to a stop. We live in a world where nothing is perfect and we should not judge people, because only our God can do that.

October is Bullying Awareness Month. Feel free to share your thoughts, experiences or anything related to this issue.

Updated: October 7, 2014

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