Lopez 1
Giovanni Lopez
Mr. Craig
ENG 1201
11 November 2013
Bullying
The word “bully” was first used in 1530, but had a more respectable denotation. When
the word was first used it actually meant sweetheart. A few hundred years later it became a
derogatory word and today still carries an unpleasant meaning. There are different types of
bullying to include verbal, physical and social. Unfortunately both the bully and the victim
might suffer irrevocable effects. Bullying can occur in both underprivileged and affluent
communities. Just recently a 16 year old boy from Centerville, the school I recently graduated
from, was arrested due to comments he posted on his twitter account. The boy supposedly made
comments that he was going to bring a rifle to school and shoot all the bullies that were making
fun of him on Twitter. Luckily other students seen his post and reported him to a resource
officer at school. Even though he did not have access to guns and indicated he was not serious,
Centerville police still arrested him. Since this happened at the high school I graduated from, it
sparked my curiosity as to why one becomes a bully and another becomes a victim and about the
impact of bullying. If others had reported the bullies and their comments initially then the
student may not have felt the need to threaten violence against the bullies.
Even though bullying goes back hundreds of years, it wasn’t until around 1999 that
people realized the impact of bullying. This was when two high school seniors from Littleton,
Colorado killed 12 classmates and a teacher and then turned the gun on themselves. There are
many theories as to why these two young men committed such a heinous crime. One of these
Lopez 2
theories is that the killers were frequently bullied by athletes and other students. Several
witnesses indicated that the principal at Columbine High School did not believe that bullying
was a serious issue in his high school. Many students were fearful of what would happen to
them if they brought their concerns to school officials. Since the massacre at Columbine there
have been numerous other school shootings that are thought to have occurred because of
bullying. According to Gerald Newberry, director of the National Education Association (NEA)
Health Information Network ‘The kids who pulled the trigger weren’t who we thought they
were. They were not the bullies – they were the kids who had been bullied. That’s what
changed the focus of the schools and the nation” (Greenya). There are many negative effects that
are directly related to bullying such as school shootings, suicides and depression. People should
be encouraged to do the right thing and realize that they themselves could be the victim of
bullying. If others reported the bully and/or helped the victim then there might be less school
shootings, suicides and depression.
Since the horrendous school shooting that occurred at Columbine High School in 1999
there have been numerous other school shootings that are believed to the be the result of
bullying. Izzy Kalman, a nationally certified school psychologist, notes that during the six
weeks prior to the tenth anniversary of the Columbine shootings there were more high profile
mass shootings than any other six week period in history (Kalman). Bullying can start as early
as elementary school. Schools are trying to be proactive by showing anti-bullying videos
especially during the month of October which is national Bullying Prevention Month.
Unfortunately after an elementary school in Nevada showed a documentary entitled
“Bully”, a twelve year old brought a gun to school and killed two of his classmates, his teacher
and then himself. “They are trying to be very proactive [about bullying], but I don’t know if it is
Lopez 3
coming across to the kids that way. Because at this age, children can be influenced by many
things” (Pearce and Mason). Students that commit school shootings might want their bully to
feel the pain that they feel. They might think it is the only way to deal with their “problem”
because no one will confront the bully. “The U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Education
Department soon began studying school shooters. In 2002, researchers presented their first
findings: School shooters, they said, followed no set profile, but most were depressed and felt
persecuted” (Kalman).
Bullies pick on others for a variety of reasons including the thought that another student
might be gay. “Barry Loukatis, a quiet 14-year old honor student, shot and killed two classmates
and a teach at his school in Moses Lake, Washington, in 1996. He said other students had
bullied him and called him “faggot” (Greeya). A 15 year old student named Charles “Andy”
Williams who was charged with killing two classmates and wounded 13 others told a judge a
year after being charged, “Regardless of whether I ended up killing myself or killing others, a
gun seemed like the only way to escape the bullying I endured almost every day” (Viadero).
Other shootings that are believed to be a direct result of bullying include a 14 year old girl who
shot a cheerleader at their school and a 14 year old boy who shot his classmates. Several years
ago the US Secret Service did a study on 37 school shootings and found that two thirds of them
were caused by bullying. “According to the agency, the attackers in those cases all felt they had
been persecuted, bullied, threatened, attacked, or injured by others” (Viadero).
“I am not insane! I am angry. I killed because people like me are mistreated every day.
I have no mercy for humanity, for they created me, they tortured me until I snapped and became
what I am today” (Polman, Cawthen, Dubin). These writings were found in a notebook by 16
year old Luke Woodham, who shot nine classmates, killing 2 of them. According to one of his
Lopez 4
classmates he was a kid that was picked on for years. “I remember when we started
kindergarten. He got picked on every day. They called him fat, chunk and chubby, and they
used to jump him all the time. When we got to the ninth grade, everybody still picked on him,
and I guess he finally blew up. He just got fed up with it all and snapped” (Polman, Cawthen,
Dubin). Perhaps school shootings are the most negative effect of bullying because it affects
more people than suicide.
When a child is picked on by a bully it can very detrimental to that child leading to
mental issues including suicidal thoughts. “Bullying victims are more likely to experience
suicidal thoughts, and suicide is the third leading cause of death for teenagers. According to the
National Center of Injury Prevention and control statistics from 2000 to 2010, 300 to 450
children ages 12 to 15 killed themselves every year – about one a day” (Pearce and Mason).
Some victims of bullying do not retaliate against the bully, but instead inflict harm and
even death upon themselves. Many people believe that bullying is “just kids being kids.” Some
people don’t want to accept the connection between bullying and suicide. The truth is that it
isn’t just the victim that commits suicide, sometimes the bully himself commits suicide. One of
the high profile suicides that are believed to be the direct result of bullying occurred in 2010. A
fifteen-year old high school student named Phoebe Prince hung herself and six of her classmates
were charged with her death (Billiterri). Since there have been numerous suicides related to
bullying many states have implemented anti-bullying laws.
Rachel Copans, a 16 year old student, started an online support group for victims of
bullying where they can share their own personal stories. She started the group because she felt
kids would feel more at ease sharing their experiences with other kids. “Despite current efforts
to stop bullying in many schools, students are critical of what they see as a lack of real caring
Lopez 5
from school administrators. They need more outside sources or someone closer to our age,
something more interactive than a PowerPoint presentation” (Billitteri). Some victims of
bullying find it easier to write about their experiences instead of trying to talk to their parents,
their teachers or to school officials.
Recently a 15 year old boy, named Jordan Lewis, killed himself just one day after his
school presented a video about bullying. The video displayed photos of several bullying victims
who took their own life. Some believe that these anti bullying videos might be to blame for
influencing adolescents that suicide is the only answer. According to a research study conducted
by the University of Texas-Arlington, “students attending schools with bullying prevention
programs were more likely to have experienced peer victimization, compared to those attending
schools without bullying prevention programs” (Pearce and Mason). Jordan left a suicide note
behind blaming those at school for bullying him. Jordan’s father posted a video on Facebook,
where he stated: “The bullying has to stop. People have to stop treating other people the way
they do, because some people just don’t have the strength to overcome the humiliations, the
continuation of being picked on constantly, every day, to the point that they have no outs”
(Johnson and Watkins).
Bullies pick on others for several different reasons including their physical appearance
and their sexuality. A twelve year old boy whom recently hung himself believed others picked
on him because he was small. Although the boy did not leave behind a suicide note and there
were no reportable incidents of bullying to school officials, others have reported knowledge of
him being bullied on numerous occasions both in and out of school. Several months prior to his
death the family had to notify the police because several of his classmates were throwing items at
Lopez 6
their house. Just the day before he committed suicide, several boys were harassing him at a local
park and even followed him to a friend’s house (Linderman and Wilson).
“Studies show that one –third of gay students are physically harassed due to their sexual
orientation, one in six is beaten badly enough to need medical attention and gay teens are four
times more likely to be threatened with a weapon at school than straight kids” (Greenya). With
the advancement of technology, bullies have found other methods of inflicting anguish upon
their victims. A college freshman, Tyler Clementi, was recorded kissing another male by his
roommate and others were given access to the recording to prove that Clementi was gay. With
the knowledge that he had been violated by his roommate, Clementi committed suicide by
jumping off of a bridge (Billitteri). This type of bullying is referred to as cyberbullying.
“When bullying is more frequent students have a lower sense of safety. It was reported
that an estimated 160,000 students on any school day stay home because they are afraid of being
bullied” (Austin, Reynolds and Barnes). Kids that are bullied tend to be afraid to attend school.
If the victim fails to attend school then they ultimately have poor academic achievement. With
the struggles of doing poorly in school combined with being the victim of a bully, the victims
tend to be at a higher risk for depression. In a recent federal bullying summit hosted by the
Education Department, the Secretary made the following comment: “a school where children
don’t feel safe, is a school where children struggle to learn” and “kids dropout, tune out and get
depressed” (Billitteri). Depression is a mental disorder and the effects of depression can carry on
into adulthood. Parents, teachers and school officials need to be trained to recognize the subtle
signs of depression. A child who is depressed needs medical intervention because it isn’t
something that they can fix on their own. If the victim receives medical intervention then
perhaps it would decrease the number of suicides and school shootings. “Bullies made sixth
Lopez 7
grade a living hell for Jacob Rubin, an honor student in Oakland, California, but he kept silent.
The daily insults gave him stomachaches and affected his grades, but it was only after several
boys beat him up that his mother finally realized what had been happening” (Greenya).
In conclusion, if schools want to see less school shootings, suicides, and depression
among their students. Schools need to give their teachers more training on how to deal with
bullying and take the right action. Bullying shouldn’t be accepted in schools, schools need to
take a big stand and stating that they are not putting up with bullies. Bullying starts and end with
us as a nation parents need to make sure they are playing a big role in there children’s life.
Children with a big parental support at home are less likely to be victims or even bullies. As a
nation we need to come as a whole and take a stand on bullying that we will not allow it.
Lopez 8
Works Cited
Austin, Shelia M., Glenda P. Reynolds, and Shirley L. Barnes. "School leadership and
counselors working together to address bullying." Education 133.2 (2012): 283+.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
Billitteri, Thomas J. "Preventing Bullying." CQ Researcher 10 Dec. 2010: 1013-36. Web. 25
Nov. 2013.
Greenya, John. "Bullying." CQ Researcher 4 Feb. 2005: 101-24. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
Johnson, Chuck, and Tom Watkins. “A day after a class on bullying, a suicide." CNN Wire 18
Oct. 2013. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Nov. 2013
Kalman, Izzy. "Bullying Contributes to School Shootings." Juvenile Crime. Ed. Louise I.
Gerdes. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "A
Psychological Solution to Bullying: Tenth Anniversary of the Columbine Shooting."
Psychology Today (7 May 2009). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
Linderman, Juliet, and Michael Wilson. "Family of Boy, 12, Who Hanged Himself Points to
Bullying." New York Times 1 June 2012: A25(L). Opposing Viewpoints in Context.
Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
Pearce, Matt, and Melanie Mason. "Suicides Raise Worries About School Bullying Videos." Los
Angeles Times. 29 Oct 2013: A.7. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 25 Nov 2013.
Polman, Dick, and Raad Cawthen, and Murray Dubin . "Looking Beyond Jonesboro: Boys with
Guns--And an Intent to Kill." Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, PA). 29 Mar 1998:
A1+. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Dec 2013.
Viadero, Debra. "Tormentors." Education Week. Jan. 15 2003: 24-27. SIRS Issues Researcher.
Web. 10 Dec 2013.
Lopez 9