Young teens may have more to fear while walking home from school

Click the link below to read the story of how a 13-year-old boy was attacked in Philadelphia while walking home from school on January 11.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/02/17/pennsylvania.teen.beating/index.html?iref=allsearch

The highlights of the story:

* Victim says he had been bullied for months
* Police superintendent: "It was a wolf pack"
* The boy was kicked, dragged and hung from a fence by his jacket
* One of the alleged assailants recorded the beating

There has been an increase in coverage of bullying cases in recent years. It is awful to see and read about the rise in bullying. The victims of bullying are getting younger and younger.

What about the perpetrators? Do they feel guilt or remorse? Do they realize there actions were wrong? What is their punishment? Perhaps a better question to ask is, what ails and motivates these children,teens and young adults to commit such acts?

In this case, the perpetrators not only recorded the attack but they laughed as the defenseless 13-year-old cried out in pain and humiliation.

According to the prosecutor the punishment is:

-They must abide by curfews

-Perform community service

-Have electronic monitoring

The family of the 13-year-old boy who was attacked agreed to the disposition.

Is this punishment enough? Will these boys think twice before they bully another person. There should be a follow up of the progress about victim and the perpetrators. An experience like this is enough to scar a young child permanently for life.

Does the media portray bullying correctly?

On the television show Bully Beatdown (which airs on MTV), audiences are given an inside look at the suffering endured by victims of bullies; a topic that does not usually receive adequate attention in the media today. With bullying on the rise in the US, it is imperative to look at the sources and reasons behind bullying, and research ways to provide proper methods for dealing with such violent/harmful occurences. However, Bully Beatdown appears to do quite the opposite. Rather than educating victims on preventative measures that they can take to ensure safety against a bully or other outlets they can turn to for support, the theme of the show is centered around gaining revenge against the victim's antagonizer. Is this the message we should be sending to our nation's youth? If they are learning how to be a bully, instead of standing up to one and their delinquent behavior, how can we expect this issue to be resolved? Here is a link of the trailer for the show, including the plot line and some of the accusers/accused of bullying.


http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/351903/bully-beatdown-trailer.jhtml

What is bullying?

What is bullying? Well, as defined by bullying.org it is "...a learned behaviour. It is when a person or group tries to hurt or control another person in a harmful way." The main idea of bullying is that there is absolutely no reason for it to exist, it stems from anger or hurt that a person can not properly deal with so in turn that unleash it on others. Bullying.org's definition goes on to say, "There are three aspects of this hurtful behaviour that almost all experts agree; in bullying there is a difference in power between those being hurt and those doing the hurting, bullying involves hurtful behaviours that are repeated and intentional." Everyone and I mean everyone has had their own experiences with bullying whether they had done it themselves, been on the receiving end, or have watched as a bystander. School is the perfect example for this and it doesn't even matter what grade you're in. Age doesn't effect it and neither does gender. Like I said, everyone has had their experience with bullying. A article, "Stranger Days Indeed" written by Eric Edmondson describes his own personal experience with the subject and how fora great deal of time he was in extreme states of depression after being a victim of bullying. He does state the only positive thing that happened was him having more time to read and study but other than that it was a pretty dark time. I believe bullying is a issue that is being overshadowed but I also believe it is no one's fault. It is a such a hard issue to gain control over because one can never be constantly watching out for it, especially in children, you just have to hope people will do the right thing. Victims also add to the difficulty because some don't even tell about their hardships. We need to get a better control on the issue, no matter what the cost.