In
these few months, we have been hit with a few videos about bullying in schools.
The most highlighted ones are the video of a group of students bullying the
form leader and a video of a student being chased, then surrounded, beaten up and
then hit with a flower vase. The most controversial however is the form leader
bullying. This video is shared widely throughout the internet and also with the
Polis Diraja Malaysia (PDRM) facebook page and resulted into a police case that
had shed light into the identity and information regarding several of the
wanted suspects.
However,
what’s been done cannot be undone and like the Malay proverb “Nasi sudah
menjadi bubur”, the students are probably in fear for what they did.
In
my opinion, bullying is simply the act of violence done towards those weaker
than the bullies. These kinds of act provide negative consequences not only for
the victims but also for the bullies. Initially the bullies prided themselves
in being strong, able to copy what they seen on fighting movies like Ong Bak
but they completely forgotten what can happen to them if they do it. Then,
after all is set in stone and this becomes large, they became fearful for what
they did. In the form leader bullying video, it has become a police case and
some of the suspects were identified and they may be sentenced to juvenile schools,
stripped of their freedom. Bullying is the same regardless of the times and it
is directed to those who are not able to defend themselves.
On
the other hand, the victims will be traumatized even if it is for a short
while. They fear that they would be bullied and there are some cases where the
victims experienced constant bullying regardless of the time and place. This
causes traumatization (as been stated) and may lead to other negative results
such as not able to socialize, drop in academic and extracurricular
performances and may even a break in the family institution. Furthermore, it
could lead to suicides. Although it is not common in Malaysia, bullying is a
very strong factor for suicides among students overseas like in Japan.
Hence,
what we as the community can do to solve this? Are we just going to sit back and
relax as our potential country leaders are sent to jail, broken down,
traumatized and die? THE ANSWER SHOULD NO
!
Bullying
should be stop a.s.a.p. It may not stop immediately but it can be stop
completely. Effort and patience is needed. More importantly, the knowledge on
how to handle and solve such problem is needed as it is the backbone of both
effort and patience. To me, of knowledge is applied correctly, it can be done
and these three (3) words are what the closest institution to the students;
family and school must know.
Both
of the institutions must be alert. They must know what is going on in the
sons/daughters/students life from A-Z. They need to be close to them and this
is where patience and effort kicks in as time will tell when the sons/daughters/students
will open their hearts. For parents, they must maintain a close relationship
with their children; not only asking them how was school but also getting them
to tell about their hobbies, their relationship in school, whether or not they
have a boyfriend or girlfriend, their likes and dislike and much more.
Persistent effort and patience will back up what is missing. That is generally
what the family must do.
For
the school side, the teachers are often said to be the students’ second
parents. The amount of time the teachers spent with the students teaching and
bonding are almost as much as the family spent. Hence, they have as much rights
as the family. As they are more on the educational point of view, they need to
stop promoting bullying through intelligent means like having the students read
on the effects of bullying, causes of bullying, can bullying be a police case
and other related topics to induce the fear of the effects of bullying in the
students.
Moreover,
both family and school can work together to provide outlets for anger and
frustrations that the teenagers are feeling to a more positive channel like extreme
sports and recreations. This may be enough to help them.
All
in all, prevention of bullying can be done with the help of both the family and
school and the willingness of the bullies and victims themselves. Prevention is
better than treatment. That is the main focus of stopping bullying.
(This
entry is for study/assignment purposes only)
2nd
Blogging Assignment
