Long-Term Effects of Bullying

As teenagers, we all know someone who has been touched by bullying. It may be an ongoing problem, or one that they seemed to have recovered from already. What people don’t always realize is that the smallest experience with bullying may scar and affect a victim for life. A study by Sam Houston State University found that childhood bullying lead to serious emotional and behavioral problems. These included alcohol and substance abuse, eating disorders, and homelessness. Bullying can also cause depression, and is even related to cancer. Furthermore, kids are prone to miss school if they are being bullied because it no longer feels like a safe environment to them. Inevitably, their grades will drop and this can affect their future careers and lifestyles.  The victim is not the only party to be affected by bullying. The continued bullying also affects the bully. Six out of ten teenage bullies are convicted of a crime by the time they are 24.

Every victim of bullying wonders, “Why me?” Maybe it was the old non-brand clothes or the frizzy hair, the braces, huge nose, or acne. Maybe it’s the personality. Bullies usually don’t have a clear reason. But this doesn’t stop the bullied person from trying to change something about them self. This can lead into a lifetime feeling of not feeling ‘good enough’. The American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress lists this effect as one of the most serious caused by bullying. Others include difficulty trusting, lingering feelings of revenge, and the predisposition to be a loner.

 The most concerning effect can be the violent tendencies developed by bullying. Many people who have been constantly bullied just ‘snap’ one day and let out their suppressed anger and desire for revenge. The people who feel their anger can be classmates and teachers, as in many school shootings like Colombia and other universities or high schools.

Bullying negatively affects everyone involved, changing their lives forever. Stopping bullying would mean helping young people all over the world to have a better life.

By Victoria Johnson

Nadia Ilse: A Bully Victim

“Dumbo”, “elephant ears” and a plethora of other hurtful comments like these are what 14-year-old Nadia Ilse had to endure every day at school. Verbal abuse like this is what drove Nadia to request cosmetic surgery at the age of 10 and to finally have it completed at 14.

Nadia Ilse is a beautiful 14-year-old who happened to have slightly larger ears. This caused many to bully Nadia for being different. The bullying started in first grade and didn’t stop since then. In an interview with CNN medical advisor Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Nadia recounted how the taunting turned her from being talkative and outgoing to being withdrawn and antisocial. The taunting “hurt so much” that the young woman had thoughts of suicide. At the age of 10, Nadia confessed to her mother that she wanted otoplasty – surgery to pin her ears back, in an effort to stop the bullying. At the time Nadia’s family could not afford surgery and Nadia had to live with this for another 4 years.

When Nadia was 14 her mother stumbled across the Little Baby Face Foundation, a non-profit organization that offers free plastic surgery for children born with facial deformities. The charity flew Nadia and her mother to NY from Georgia on an all expense paid trip. There they met with Dr. Thomas Romo who performed the surgery. In addition to pinning her ears back, Dr. Romo suggested a reduction of her nose and modification of her chin. These three surgeries; otoplasty, mentoplasty and rhinoplasty were done.

Post-surgery, Nadia had another interview with Dr. Gupta in which she has no regrets regarding her surgery and that she feels beautiful and happy now. Nadia is grateful to the Little Baby Face Foundation and to her mother for being supportive of her and giving her lots of love.  Nadia admits that the surgery has been but one step on the road to recovery, she is now attending counseling to ease the burden years of hurt have placed on her shoulders.  As stated in her interview, Nadia will attend school in the fall with her chin, and her hair, up.

Cases like Nadia pose questions about how far bullying has gone nowadays. Now should bullying victims endure physical as well as emotional pain? Are cases like Nadia’s teaching victims that surgery is the answer to their problems, or is it teaching them that they can feel good about themselves again? Should charities like Little Baby Face Foundation be focusing on the physical attributes of the victims or on their self-esteem and how they feel about themselves on the mental level?

By Laya Manoj

Nationwide No-Name Calling Week

Biotech recently participated in No Name-Calling Week, which is an annual countrywide event. It was created in 2004 by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Simon & Schuster Children's publishing company. It was inspired by James Howe's book, The Misfits. The Misfits tells the story of four friends in seventh grade who are bullied and harassed, as is common in middle school. In the book, the four start a campaign to stop bullying, harassment, teasing, and name calling.

No Name-Calling Week (NNCW) is a week to educate about bullying and is aimed at stopping name calling in schools. School educators can order lesson plans online from nonamecallingweek.org and encourage anti-bullying activities in school. Students can practice showing respect and work to stop bullying in their schools and neighborhoods. NNCW’s main objective is to eliminate the bullying that negatively impacts so many lives across the nation.

This January 21-25 is the 9^th annual NNCW. Hundreds of schools participated by making anti-bullying posters, talking daily about the effects that bullying has on the victims, watching videos, having classroom discussions, and taking action to spread respect and kindness to their neighborhoods.

This year, GLSEN is hosting a Creative Expression Exhibit and Contest. For the exhibit, students can submit a piece of artwork that features NNCW's message of anti-bullying. For the contest, an entire school can participate! Any type of display(s) that express the school's efforts to promote kindness can be created. Pictures of the display will be judged and the winning school will win a NNCW prize kit including anti-bullying books and facts sheets, t-shirts, wristbands, Stop Bullying: Speak Up posters, and much, much more!Hopefully NNCW at Biotech has informed everyone more about bullying. Of course, even though NNCW is over, everyone should remember to respect others' feelings. Take a stand against bullying year round!

By Emily Lau

Be More Than a Bystander

Now more than ever, bullying incidents have been on the rise.  According to DoSomething.org, 80% of high school students witness bullying each week.  However, most of these students simply observe the bullying incidents; over 50% of them do not try and help the victims at all.  The Advertising Council, a nonprofit organization, has decided to try and help stop bullying.  They have launched the “Be More Than a Bystander Campaign.”

Through commercials and print ads, the Advertising Council is trying to encourage parents to talk with their children about what to do if they see a bullying incident.  “They want to help, but they don’t know how.  Teach your kids how to be more than a bystander.”

One of the main issues that the campaign addresses is the misconception that some parents are under.  Many adults do not understand how truly harmful bullying can be.  The old saying “boys will be boys,” and the thought that taunting and teasing are merely are rites of passage into adulthood are no longer true.  With the help of social media, bullying has become even more aggressive.  Bullies say things online that they would never dare to say in person, and they can even say things anonymously.  Bullies have become even more ruthless. Students are bullied at school and online.  It never stops.

Organizations such as Johnson & Johnson and the New York ad agency DDB are helping to fund the campaign.  Companies including Facebook, CNN, the MLB network, and AOL are all dedicated to helping to spread the word about the effects of bullying.  They are trying to show that by stepping up and helping victims, you can help to end bullying.

The next time that you witness a bullying incident, remember to be more than a bystander.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/business/media/campaign-tries-to-help-defuse-bullying.html?_r=0 

By Rachel Weinstein

Bullying at Grinnell-Newberg

There has been some recent news about a boy in the Grinnell-Newburg school in Iowa being bullied by a student and the adults in school.  Eight-year-old Ethan Gannaway was reportedly bullied by a student who used verbal harassment to intimidate Ethan.  When Ethan went to teachers and the principal to report the incident, he was being interrogated the entire time and accused of lying about the story.  Ethan’s father Matt Gannaway went to the superintendent to complain about what happened, but when he walked into his office, the superintendent called for the police immediately.  Ethan’s parents were then banned from school premises and were not allowed to hold parent-teacher conferences.  This entire incident prompted Matt Gannaway to move his child to another school nearby and filing a lawsuit against the adults involved.

Being that this week is especially dedicated to anti-bullying, this is extremely disappointing news.  This proved that the world cannot be completely be good for just one week, and that there are people out there who will not try to end their mean ways.  This incident, along with what happened in the Newtown shooting a month ago, has made it clear that anything is possible, and no matter how safe a school can be, danger is still present.  These two incidents have prompted schools to increase safety and anti-bullying laws in their schools.

By Hannaan Choudhry