1st draft of essay School Bullying Causes and Effects

School Bullying
Causes and Effects

When people hear news, about a school shooter or that a child was bullied, they often ask the question, why? How did it get so far and what caused a person to become a bully or even to resort to killing others or taking their own life? When children are sent to school, society wants them to feel safe and be in an environment to learn, not to be afraid of their peers. There are many theories as to why someone would resort to killing and what can be done about it. There are people who think in black and white and want to blame the school shootings/bullying on the media, the parents, drugs, the schools themselves, gun laws, or the idea that these students were bullied themselves. It is an issue to be explored, especially since research is now being developed about what can be done to prevent a school shootings and bullying. One also has to look at the victims of bullying and how their lives are changed forever.
Children from stable families with both parents raising them would never become school shooters, correct? That is really what a lot of society thinks, just have great parenting and the rest will fall into place; this subject is way more complicated than that. Peter Langman, PH.D., who is a clinical director of KidsPeace. (A web site) At his inpatient hospital he helps adolescents in crisis and wrote the book, Why Kids Kill, Inside the Minds of School Shooters. He states that a mental health issue is the focus to prevent bullying and school shooters, and should be looked at by researchers (Langman, 17). He separates school shooters into various categories. He believes
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that there are three types of school shooters, “psychopathic, psychotic, and traumatized” (Langman, 18). If this is so, the exploration of these types of personalities might help professionals, especially those in the school systems, mental health areas and law enforcement to look for these signs and prevent school shootings/bullying.
To understand just how bullying gets started, one needs a definition of bullying. According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, it simply means to treat someone with abuse and to get what you want through force or coercion. (Merriam-Webster, web). If you have power over someone, or the victim even perceives that you do, this is a form of bullying. It can be through cyber bullying, cell phones, notes, leaving someone out, telling lies and rumors, making fun of their looks or race/religion. Yet, it can also mean outright threats, with violence; such as hitting or beating someone up. Also, just the bullying without it going to the extent of a shooting is harmful to the victim and the bystanders. There can be long lasting effects that remain with the victims into adulthood. It is a fear for your safety. This last statement is the one to remember, because if you are being bullied, you are afraid.(Merriam-Webster,web).
Some of the myths of why kids kill can be explored because there is some truth to parts of the theories. One that stands out is the myth that school shooters were bullied and went out to seek revenge. This is easy to believe because if one if mad enough and has had to take abuse for many years, they could easily “go off the deep end”. If this is so, Langman refers to the school shooters that he researched and if they were being bullied, they did not shoot the victims who


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had bullied them. Shooters, such as Kip Kinkel and Andrew Golden were the bullies, not the victims and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold from Columbine threatened others and were violent. (Langman, 13). Some students are daily victims of bullies and of these students, they all do not resort to school shootings. Indentifying signs of potential school shooters can prevent future violence and reduce long term effects of bullying. To understand the signs of potential school shooters, one has to look into the past and study those students who have resorted to killing others in a school setting. Also, the long term damage to the victims can also be prevented if one looks at the various bullying programs and if they work or not.