WHAT IS BULLYING?


Bullying is the use of force to intimidate someone. In can happen to anyone, anywhere and anytime.It can come from a single person or a group. Bullying in schools should be discouraged since it greatly affects performance of the students and teachers by disrupting the morale.
Bullying does not necessarily happen among the student community but it can also happen to the members of the teaching and staff. It is brought about by many different factors ranging from a feeling of contempt towards a certain person due to their physical attributes, color of their skin, religion, financial status or social class. Bullying in schools can to some extent be seen as a discrimination of some kind depending on how an individual perceives things. Bullying can be delivered verbally or in some extreme cases physically where the victim suffers actual bodily harm. A school administrator who is overbearing on his/her junior staff can be seen as a bully who eventually leads to strained work relations among their charges.
When bullying is not stopped or is let to go on unchecked, it really affects the overall performance of a student. This is because a student who feels bullied by a fellow student might opt not to attend a certain lesson to avoid the bully, this will definitely be reflected in that students’ overall academic performance in that particular subject.
Bullying can also breed defiance to authority among the students and staff who might feel oppressed or downtrodden by the bullying leading to a breakdown in the authoritative structure in an institution.
Bullying should be avoided by ‘standing up’ or facing the bully and reaching an amicable solution to end these acts. Bullies once identified should be punished to deter any future incidences of bullying.