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By Pamela Cruz with information from Raúl Ayrala. Peninsula 360 Press.
Clarisse Céspedes knows first-hand what bullying at school is. She experienced it through her son, who was verbally attacked several times at school until her husband spoke up and made sure that action was taken on the matter without the case becoming a more serious situation. However, for many who suffer this harassment, the story is very different and it has even cost lives.
“Bullying is in some way a form of violence, and violence can be physical, emotional, or psychological,” said Dr. Guillermina Mejía, a Mexican pediatrician specializing in adolescents, in an interview with Península 360 Press.
The American Psychological Association (APA) details that bullying is a form of aggressive behavior in which someone intentionally and repeatedly causes harm or discomfort to another person, and this can take the form of physical contact, words, or more subtle actions.
The person being bullied usually has trouble defending himself or herself and does nothing to “cause” the bullying.
The organization highlights that bullying can also occur via cyberbullying, using electronic technology such as cell phones, email, social media, or text messages.
“I was wondering, is it okay for them to say things to me at school? I was wondering if it was normal for them to call him fat. But it’s okay, right? I don’t have to worry, he said, and I said, well no, it’s not okay, who said that to you and how did it make you feel bad? Or were you joking and flirting and you said things to him? And he said, no, it’s just that I went to the bathroom and they wouldn’t let me out because they were saying things to me, I asked him who was saying that to him and he didn’t want to tell me,” said Clarisse.
“So one day I mentioned it to his father, and he didn’t have as much patience as I did and he went to the school and wanted to talk to the principal, so the principal told him: ‘this is something that is going to be resolved immediately’, he wanted to call my son and the boy was embarrassed not to answer him and told him what was happening and who they were, so he called them there in the office with my son’s father present and then he called the parents (of the other children). That was the end of the matter really, those children did not bother my son again,” she said.
In bullying, “generally there is a victim, a bully and the public around them,” said Guillermina Mejía. “Even though one is the one who is bullying and the other is the one being bullied, sometimes there is a family pattern; on the one hand, one is the one who lets himself be bullied and the other is the one who is probably bullied at home or is a witness to bullying or violence.”
Mejia explained that California is the number one state in the United States in terms of bullying, and that, he said, is worth noting, because, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center, approximately 56 percent of children had suffered some type of bullying and 71 percent acknowledged that they had seen or been victims of this bullying.
On the other hand, the specialist explained that “in some way, both the harassed and the harasser are children who in the future in their adult life may really have a sequel such as anxiety disorders, they may be children with depressive processes or have a low academic performance when they are transitioning to their adult life or have many failures in terms of their professional work.”
But what can be done about bullying?
“I think you have to ask for help. I was very quiet, and sometimes you do that because you think that it can't be happening to you, that it will fix itself,” said Clarisse.
Dr. Guillermina Mejía stressed that everything starts at home, and that it is necessary to observe whether, in some way, violence is not exercised at home, which children and young people absorb and then take to school and other environments.
"We have to be aware as families, as guardians or parents, that if we are not exercising these types of harassment or violence, then the children take it home," she said.
A study by WalletHub, which examined 47 states and the District of Columbia based on 20 key metrics ranging from bullying incident rates to truancy costs for schools to the share of high school students bullied online, found that “roughly 20 percent of students ages 12 to 18 experience bullying, either in person, online, or both.”
The states with the worst bullying problems according to the study are California, Alaska, Nevada, New Jersey, and Louisiana.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the CaliFornia State Library.
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