Bullying is a big problem.
Recent suicides sparked by bullying, such as the case of 12-year old Rebecca Sewick from Florida, have brought this important issue to light.
Many victims of bullying that commit suicide are preteens and young adults.
According to information provided by the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services on stopbullying.gov, the definition of bullying is “unwanted aggressive behavior” that involves a “real or perceived power imbalance.”
Bullying is often repeated over time without knowledge of those who have the ability to stop to it.
The site also defines bullying as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking verbally and physically and the exclusion of another person.
Bullying that happens with young adults or college-aged students often requires different courses of action than it would with younger children.
These are often crimes under state and federal laws.
As a result, the people committing those acts can end up serving some jail time if they are found guilty.
Bullying can involve actions such as hazing, harassment and stalking.
StopBullying.gov reports that 70 percent of young people across the nation say they have seen bullying in their schools.
Bullying is getting worse all over the United States, possibly due to the fact that some people may live in environments that often involve domestic violence at home.
These violent environments increase the likelihood that a person can end up being a bully to another.
Currently, the most common type of bullying is called cyber bullying.
This type of bullying is done in chat rooms and on social networking sites such Facebook, and involves harassing another person, making fun of a person’s appearance and who he or she may be dating.
Sometimes the bullying and harassment can go so far that the victim actually decides to take his own life.
There should be stricter rules in how bullying is handled.
People that bully should be punished or prosecuted so that it would give a reason not to bully, and help to decrease the number of bullying victims that commit suicide every year.
The best way to stop bullying as an outsider is to step in and prevent the behavior.
Bullying is something we should all be aware of, and we should take action to prevent it.