Bullying affects more than just one person in almost all cases.  Bullies target individuals, groups of people, families, and sometimes even organizations.  This blog will take a deeper look at who is affected and how.

The Victim: The victim is the person or group of people that is experiencing bullying.  They might be verbally, socially or physically bullied by someone or a group of people.  Typically the victim is seen as a “lesser power” and an easy target for others to pick on.  The victim is seen as the prey to the bully.  They can be affected differently, but often it changes their apperance, social skills, or self-esteem.

The Bully:  If a child is bullying someone else, they typically have other issues and need someone to talk to and help breaking the cycle.  Sometimes, even the bully has low self-esteem and they feel better about themselves making fun of others.  Bullying can even happen when a child has poor social skills and have a difficult making friends, thus making them feel they need to “get back” at others.

The Families:  If a child is bullied, it often affects their entire family.  Bullying can cause a child’s personality or self-esteem to change.  In this case, the family sees this change and tries to intervene.  Parents typcially try to get to the bottom of who the bully is and why it is occuring. 

If a family has a child that IS the bully, they are often affected as well.  Oftentimes, the families of a bully don’t realize their child is a bully until someone at school or another family contacts them.  In this case, they are typcially the ones that are responsible for helping that child break the bullying cylce.

The School: No parent wants to send their child to a school that is known for having bullies or handling those situations poorly.  When bullying occurs in schools, it is the responsiblity of all staff to ensure the bullying stops.  It is also the responsibility of the stduents to let someone know if the see or experience bullying themselves.  

At The Broach School of Jacksonville, we have a zero-tolerance policy for bullying.  If an incident occurs, a write up is written explaining the incidnet, all parents and staff are notified of the incident, and suspension issued as needed.  Afterwards, the staff follow up with the involved students to ensure the situation has been resolved.

As you can see, when bullying occurs, there are a variety of people that are affected.  Let’s help our children end bullying by educating them on how if affects other people’s lives.

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