Should the State or Federal Government Put Laws into Place to Prevent Bullying?

Today, bullying is one of many issues people face everyday, it affects the lives of many and damages people emotionally and physically as well. According to the “Do Something article”, it shows where approximately 160,000 teens skip school daily due to the act and over 3.2 million students are victims of it each year. By the act of bullying affecting so many people each day there should be a law put in place to prevent it. Bullying could not only be done physically but verbally and online as well like for example cyberbullying, which is basically the act of bullying happening through online communication. In fact, ¨bullying has become easier and now everlasting through the click of a mouse¨, according to Jaffe, Elizabeth M. ¨From the School Yard to Cyberbullying.¨ The act of bullying could be prevented in many ways which is why state or federal government should do so if possible, viewing other laws on bullying, it states that bullying laws may be in placed to prevent the matter but the effectiveness of these laws are not being exposed as much. According to the “Evaluation of Lowaś Anti-Bullying Law” it states that ¨Bullying is the most common form of youth aggression¨ and ¨Although 49 of all 50 states in the U.S have an anti-bullying law in place to prevent bullying, little is known about the effectiveness of these laws. Which basically expresses the seriousness of the act and how it’s not being taken more serious enough, these laws may be in place but they are not preventing anything from happening, which is why new and more strict laws should be placed that can maybe change the impact on bullying. Bullying is taken place anywhere even in the work environment, Daniel Teresa informs readers in her article that though it may not be legal, bullying in the workplace can damage the organization in many ways, one undermining the fellow employees motivation. To prevent bullying, these new laws has to be placed, letting a guardian or someone significant in your life know whatś going on doesńt always help or do the job for the victim, the laws that should be placed could prevent the matter in a lot of more serious ways rather than telling a adult and just waiting for a resolution. These laws could maybe handle the situation more professional, in a better way or even more serious. The act of bullying being made should come with severe consequences because like stated before 3.2 million students are victims of bullying, so just imagine how many are dying from it. Bullying is a bad trait that is spreading worldwide which is why these laws should be placed worldwide in every state and country. Imagine putting these laws in place then soon after the numbers of kids not going to school drops, as well as the 160,000 students who skip school each day drops, and the 100 attempts of suicide to every 1 successful suicide drops, it all decreases and soon bullying becomes not even heard of.  Bullying prevention should be a priority to anyone especially for all who works with our youth in schools, daycares, organizations and many more. Parents best interest are too keep their kids safe so if they know a law could be placed to prevent bullying their going to go out that way to make that happen. Bullying is taken place at one’s home, school, work, and even in oneś own peace so stopping it should be everyoneś priority. Austin, Shelia from”School Leadership and Counselors Working Together to Address Bullying” states that “The federal government has paid particular attention to reported bullying based on race, color, national origin, sex or disability” which means that people are now getting bullied just for being themselves or for being something they have no choice to be, like their race.  All 50 states have bullying laws to prevent bullying from happen but these laws are for bullying happening in school and for the bullying happening in school, in order for it to be immediately stopped it has to be investigated within a few days which is unfair to some. Unfair because in those couple of days in investigation if bullying isn’t being seen it can’t be reported which cannot be prevented, which still continues. The bully in those few days can lay off until the investigation is over or even threaten the bully from saying anything and causes the investigator from seeing anything to report to the federal government and this is only for in school bullying, what about bullying outside of school?. New bullying laws has to eventually be placed to stop the numbers of deaths, drop outs, skippers and many more bad things from increasing and the old laws should be completely dropped or at least updated to protect more people outside of school.  Overall, bullying has to be stopped for the safety of our communication as well the lives of many,  then maybe the death rates, skipping school or even suicides will decrease.

Works Cited

• Ramirez, Marizen, et al. “Evaluation of Iowa’s Anti-Bullying Law.” Injury Epidemiology, vol. 3, no. 1, June 2016, p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=115968024&site=eds-live.
• Jaffe, Elizabeth M. “From the School Yard to Cyberspace: A Review of Bullying Liability.” Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal, vol. 40, no. 1, June 2014, pp. 17–41. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lgh&AN=109557560&site=eds-live.
• Kevorkian, Meline M., and Robin D’Antona. Tackling Bullying in Athletics : Best Practices for Modeling Appropriate Behavior. R&L Education, 2010. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=341984&site=eds-live.
• Daniel, Teresa A. Stop Bullying at Work : Strategies and Tools for HR, Legal, & Risk Management Professionals. Society For Human Resource Management, 2016. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1625579&site=eds-live.
• AUSTIN, SHELIA M., et al. “School Leadership and Counselors Working Together to Address Bullying.” Reading Improvement, vol. 53, no. 4, Winter 2016, pp. 188–194. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=120237576&site=eds-live.