Baugh 1 Alina Baugh Professor Eaker ENG 1102 074 29 April 2013 Final Draft of Round Table Paper

America has many ongoing problems and issues. Very few are addressed and resolved, one of which is bullying. Bullying has been an issue in schools in America for years and has in a way, been shadowed. Bullying in schools is overlooked more in society today than it was years ago. My line of inquiry is to find out why children are bullied, what factors go into a child being bullied. When conducting my research, I plan to answer questions everyone in The Media has regarding bullying. The Media including parents, teachers, children, principals, news reporters, and anyone involved with bullying. Some questions I plan to find the answer to why bullying occurs and which children are targeted for these bullies. The voices I will investigate and get a perspective from are the parents/guardians, the children, and the teachers. Each one of these voices are important in this research because the parents/guardians are the ones in charge for their child's behavior at home while at school and in public. Parents are genuinely concerned with why bullying occurs, especially to their child. The children are an important aspect to be considered in this discussion because they are the group of individuals being researched. They have the ability to answer some of the questions we have towards bullying. For example, one could ask a bully why he targets a certain child or a certain group of children to bullying. The teachers are also important because they work in the school environment with these children everyday and they are looking for new ways to allow children to feel safe at school. Starting with the first voice, the parents, they will have a strong viewpoint and voice in this particular discussion because it may pertain to their children. They are also looking for ways to stop

Baugh 2 allowing bullying to happen to their children and to why bullying happens to their child. Parents are constantly wanting to protect their children and allow their child to have a normal childhood life and will hold concerns towards bullying whether their child is a bully or their child being bullied or if their child is a bystander and has witnessed this. Being parents, they feel it necessary to be able to hold all answers to every question, including bullying. They may not fully understand the causes and reasoning why a child is a bully, being bullied, or is a bystander. Along with parents holding these viewpoints they will also want to discover why their child doesn't feel comfortable enough to report bullying and feel as though they have to be just a bystander. Parents are constantly demanding answers to why certain things happen, especially when it comes to their children or why their child acts out a certain way. To help parents understand bullying and give some reasoning why it occurs, an article titled, What Parents Can Do, provides information for parents and gives incite on which children generally get bullied, which children generally bully, and gives multiple counts of advice to parents on how to take action if their child is involved in bullying. For example, this article mentions the children who are likely to be bullied do poorly in school, have a low self-esteem, seem to be depressed, and in order to protect themselves or seek revenge against their bully, they result in violent behavior. Along with giving insight to parents on some habits children who bully have, such as doing poorly in school, smoking and/or drinking and committing crimes, this website also gives advice to parents on what they can do as being the central role to preventing bullying. This websites suggests methods preventing bullying such as, teaching their children violentfree ways to solve problems and encouraging their children to provide help to others who need it (NCPC 1) The next viewpoint and voice to consider are the children. This viewpoint is very important, and critical to this research because they are the group of individuals being observed for this particular topic. Children will have the viewpoint of finding protection against bullying, whether it's them

Baugh 3 interacting themselves or seeking adult intervention. Children may hold viewpoints pertaining to why they're being bullied, why a classmate is being bullied, why they are bullying, and how they should react to bullying. There are many appropriate and productive ways for children to respond to bullying. A source titled, Bullying - What Children Should Do If They Are Bullied, provides information and methods for children to deal with a bully. This article suggests children to talk their bully and tell them to calm stop and leave them alone, walk away, it is important to not run away because it invokes power within the bully, or seek adult help, getting adult allows children to obtain safe and productive intervention without them getting hurt (WebMD 1). Other children are confused on how they should react to bullying if they witness it. They're uncertain if they should intervene when a child is being bullied,The best method children can follow is to find an adult to intervene in the situation. Also, they're not sure if they should befriend a child who is bullied and they make no understand why it is a child is being bullied. Although children may want to help the prevention and extermination of bullying, they are uncertain if they should report bullying. An article in the Michigan Daily provides information collected from the National Center for Educational Statistics that only 28 percent of children between the ages 12 and 18 reported that they'd been bullied during the 2008-2009 school. In other words, Nahata believes more children should report bullying to help stop bullying in the United States. This article also mentions 7.4 high school students admitted to missing school because they felt unsafe. Also, 85 percent of high school students who are gay, lesbian, or transgender have reported being harassed by other students because of the sexual status (Nahata 1). The last viewpoint to consider are the teachers. The teachers are important to the round table because they are in the schools every day and witness these types of behaviors with children on a daily basis. The teachers will have a viewpoint of stopping bullying inside the school environment. They are wanting to inform and educate children on bullying as well as intervene when they witness it occurring.

Baugh 4 They will hold this viewpoint because they want to ensure the children feel they are in a safe environment when they come to school. Teachers have the advantage of potentially getting information from the children regarding bullying that they may not want to talk to their parents about and try to talk to them to uncover the underlying problem of why they are being bullied or why they are bullying a child. Teachers will have questions of how they approach a child they know is being bullied or they know is bullying or how to encourage children to report bullying. Teachers play a vital role in preventing bullying in schools by intervening if they see a child being bullied. Also, children have tendencies to open up to other adults more than they will their parents, giving teachers an advantage to talking to children and discovering why a child is bullying a certain child. Although teachers may be able to question children and uncover some answers regarding bullying, they still have questions of how to talk to the child on a level they feel comfortable and how to relay that communicated information to the parents. In this particular subject teachers play the role of a counselor to be able to get information first hand from children. There are also some guidelines teachers must following regarding bullying with children. An article titled, Bullying: Guidelines for Teachers, provides some of the guidelines for teachers. There are very helpful and useful guidelines listed in this article, one of which is, Support the bullied child. Do this in a way that allows him or her dignity and to feel safe from retaliation. Make a point to see the child later in private if he or she is upset. Increase supervision to assure bullying is not repeated. (Tolerance 1). This is helpful information to teachers because they are unsure as to how to approach and child and allow them to feel they can trust them. Another article titled, "How Parents, Teachers and Kids Can Take Action to Prevent Bullying, provides insight for teachers and school administrators to follow to help with bullying. This article states how teachers and school administrators need to be observant and knowledgeable, involve both the students and the parents, and set positive expectations about behavior for parents and students (APA 2). Teachers play a critical role in the prevention of bullying and need to

Baugh 5 be informed and alert at all times. In conclusion, bullying is a severe issue in the United States. Bullying is resulting in school shootings more frequently in today's society. With the research and information provided, it will help parents, children, and teachers learn ways to help children in regards to bullying. The parents will learn way of how to talk to their child and report bullying, the children will learn how to report bullying, and the teachers will help prevent children from being bullied by educating and intervening when the see these actions take place. With the help of all three of these parties, bullying will lower to a minimum and inevitably seize it across our nation.

Baugh 6 Works Cited "Bullying: Guidelines for Teachers." Teaching Tolerance. Teaching Tolerance, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013. "Bullying-What Children Should Do If They Are Bullied." WebMD. WebMD, 23 Dec. 2010. Web. 26 Apr. 2013. "How Parents, Teachers and Kids Can Take Action to Prevent Bullying." How Parents, Teachers and Kids Can Take Action to Prevent Bullying. American Psychological Association, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013. Nahata, Harsha. "Harsha Nahata: Speak out against Bullying." The Michigan Daily. The Michigan Daily, 28 Sept. 2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2013. What Parents Can Do." National Crime Prevention Council. National Crime Prevention Council, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013.