Persuasive Speech On School Bullying

Our schools, our workplaces, our society are not safe places anymore. The pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness of our children is seriously hampered by bullying and sometimes violence in our schools. Or so it would seem, if you listen to the media. What is the reality? Is bullying threatening our kids? Is the actual violence at school equal to the perception? Or are we losing perspective? Rarely a day goes by that you don’t hear of some act of violence at school precipitating a new law. In an attempt to curb unwanted behaviors schools have banned such longtime childhood games as tag; steal the flag; musical chairs; duck, duck, goose; and cops and robbers—all said to” encourage exclusion, theft, bullying, aggression and competition”

That comment not only landed him in the principal’s office, it required his mother to leave work and drive twenty miles to the school to meet with the principal and take Joe home to start his three-day suspension. But he got off easy. In New Jersey, a Benjamin Franklin Middle School student made the same comment and “because of the anti-bullying law, the boy 's insult had to be filed with the state 's education department. If in a few years he applies to a state university, admissions officers will see the charge that he was a bully” (Cloud, J. (2012). In terms of specific forms of student bullying, verbal bullying (e.g., name-calling, insults) continues to be the most common form witnessed and of greatest concern (Bradshaw,

The aggressive behavior can be physical (e.g., hitting, kicking) or verbal (e.g., teasing, taunting)”. These are the incidents that are most easily identified and reported, but they may be mislabeled. When a person is subjected to physical violence such as kicking, slapping, and or punching, or subjected to threats and name calling they are being directly bullied. (Carpenter & Ferguson, n.d., para. 1) Those same actions would result in arrest for battery and assault and possible court action for an adult. Furthering the confusion, if the misconduct creates a hostile and offensive environment and is based on race, color, national origin, sex, or disability, it is deemed harassment and in violation of federal law. As horrible as this violence might be, it is significantly less widespread than relational