Last November, a seventh year student committed suicide. The bullying at school had escalated to an unbearable degree, much more than what a middle school student could bear both physically and mentally, and she decided that “all problems would be ended if [she] just chose to die.”
The student’s shocking suicide incited a civil movement to get rid of bullying at school. A national census was given to elementary, middle and high school students on the subject, and students were discreetly sought out and interviewed. The results appalled everyone.
While many people had known about bullying for some time, and several attempts to get rid of it had been highly publicized, the extent of bullying in schools that the surveys revealed were horrifying. There was evidence of physical dominance, in which bullies would hit several students singled out for no particular reason, and incidents in which bullies would relieve their anger by randomly punching people, and others where an entire class grade was “punished” for a perceived wrong such as failing to “donate” enough money to the delinquents. These juvenile oppressors would also take money, jewelry, and expensive electronic devices forcefully from unwilling students, or would make them partake in illegal activities, such as underage smoking and drinking, against their will.
Sometimes bullies would even ask for sexual favors. A seventh grade girl confessed to having been raped several times by two ninth year boys.
Even at their graduation ceremonies the students could not be released from the horror: to “celebrate” the graduation, the bullies would humiliate the students by splashing water on them while they bowed down in the form that the Nazi party used in mass killings- head and hands firmly on the ground and legs tucked in- and would step on them, order them to roll in the dirt and in extreme cases, to take their clothes off and be paraded through town.
The strict command structure that seemed to be very rooted in the school system is also another problem. Organized like gangs, there would be a branch of bullies in a neighborhood that would start in fourth year and lead all the way up to the twelfth year. A student antagonized anywhere during this time period would have to move to avoid being more traumatized as the horrors went on.
In the system, there would be a leader; usually a twelfth grader with great fighting skills or a younger one who had managed to beat everyone else. There would be an inner circle of bullies, and the system would then branch down to numerous “class managers” that would be the ones in charge of getting money from their respective classes and grades. Even exemplary students and students from good standing would be integrated into the system to avoid making trouble, which makes it hard to eliminate the problem of bullying. Students good at fighting or physically impressive would be nominated and given entrance into the inner folds of the gang, and would be expected to maintain control over their given “units” of control. If the money from the unit failed to meet the quota, punishment would be doled out.
The problem has become so extensive and integrated (the number of bullies has been estimated to be around 200,000 to 400,000) that there is now no real way to get rid of the problem completely but only restrict the cruelty of the delinquent students.
Therefore, the government has now taken matters into its own hands. Starting this May, all students who confess to having been victims of bullying will be accompanied by a police protection force, as there had been revenge-beatings in the past for students who had sought help from authority. Victims would be reimbursed for all physical harm done. The measures that had already been put into action this March – which consist of forbidding both the victims and the perpetrators from attending the same school, having a telephone hotline number “117” for all school-bullying related reports, immediately preventing the aggressors from attending school for an indefinite period and allowing teachers to have the authority of failing them, marking down bullying on the students’ permanent record, and punishing the school officials severely if they happen to hide the problem of bullying in their schools and a multiply-homeroom teacher system to avoid missing signs of any abuse – have allowed the oppressed students to regain their voice and give testimonies of bullying.
Although many people had protested the changes, the voices demanding justice had been far stronger, and the changes had been implemented after the approval of the department head of the Department of the Science of Teaching Methods. It is a growing hope that with time, bullying will decrease at school to be almost nonexistent.
Good article! The lonely photo immediately caught my attention and I liked how you suggested solutions for each of the problems you specified. Also, your stating of genuine facts (e.g. Department of the Science of Teaching Methods etc.) verifies the validity of your article. The story would be even better if you added quotes to back your arguments.