The playground is the perfect ethnographic setting for group observations. Playgrounds can be compared to tribes coming together to play every day. This situation is not benign, but is characterized at times by fear and the need to preserve the beliefs of one's tribe. Because there is a threat to being able to hold true to your beliefs, many children dump their tribe and join another that is seen as more powerful in order to survive. Over time, tension mounts and someone is going to get hurt. Cultures and beliefs come clashing together within a system that asks for homogeneity where none exists.
School Violence
Towns such as Springfield, Oregon, Paducah, Kentucky, Jonesboro, Arkansas, Littleton, Colorado, and Santee, California, cast a shadow over our nation because of the violence committed by children in those locations. Many children suffer from battle fatigue as a result of going to school. Teasing and bullying are words that do not accurately describe the violence and intimidation that can harm a young human's spirit.
Statistics
In 2005, students ages 12-18 were the victims of about 628,200 violent crimes at school, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This included rape, sexual and aggravated assault, and robbery. About 30 percent of students reported moderate ("sometimes") or frequent ("once a week or more") bullying. This included 13 percent as a bully, 10.6 percent as a victim and 6.3 percent as both. Young people who bully are more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, and get into fights. Children who bully are more likely to get into fights, vandalize property, skip school, and drop out of school. Sixty percent of boys who were bullies in middle school had at least one criminal conviction by the age of 24. Among the student perpetrators of school-associated violent deaths, 20 percent were known to have been victims of bullying. An estimated 30 percent of sixth- through to 10th-graders in the United States were either a bully, a target of bullying or both, according to the CDC in 2009.
Address the Problem
There is a belief that children will simply be cruel to other children and they must learn to deal with cruelty and abuse. It's one of those many things in life that have gone on for so long that it is now considered normal. It is not normal. You know the simple way we know it is not normal? It feels awful. We are taught by physicians not to ignore a pain; it may be the sign of something serious. In mental health it is the same. Don't ignore a pain. It is a sign of something serious.
As long as violence, whether it be verbal, physical, sexual, or emotional is seen as acceptable or normal in any human relationship, it is given full license to infect all of our personal, social, cultural, and international relationships.
What Can You Do?
Speak up and teach your child to speak up. It does not take years of bullying for a child to retreat inward and become depressed or experience powerlessness.
Make sure your school has a bullying policy. Find out what program your school is using for bullying prevention. If the school doesn't have a program, lobby with other parents to get one. If your school won't work with you regarding a specific bullying problem, call the police. Youth violence is a crime. Consult a mental health professional for assistance. Violence in communities, homes, at school, between people and in the work place is always avoidable. If verbal or physical violence is occurring at home, seek help from a mental health professional or ask your family physician for a referral.
Significance
Children are exposed to violence daily. Some types of violence, they learn, are acceptable such as war or the execution of a criminal. Some types of violence are considered wrong, such as shooting a person. Children are confused and all of these children come together on the playgrounds across our country with different ideas about violence.
