There was once a boy name Ryan Halligan, Ryan's middle school social environment was toxic. The bullying problem went on and off during his first middle school year, Bullying prevention should be shared by others too - parents, bullies, bystanders, school staff ... basically the whole school system. A child should not have to complain about bullying to an adult in the first place. Prevention through education should have always been a part of the curriculum. And it should have started at pre-K. For too long, we have let kids and adults bully others as a right of passage into adulthood. This is one of the many reasons that teachers should be more serious about bullying. Bullying is such a terrible thing to do. You hurt the people around you, and you don’t even realize what you’re doing until someone tells you, which most people are just bystanders and just watch other kids get bullied, so they are part of the problem too. I believe people always say how bullying is such a bad thing, but those are the same people who stand around and do nothing about the situation. Did you know just simply leaving someone out repeatedly can be bullying? That’s why you should include and accept everyone.

Schools and teachers should take bullying more seriously because it has been affecting kids academic progress. 1 in 4 kids skip school every day due to bullying. They don’t come to school because they are too intimidated by the bully. If bullied, several kids can’t even get up out of bed for school. If bullied kids are less likely to live a good, healthy life style. When bullied, (if severely), you are more likely to drop out of school. If you do drop out of school, you are less likely to get a job because most jobs require at LEAST the finishing of high school. After high school, if you don’t have a job, you won’t have money. This is why we should be more serious about bullying.

When kids are bullied, their grade average lowers. a new study has found researchers compared the grade point averages of 9,590 students from 580 U.S. high schools. The students were asked if they experienced bullying in grade 10. Compared to kids who were not bullied, kids who were bullied experienced a 0.049 drop in their GPA between grades 9 and 12, due to the study to be presented Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, held in Las Vegas. This is why bullying is bad in mainly High Schools. Students need to do good in High School if they want to go to a college, because most colleges start looking at grades in grade 9.


Kids who are bullied are far more likely to feel physically sick, with symptoms such as coughing, sore throat, stuffy nose, headaches, and stomachaches. Bullying is a big problem. It can make kids feel hurt, scared, sick, lonely, embarrassed and sad. Bullies might hit, kick, or push to hurt people, or use words to call names, threaten, tease, or scare them. A bully might say mean things about someone, grab a kid's stuff, make fun of someone, or leave a kid out of the group on purpose. Kids would feel physically sick because they are so intimidated of the bully, they would be too scared to go to class, or even school. Research with youth and adults shows that negative social interactions are experienced as particularly stressful. Stress causes the body to secrete the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol impairs immune system functioning, leaving the individual more vulnerable and less able to combat physical illnesses.

Teachers are not trained to deal with bullying and the affects of kids health, that’s for the guidance and nurses to take care of. Teachers are required to teach kids and prepare them for the following years, not to deal with bullying. Guidance counselors are trained to deal with kids who are having hard and personal problems. Nurses are trained to help children who have been hurt and need extra assistance. Most kids need to learn to stand up for themselves, and if it’s your friend, you should know it’s just a joke. Teachers already feel as if they aren’t paid enough so why should they have to deal with more stress, to deal with immature kids? If kids are being cyberbullied, what are teachers supposed to do? They can’t watch the kids property as they go home everyday. Teachers have lives too, they have their own lives and personal problems to deal with too. Therefore teachers should not have to deal with kids who are being bullied, that’s for parents and guidance counselors to deal with.


Ryan Patrick Halligan (December 18, 1989 – October 7, 2003) was an American student from Essex Junction, Vermont, who committed suicide at the age of 13 after being bullied from his classmates (and cyber-bullied online). Ryan was repeatedly sent homophobic instant messages, and was threatened, taunted and insulted incessantly. How would you feel if you were Ryan’s friend? Everyday instead of standing up for your friend you sat and watched him get bullied. Then one day, your teachers tell you Ryan, your good friend, has committed suicide. Would you feel guilty? You would think to yourself, what if i had just said something to the bully? What if i had comforted him? What if i had told my school, or even my parents? No one should have to live with that guilt. Bullying is such a terrible thing to do to someone.