Amanda Todd Commited suicide after being Cyber Bullied.
Bullying is a growing problem among today’s youth in the United States. Amanda Todd, for example, was only fifteen (15) years old when she committed suicide after being bullied by her peers for over a year. Amanda Todd complained using flash cards for being bullied, abused, harassed, as well as stalked in person and online. She suffered cyber bullying and physical bullying. A mysterious individual attacked Amanda on Facebook who pleased her so much leading to her being convinced to send her nude photo to him. After some time, she was posted the same photo on her wall, and the photo went viral. She was teased and bullied by those who knew her. This forced her to change school severally, her reputation was damaged, and friends avoided her, she was pounded by schoolmates, which led her to kill herself.
You can watch her horrifying story here:
Bullying can intimidate learners’ emotional and physical safety at home and school and can negatively affect their capability to learn, just like what happened to Amanda. However, the best way that I believe Amanda’s parents, teachers, and authorities could have used to reduce episodes of bullying of Amanda and thus prevent Amanda’s suicide: (1) Assessment of school intervention and prevention efforts around Amanda’s behavior that included violence and substance use. They would have built upon them or incorporate bullying prevention plans. (2) It would have been important for these people to collaborate to send an integrated communication against Amanda’s harassment. They would have launched an awareness crusade to make the ideas acknowledged to Amanda’s parents, school, as well as community members.
The similarities between the bullying cases that take place today with those cases that occurred when I attended high school: In both cases, the bully-victims apparently display many of very similar characteristics of both victims and bullies. Apart from the fact that they are “isolated and abandoned by peers” similar to the victims and “negatively impacted by peers” just like the bullies. However, the two cases also differ. In some ways, I could say that the bullying now is a little bit contained as compared to then about the way children take care of the bullying cycle. The present day schools appear to be at a minimum trying to recover at early intervention to stop bullying. Furthermore, parents are at the present paying closer attention as compared to when I was in high school.
The key contributing factors that I believe led to bullying behaviors are social and bystander factors. I think that social factors like dysfunctional families increased the cases of bullying in families. Children who are bullied are three times more probable to have parental or family problems; however, those who have positive connections with their parents remain unlikely to bully. On the other hand, I believe the existence of bystanders contributed a lot to the case of bullying. Bystanders can be passive which pardons the event or can avert others from superseding. I think three ways wherein prevention programs can lessen bullying cases in general, is setting enforceable and transparent regulations and expectations; rewarding positive behaviors, and having open communication forum.