Насилие в американских школах

Работа Кирилловой Анастасии,

Ученицы 9 «а» класса

 МОУ «Лицей № 37» г.Саратова

Научный руководитель:

учитель английского языка Курьянова Надежда Викторовна

 Bullying in American schools

Recent years have seen more attention placed upon the “problem” of “school violence” with increasing numbers of efforts directed at the prevention of “school violence”. School violence is a serious problem, especially in public schools. Improving the quality of American education is difficult without also addressing school violence, since regardless of how good the teachers or curriculum are, violence makes it difficult for students to learn. But what is “school violence”?

One of the greatest challenges with regard to “school violence” may involve actually defining what is meant when the term is used. After all, a “problem well defined is half solved;” one that is not well defined is destined to linger. The Macmillan English dictionary has the following definition of “violence” : “violent behaviour involving the use of physical force, with the deliberate intention of causing damage to property or injury or death to people.” The most likely picture that comes to mind when the term “school violence” is used is that of a school shooting incident. Media images of such incidents leave little to the imagination and generate the impression that the term “school violence” in some ways equates to the school shooting incident. What is critical to note from the knowledge gained from high profile violent incidents which have occurred in recent years is that school violence involves much more than violence sparked by the firing of a gun.  Many incidents which involved gun violence, in fact, are reflective of the culmination of other incidents which lead up to the ones that involve gun.

Violent behaviours include: put downs; insults; threats; trash talks; bullying; and pushing – just about anything that produces a victim. As one advances from one type of behaviour to the next, the level of violence increases with fighting, sexual harassment, stealing, drinking and drugs, weapons, vandalism, hate crimes, gangs, hostages, rape, murder, and suicide completing the continuum.

 Speaking about “violence continuum” we would like to focus on such behaviour as bullying as the main component of school violence.

 Bullying is the act of intentionally causing harm to others, through verbal harassment, physical assault, or other more subtle methods of coercion such as manipulation. Bullying can be defined in many different ways. Although  the UK currently has no legal definition of bullying, some US states have laws against it. Bullying is usually done to coerce others by fear or threat.

Bullying often describes a form of harassment perpetrated by an abuser who possesses more physical and/or social power and dominance than the victim. The victim of bullying is sometimes referred to as a target. The harassment can be verbal, physical and/or emotional. Sometimes bullies will pick on people bigger or smaller than their size. Bullies hurt people verbally and physically. There are many reasons for that. One of them is because the bullies themselves are or have been the victim of bullying (e.g. a bullying child who is abused at home, or bullying adults who are abused by their colleagues).

 Bullying consists of two types - verbal and physical. It can occur in any setting where human beings interact with each other. This includes school, church, the workplace, home and neighborhoods. It is even a common push factor in migration. Bullying can exist between social groups, social classes and even between countries.

Another definition of bullying describes an act of repeated aggressive behavior in order to intentionally hurt another person, physically or mentally. Bullying is characterized by an individual behaving in a certain way to gain power over another person (Besag, 1989). Behaviors may include name calling, verbal or written abuse, exclusion from activities, exclusion from social situations, physical abuse, or coercion (Carey, 2003; Whitted & Dupper, 2005). Bullies may behave this way to be perceived as popular or tough or to get attention. They may bully out of jealousy or be acting out because they themselves are bullied (Crothers & Levinson, 2004).

USA National Center for Education Statistics suggests that bullying can be broken into two categories: direct bullying, and indirect bullying which is also known as social aggression.

Ross states that direct bullying involves a great deal of physical aggression such as shoving and poking, throwing things, slapping, choking, punching and kicking, beating, stabbing, pulling hair, scratching, biting, scraping and pinching.

He also suggests that social aggression or indirect bullying is characterized by threatening the victim into social isolation. This isolation is achieved through a wide variety of techniques, including spreading gossip, refusing to socialize with the victim, bullying other people who wish to socialize with the victim, and criticizing the victim's manner of dress and other socially-significant markers (including the victim's race, religion, disability, etc). Ross outlines other forms of indirect bullying which are more subtle and more likely to be verbal, such as name calling, the silent treatment, arguing others into submission, manipulation, gossip/ false gossip, lies, rumors/ false rumors, staring, giggling, laughing at the victim, saying certain words that trigger a reaction from a past event, and mocking.    

Research indicates that adults who bully have personalities that are authoritarian, combined with a strong need to control or dominate. It has also been suggested that a prejudicial view of subordinates can be particular a risk factor. Further studies have shown that while envy and resentment may be motives for bullying, there is little evidence to suggest that bullies suffer from any deficit in self esteem (as this would make it difficult to bully). However, bullying can also be used as a tool to conceal shame or anxiety or to boost self esteem: by demeaning others, the abuser him/herself feels empowered.

Researchers have identified other risk factors such as quickness to anger and use of force, addiction to aggressive behaviors, mistaking others' actions as hostile, concern with preserving self image, and engaging in obsessive or rigid actions.

There are several types of bullying such as physical bullying,verbal bullying, intimidation and cyber bullying.

Physical form of bullying can be visually detected.  This type of maltreatment involves physically contacting the student (kicking, hitting etc.). It can also entail stealing or hiding the belongings of the affected students.

Verbal form of bullying is difficult to detect, unless the adult is in the presence of the participants. It involves name calling, insults, offensive and threatening language.

 Intimidiation could include gestures or comments, spreading rumours or stories, graffiti and defacing property.

Cyber bullying is the modern extension of bullying. This occurs via the Internet, mobile phones or other cyber technology. This can include:  sending malicious text, e-mail, or instant messages,posting defamatory pictures or messages about others in blogs or on websites , using someone else’s user name to spread rumors or lies about someone.More commonly, students are using sites such as facebook and myspace to carry out bullying tactics.

 It is essential that teachers be on the lookout for signs of bullying.  Here are a few of the characteristics that may be displayed by a student who is being bullied: unexplained bruises,a decline in academic performance, anxiety in the class,an unusual sadness or withdrawal from peers.

 What we are concerned about is school bullying. In schools, bullying usually occurs in all areas of school. It can occur in nearly any part in or around the school building, though it more often occurs in PE, recess, hallways, bathrooms, on school buses and waiting for buses, classes that require group work and/or after school activities. Bullying in school sometimes consists of a group of students taking advantage of, or isolating one student in particular and gaining the loyalty of bystanders who want to avoid becoming the next victim. These bullies will taunt and tease their target before physically bullying the target. Targets of bullying in school are often pupils who are considered strange or different by their peers to begin with, making the situation harder for them to deal with. Some children bully because they have been isolated, and they have a deep need for belonging, but they do not possess the social skills to effectively keep friends. "When you're miserable, you need something more miserable than yourself." This may explain the negative actions towards others that bullies exhibit. However, just like with adults, there are also those who simply enjoy hurting other people.

 Schoolyard bullying can also be perpetrated by teachers and the school system itself: there is an inherent power differential in the system that can easily predispose to subtle or covert abuse, humiliation, or exclusion - even while maintaining overt commitments to anti-bullying policies.Bullying in school is also referred to as peer abuse.                                                                                                           Most educators and education researchers and practitioners would agree that school violence arises from a layering of causes and risk factors that include (but are not limited to) access to weapons, media violence, cyber abuse, the impact of school, community, and family environments, personal alienation, and more.

Access to Weapons. During the late 1980's and early 1990's, teen gun violence increased dramatically in the United States. More teens began to acquire and carry guns, leading to a sharp increase in gun deaths and injuries. In two recent academic years, a total of 85 young people died violently in U.S. schools. Seventy-five percent of these incidents involved firearms. According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Center (NYVPC), "fewer teens are carrying guns now [2004], and gun-related murders and suicides have begun to decline. Even so," claims the NYVPC, "many teens still illegally carry guns and harm others and themselves."

 How do young people gain access to weapons? According to a report issued by the University of Southern California School of Medicine, approximately 35% of U.S. homes with children under age 18 have at least one firearm, meaning that roughly 11 million children live in homes with firearms. Teens can also acquire handguns in illegal sales. A 2007 study by University of California at Davis' Violence Prevention Research Program concluded that "American gun shows continue to be a venue for illegal activity, including unlicensed sales to prohibited individuals."

 Media Violence. By the time the average American child reaches seventh grade, he or she will have witnessed 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on television. Some people say that so much violence on television makes American society--including its children--more violent. Discussion regarding the impact of the media on youth behavior is not new. In 1956, researchers compared the behavior of 24 children watching either a violent cartoon episode (Woody Woodpecker) or a non-violent cartoon (The Little Red Hen). During subsequent observed interactions, children who watched the violent cartoon were more likely to hit other children and break toys than those who watched the nonviolent cartoon.                                                                                                                            The divergent findings of these studies, conducted over a protracted length of time, underscore the difficulties in quantifying cause factors for youth violence in or out of school.

Cyber Abuse. Since the 1990s, the Internet, blogging, e-mail, and cell-phone text messaging have grown to play significant roles in the erosion of school safety. Violent, Internet-based video games have also grown in popularity as cyber technology becomes more sophisticated. Computerized video games were first introduced to the public in the 1970s. Today, many popular video games feature high levels of realistic violence.

Environmental Impact. Race and ethnicity, income levels, and other measurable elements have often been singled out by public health experts as risk factors that can contribute to anti-social behavior, from smoking and drinking to violent behavior and suicide.

School Environments. A survey conducted by the Children's Institute International revealed that almost 50 percent of all teenagers, regardless of their settings--rural, suburban, or urban--believe that their schools are becoming more violent.

School size. Researchers at the National Center for Education Statistics found that discipline problems are often related to school enrollment size. Large schools tended to yield more discipline problems than small schools. Thirty-four percent of schools with 1,000 or more students reported student disrespect for or assaults on teachers at least once per week, compared with 21 percent of those at schools with 500-999 students, 17 percent of those at schools with 300-499 students, and 14 percent of those at schools with less than 300 students.

Middle schools. Middle school students are more than twice as likely as high school students to be affected by school violence. Seven percent of eighth graders stay home at least once a month to avoid a bully. Twenty-two percent of urban 11- and 12-year-olds know at least one person their age in a gang. The typical victim of an attack or robbery at school is a male in the seventh grade who is assaulted by a boy his own age.

Studies suggest two reasons for the higher rates of middle school violence. First, early adolescence is a difficult age. Young teenagers are often physically hyperactive and have not learned acceptable social behavior. Second, many middle school students have come into contact for the first time with young people from different backgrounds and distant neighborhoods.

Community Environments.As with schools and families, communities can neglect children. If our communities are not responsive to the needs of families and their children, this neglect can develop into school violence. After-school and summer programs are not always available. A child who starts acting violently will often do so during periods of unstructured and unsupervised time. Juvenile-justice statistics show that, lacking after-school supervision, youth violence rises to above average rates between 3 and 7 p.m. School violence has also been linked to the transformation of communities. Constantly shifting school demographics often reflect larger upheavals as communities undergo changes in size, economic well-being, and racial and ethnic mix.

 School violence is complicated and determined by many factors. This does not mean that school should do nothing, nor does it mean that schools should do everything. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. A wide variety of violence preventing programs and methods have been developed. All of them have their advantages and disadvantages. Experts from a range of organizations and disciplines (the American Psycho-logical Association, Commission on Youth Violence, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,  U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Juvenile Justice, Constitutional Rights Foundation, National Center for Education Statistics, School Crisis Response Initiative, National School Safety Center, the Institute for Violence and Destructive Behavior, in addition to the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service which have also recently turned its attention to the issue of school violence) use a variety of perspectives, notably those of public health, criminology, ecology, and developmental psychology, to review the latest research on the causes of youth violence. (for example, in his book Irvin Sam Schonfeld briefly examines five model types that bear on the occurrence of school violence. Models include ecological-contextual, strain, control, social learning and social cognitive models (i.e. ecological-contextual, strain, control theory,  Bandura’s social learning theory, Akers’s social learning theory, Paterrson’s social international model, Dogde’s social cognition model) and gives detailed recommendations on its prevention.)

Striving for solutions they examine the nation's schools and communities and school-based interventions that have prevented or reduced violence. They describe and evaluate strategies for the prevention and treatment of violence that go beyond punishment and incarceration. Violence in American schools offers a new strategy for the problem of youth violence, arguing that the most effective interventions use a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach. This approach takes into account differences in stages of individual development and involvement in overlapping social contexts, families, peer groups, schools, and neighborhoods .

There is great variation in the types of programs instituted at different schools. Unfortunately, evaluation of these programs has been slim. It is impossible to state with conviction which types of violence prevention programs or intervention strategies reviewed are the most effective. The ideal violence preventing program will likely be different for each school.