October has passed, and while you may be focused on Halloween, it’s important to remember that it was also Bullying Awareness Month. Bullying can come in different forms such as in-person, and cyberbullying. It can create various negative effects for victims, bullies, and even bystanders.
The word “bullying” is commonly misused. Most people use it to describe after they get picked on maybe once or twice, but that’s incorrect. According to stopbullying.gov, bullying behaviors happen more than once or have the potential to do so. “Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school-aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time.
In today’s society, cyberbullying is a very common type of bullying. Due to advances in technology, it’s now a bigger threat than in-person bullying. A lot of people don’t like bullying face to face with their victims, so they do it online. The bully usually wouldn’t usually say the things they say to a victim in real life. Their mindset is usually “they don’t know me so they can’t really do anything about it”. Which is wrong because most of the time you can find out who the person is. Whether bullying is online or in-person, it still seriously affects the victim.
There are three roles in bullying: victim, bully, and bystander. All can be affected by bullying. First, victims can experience a decline in physical, social, emotional, academic, and mental health. Next, the bullies themselves. Studies show that kids who bully others can engage in violent and risky behaviors such as alcohol and drug abuse, abusive behaviors towards loved ones, have criminal convictions, and more. While it may seem unlikely, bystanders go through it too. Kids who witness bullying are more likely to have increased use of drugs, mental health problems, and miss school.
In conclusion, bullying is a big deal and can negatively affect people in many ways. It’s important to use the word correctly, and understand the effects of it. Watch the attached video to get more of an inside scoop of what students at HMHS think about bullying.

Source: StopBullying.gov