Sophie Gakis

Bullying
January, 2016

This is a picture of the dictionary definition of bullying.

Table Of Contents1. Introduction

2. What is bullying
3. How You Can Help
4. My Activist
5. Statistics
6. Someone's Story
7. Conclusion
8. Works Cited

IntroductionDid you know that 90% of students in grades 4-8 have reported being the victim of bullying?
Bullying is something that greatly affects children all over the world. To address this issue I
will explain what bullying is, how you can help prevent it, and also be profiling an activist
who is working to solve this issue. At the end of my article I will also share with you some
statistics and someone's cyber bullying story. This article will reveal some shocking things
and hopefully drive you to try and make a change in this issue.

This is a picture that shows the 6 types of bullying that can occur.

What is Bullying?
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. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors,
attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on
purpose. (Stopbullying.gov)Children all over the world suffer bullying constantly. They feel
as though they can never escape. There are many types of bullying that can occur. For
example Cyberbullying is the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically
by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature. (Stopbullying.gov) There is
also physical bullying, Physical bullying occurs when a person uses overt bodily acts to gain
power over peers. Physical bullying can include kicking, punching, hitting or other physical
attacks. (Stopbullying.gov.)There are also many other types of bullying that are listed in
the picture above.

Here is a wordle diagram of

some of the words
associated with bullying.

How you can helpBullying- (

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.
) is a partially preventable thing and you can help make sure that

you are not a bully to anyone, or bullied by anyone in many ways. Let's start with things you
can do to make sure your not a bully to others. For starters you should always treat
everybody with respect no matter who they are, because
Nobody should be mean to

others
. (
What You Can Do
) First you can do this by stopping and thinking about what you
are going to say before you say it so that you can avoid hurting someone's feelings.

Something you can also do is if you feel angry at someone or mad instead of taking it out on
them do something else to occupy your time like, watch TV, play a videogame, or read a
book. In addition, if you feel like you are struggling with being kind to people you can talk to
a trusted adult who may be able to help. Another thing that you could do to help you have a
more positive mindset on people is to realize that everyone is different, no one is better or
worse than another, just different. Finally something that you can do to prevent being a
bully is if you think you have bullied someone in the past you should apologize to them.
Now here are some things that you can do to help others and yourself if you are bullied.
First, if you are in face to face contact with your bully you should look them dead in the eyes
and tell them to stop with a firm, strong voice. You can also just walk away and never come
back. Ignore it for good. Also telling a trusted adult and asking for help is a good idea too.
The final thing that you can do to help if you or someone else is bullied is too stay away
from the kids, or areas where bullying most occurs, and stay near adults and surround
yourself with people who care about you.

This is an inspirational picture of standing up and

speaking out.

My activistThe activist I chose is Viraj Puri. He has designed a real time app to track cyber bullying- (
the
use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an
intimidating or threatening nature
). This app will track key words of bullying and show
where bullying most happens in the USA,
Our goal is not only to predict the likelihood of
the next bullying occurrence but see where its happening geographically.
(Puri). This app
will track all of the key social media sites, and help prevent and predict bullying online. Puri
also runs an online blog called bullyvention and has worked with congress as well as Dr.
Xiaojin on this app. Puri thinks that
This will put more focus on quality of life and get
lawmakers to address this very important issue. (Puri). Viraj has really done a great job of
seeing something that he knows is not right and doing
something about it and that's why I chose him for my teen
activist.

This is a picture of viraj puri

once he has grown up and
become and adult.

StatisticsBullying is a topic in which many statistics follow. So here I thought I'd introduce you to
some of the most shocking. Cyberbullying in males and females is similar in several ways.
They both cause the same amount of stress, anger, sadness and frustration. They also harm
the victim equally and should both have a serious punishment to follow. They also differ in
several ways. One difference is that 23.7% of females were the target of bullying in 2013,
but a smaller 19.5% of males were bullied in 2013 as well. By comparison female students
are most likely to be the victim of cyber, or verbal bullying, whereas males are more likely to
be the target of physical bullying. Another difference is that in 2013 8.6% of females were
cyberbullied, and again a smaller 5.2% of males were cyberbullied. In 2015,
1 out of 4 teens
are Bullied
. ( The issue of bullying). That's nearly 25% of students. Did you also know that
out of all bullied children, only 36% actually report the bullying. That means that over half
of these kids are bullied without anyone knowing. A final and shocking statistic is that 55%
of bullying was because of looks, and 37% was due to body shape, and another 16% was
because of race.

Here is a pie
graph showing
the types of
bullying that
have been
reported.

Someone's storyFrancie Diep is a 30 year old woman that has just recently, at the age of 29, confronted her
cyberbully from over 13 years ago. Frankie's cyberbully was one of her best friends, who
had access to all of her account passwords, and usernames.This friend would do things like
deleting all of Francies emails and leaving only cruel ones, and would leave calendar
reminders on her phone reminding her to kill herself. Diep, finally got in touch with her
bully 13 years after these incidents and after being bullied through email for 3 whole years.
Francie was just 13 when this all began.
I told few people about this and never any teachers
or parents.
(Diep) This is what many kids do, and it gets them into even more trouble. She
says is still afraid of her bully even today, but through common friends they got in touch
once again. Francie decided it was time to confront her bully, and explain to her all of the
harm she has caused. Francie started off with asking questions about the bullying, and
telling how much stress, anxiety and hyperventilation it had/has caused her. Her bully
denied doing anything of this sort, and said she felt smart while tormenting Francie. Her
bully also through out the possibility of someone else helping her. To this day Francie has
still not forgotten about the terrible things her friend did, and still has not admitted to
almost 13 years later.

Here is a picture of francine grown up after this

experience.

ConclusionUltimately, bullying is something that happens to a lot of people, especially teens all over
the world. It is completely wrong and horrible thing that should never happen to anyone.
People should try there hardest to take action and help others who are going through this
in the best way that they can. Whether it be by telling someone about it or just letting the
person talk to you about their situation. Personally to take action I would try to tell an adult
about any bullying situation that I am aware of so that the victim may get the help that they
need. Just know that you can help, and definitely should.

An anti bullying sign

showing not to bully.

Works Cited11 Facts About Bullying.

Do Something.

N.D. Web. January 31, 2016.

https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-bullying
What You Can Do.
Stop Bullying.
N.D. Web
.
January 31, 2016.
http://www.stopbullying.gov/kids/what-you-can-do/
13-Year-Old Activist Designs Real-Time App to Track Cyberbullies. R
YOT.
2013. Web.
February 1st, 2016.
http://www.ryot.org/13-year-old-activist-designs-real-time-app-track-cyberbullies/543837
The Issue of Bullying.
Stomp out Bullying. N
.D. Web. February 1st, 2016.

http://www.stompoutbullying.org/index.php/information-and-resources/about-bullying-an
d-cyberbullying/issue-bullying/
Diep, Francie. Confronting my Cyberbullying 13 years later.
The atlantic. S
eptember 30th,
2014. Web. February 1st, 2016.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/09/confronting-my-cyberbully-thirte
en-years-later/380888/
Definition of Physical Bullying
About parenting.
N.D. Web. February 8th, 2016.
http://tweenparenting.about.com/od/socialdevelopment/a/physical-bullying.htm

https://www.google.com/search?q=bullying&rlz=1CADEAA_enUS614US614&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiK
7-XggcjKAhXDFT4KHV2iC0kQ_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=633&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=YMjQZIV2KTwd5M%3A

https://www.google.com/search?q=bullying+statistics&rlz=1CADEAA_enUS614US614&sour
ce=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQ-rCr2NbKAhVCzz4KHRCzCU8Q_AUIBygB&biw=1
366&bih=633&safe=active&ssui=on#safe=active&tbm=isch&q=bullying+types&imgrc=iHuM
OKhFJi2LKM%3A

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+you+can+help+bullying&rlz=1CADEAA_enUS614U
S614&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiqiaC62dbKAhVIFj4KHXP_A1AQ_AUIBy
gB&biw=1366&bih=633&safe=active&ssui=on#safe=active&tbm=isch&q=viraj+puri&imgrc=
SobhTdSC4ruc8M%3A
https://www.google.com/search?q=bullying+graphs&rlz=1CADEAA_enUS614US614&tbm=is
ch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjY95_B2tbKAhVKVT4KHdlyBFEQsAQIGw&biw
=1366&bih=633&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=QD_yqxt5ULL4XM%3A
https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+bullying&rlz=1CADEAA_enUS614US614&sourc
e=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiq65zY7-rKAhUM4CYKHcGwDnUQ_AUIBygB&biw=1
366&bih=633&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=YTAqp0e96kvnYM%3A
https://www.google.com/search?q=francie+diep+cyberbully&rlz=1CADEAA_enUS614US614
&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8j5Wu8erKAhVKuYMKHQn9AXMQ_AUIByg
B&biw=1366&bih=633&safe=active&ssui=on
https://www.google.com/search?q=bullying&rlz=1CADEAA_enUS614US614&source=lnms&t
bm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZ6des8urKAhUCYyYKHZnIBN4Q_AUIBygB&biw=1366&bih=6
33&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=evwM-cDhz-54CM%3A