Written Campaign Proposal: Bullying

Introduction

The campaign proposal is meant to talk about the issue of bullying in childhood. This action is a growing factor among the youths and becomes worse when they grow up. Bullying does have a negative effect on the development (cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development) of a child. Besides, it also adversely affects the self-esteem of a child. American Psychological Association outlines "Bullying is a type of an aggressive behavior where a person repeatedly and intentionally causes discomfort or injury to another person. Bullying can assume the form of words, physical contact or other activities" (Bullying, n.d.). It is my aim to create awareness of various effects and causes of bullying that is taking place in our community and schools. Additionally, the proposal would highlight the various ways to battle and prevent bullying to aid in making our community and schools conducive to the children.

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Proposal Information

Bullying is taking place in all environments such as homes, schools, work, and churches. Some people assume that bullying is an incidence that occurs in high schools or middle schools, but it occurs in children at a younger stage and even adults are being bullied at their workstations. Therefore, nobody is immune to bullying. People are being bullied through text messages, online, and face to face. According to National Center for Education Statistics (2016), the researchers reported that 20.8% of learners have reported cases of bullying in 2015 indicating that one out of five students is being bullied. The physical and emotional stress of this action has a lasting and harmful impact on the life of a person.

The most common forms of bullying that people witness are the verbal bullying such as teasing and name calling meant to make the abuser popular. The other forms of bullying are sexual harassment, threats, isolation, physical altercations, spreading rumors, and emotional threats. According to Davis & Nixon (2010), the other instances that people have reported various forms of bullying are body shape 37%, look appearance 55%, and race 16%.

Cyberbullying has also become a current trend in the society due to the continuous use of social media. It involves verbal aggression such as harassing and threatening through the application of electronic communication. Another method is the relational aggression such as spreading of rumors through an electronic means. Cyberbullying can also include the damage of property caused by the electronic attacks that lead to the destruction, damage, dissemination, and modification of the private information that was electronically stored (Facts About Bullying, n.d.). According to George & Odgers (2015), the authors stated that 90% of the youths have access to an electronic device. However, this information does not came as a surprise that 15.5% and 24% of high school and middle school students have reported these cases of being electronically bullied (Trends in the Prevalence of Behaviors that Contribute to Violence, n.d.), and LGTB students composed of 55.2% (Kosciw et al., 2012). According to Patchin (2016), the cases of cyberbullying in adults increased from 18% to 34% from 2007 to 2016.

Besides, it is essential to create awareness about bullying because we are required to save our children and inform them and their parents on how bullying can be prevented. There is a strong relationship between the victims of bullying and the ones who commit suicide. Concerning the data from the CDC, suicide has led to the deaths of 4400 youths per year making it the third most causes of deaths among the youths. A person who has been a victim of bullying more than one occasion is more prone to commit suicide compared to other people who have not been bullied. According to Bullying & Suicide (n.d.), other statistics outline that girls between the ages of 10-14 years are at risk to commit suicide due to bullying. This incidence really needs to be tackled and its prevention is essential. Hence, all children require a life without any form of fear.

It is essential to create awareness regarding this issue, particularly to the young children. The issues of bullying begin with children who are young these days; therefore, the Kindergarten and Preschool children are facing this situation. The reason is that children who fall within these age groups are still developing their emotional and social skills. Besides, they are currently getting acquainted with the importance of interacting and sharing with their age mates through creating a proper relationship with their surroundings. This is also the age where children begin to regulate their emotions and learn how to take control of their actions and come up with self-concepts and moral code. According to Groack et al (2014), this century of childhood come up with different and new challenges in the children behaviors, identify their newfound independence, and advanced cognitive and physical skills and complex relationships among their peers. Children do feel the pressure of being accepted. This is the reason why it is essential to create awareness of this issue along with enlightening the community about its preventions.

Campaign Purpose

Bullying has always been existence according to the research conducted by Hyojin Koo; he presented documents associated with people being bullied in mid 1800. While investigating bullying, the researchers found that bullying has been considered as a normal practice or crime in different places and time. According to Koo (2007), bullying incident was first reported in 1862 after a soldier died after a bullying incident.

Bullying has an effect on the personal life of a person such as a victim, the witnesses, and the perpetrator of bullying. Besides, bullying has caused cultural, biological, and environmental effects on the development of a child. The environmental effects of bullying can convince a child to be a bully. These examples are outlined through watching violence on TV, movies, video gaming, and domestic violence. When these incidences affect our young lives at home it also affects our relationship with our surroundings. When we witness people we depend on a bully, then we copy this action. The biological impacts of bullying are that this practice can impact the self-esteem of an individual as well as cause anxiety and depression. Children also have high chances of developing issues of mental health facilitated by being bullied.

The mission of this campaign is to inform the public about the negative effects of bullying that can enable a student to identify the various forms of bullying and ways of fighting them. The anti-bullying campaign can also involve the community such as teachers, parents, and students who are members of the community. Besides, the community always plays a significant role in raising a child. Bullying can have long-lasting consequences on a person's cognitive, socio-emotional, and physical development. The physical impacts of bullying may lead to the increase and decrease in appetite, becoming lonely, bed wetting, sleeping problems, and headaches. The socio-emotional impacts of bullying are that it can make a child become shy, antisocial, closed off, introvert, timid, and not willing to make new friends. Bullying can have a negative impact in the social development of a child that can minimize the ability of a child to relate with others.

Lastly, bullying can have negative effects on the cognitive development of a child. According to the research known as Brain Facts, the study identified that bullying affects the cognitive development of a child. It can lead to the long-term alteration of the brain leading to emotional and cognitive deficits of the child (Bullying and the Brain, 2015). Bullying causes stress and anxiety that impacts to the brain development of a child and can lead to issues in behavior, effects on the immune system, and led to depression, anxiety, and drug abuse in adulthood. According to Bullying and the Brain (2015), those who fall, victims of bullying, do develop to be bullied.

Everybody is directly or indirectly affected by the issue of bullying. The members of a community, business owners, educators, and parents all need to join hands in stopping this activity. Our children are required to feel protected and safe in school, home, and in the community at large. We need to create awareness about bullying and inform people to report any form of bullying to the concerned authorities where actions will be taken to the perpetrators. We are required to let our children feel free and always speak against bullying in their surroundings. Children spend most of their time in schools; therefore, schools need to be free from bullying. Educators are required to join hands and investigate any form of bullying that may take place in schools. The community and the government need to enact policies that would stop bullying and rehabilitate the victims of these actions.

Parents play a significant role in child development and should always act as role models to the children and speak to them about bullying. Parents are required to teach their children about the negative effects of bullying and encourage them to speak up when they face these problems. According to Facts about Bullying (n.d.), children do not want to speak up the issues related to bullying with their parents because they are afraid of their parents. Additionally, bullying can only stop when everyone is informed about its consequences and take action toward stopping bullying. Bullying is our problem; therefore, we should not wait for someone from Pluto or Mars to came and stop this issue.

It is significant that we include our children in this campaign for appropriate actions to be implemented. We should outline the importance of our children and try to make the world a better place for them. Adults always became spectators watching their children killing themselves with words without doing anything. The tongue is a small organ in the body but can make mountains move. Besides, we are required to save our children from committing suicides, drug abuse, anxiety, depression, self-harm, becoming bullies, and low self-esteem.

Implementation Plan

First of all, this campaign will kick off in our schools. We as parents, we are required to implement this campaign in our homes. The reason is that this is the place where the learning process of a child begins and parents to nurture their children in social-emotional and self-help development. The environment of the school is also as essential as home. The reason is that children are required to feel safe at school. Schools should implement a policy of a 'BULLY FREE ZONE', where they administration have zero tolerance for this incidence. We will require all staff members, teachers, students, and volunteers to implement this strategy to keep the school safe for our children. This action will enable the children to have both cognitive and physical development.

The long-term impact of this campaign is to reduce the cases of bullying as the time progresses. It will be essential to continue to create awareness about this action, continue to enlighten ourselves, the teachers, parents, and community members on the way of stopping bullying. Schools are supposed to hold assemblies to educate the students and also expose the perpetrators of bullying. Besides, the teachers are supposed to keep track and monitor the children concerning and how they can prevent and stop bullying.

This awareness needs to carry out a random study on the members of the community, staff, teachers, parents, and students to determine the effectiveness of this campaign. As always the administrators are required to keep an open line of communication as well as the policy of open-door that ena...