Article Critique on bullying in the classroom
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Bullying in the classroom
The article being reviewed is by Simon Mallory, about an eleven year old boy, who committed suicide, after being bullied at school. Jaheem committed suicide in the year 2009, on the 16th day of April. On the day he died, he did want to neither attend school nor eat. He attended school at Georgia, in an elementary school known as Dunaire. He was extremely outgoing and on that day, came happy, from school. He gave his mother Bermudez a report card and the results showed that he had passed. This was a happy occasion and later on, he went to his room, while the mother made dinner. Later, he was called to eat, but there was no response from him. Jaheem’s mother and sister went to his room only to find out that he had committed suicide. He hanged himself using his belt (Mallory, 2009).
The reason for committing suicide was that he was being bullied at school. The bullies used to call him names such as virgin, ugly and gay. Jaheem had told his mother about the issue, which seemed to affect him greatly. It seems that the bullying had become extreme to the point whereby, the only solution was to end his life (Mallory, 2009). At some point, he had decided that his mother should not become involved in this matter. The number of complaints by him had reached up to eight times. Despite all this attempts, nothing much was done, as he ended up committing suicide.
Jaheem wanted to make friends, as well as acquire an education, but his shyness seemed to be an obstacle in his life. He liked having fun, dancing as well as making friends. It seemed that he attracted the attention of bullies, due to his traits as well as personality. Nothing was done to the bullies to stop them (Mallory, 2009). There was no one who did anything beneficial to save Jaheem. Jaheem believed that he was alone in this problem, thus the reason to end his life. This shows that bullying in classroom is an issue, which needs to be solved, as the consequences are detrimental.
After the death of Jaheem, the issue on bullying became vital to the school board. They wanted to ensure that the students in the school were in an environment, which is nurtured. Also, they ensured that a safe environment for the students existed (Mallory, 2009). This meant that bullying would not be condoned. Death was the only solution to his problem of bullying according to the best friend. It is extremely unfortunate how bullying can cause the death of a young boy such as Jaheem. This means that children are being affected by bullying when they are in school. They suffer and nothing is being done to make sure that this issue is eliminated.
Learning is usually disrupted by bullying, as the students are not able to focus. Schools should come with programs, which reduce bullying .This will in turn ensure that the bullies attitudes as well as behaviors are changed to become positive (Mallory, 2009). The program also seeks to ensure that teachers intervene in cases of bullying and also, reduce behaviors which are anti-social. Strategies should be enforced to ensure that children are not being bullied while at school. If such strategies had existed at Jaheem’s school, he would be alive.
Reference
Mallory, Simon. (2009). My bullied son’s last day on Earth. CNN U.S. Retrieved from. http://articles.cnn.com/2009-04-23/us/bullying.suicide_1_bullies-gay-tired/2?_s=PM:US
