How can we prevent the school violence?
One of the South Korean drama series produced by Netflix has become a hit. It is the talk of the town among Korean art lovers. The drama, titled The Glory, focuses on the school violence committed by Park Yeon-jin and her gang of friends against Moon Dong-eun. The drama is based on a true story of victims of bullying in one of the schools in South Korea. When interviewed, the victim, a 31-year-old woman, claimed to have been so traumatised that many scars were found on her body. Unfortunately, her case of bullying only came to light when she graduated because her teacher found burn marks on her arms from being burned with a hair straightener. This shows that cases of violence in schools still occur, but cannot be detected more quickly.
However, what is actually school violence?
In fact, school violence is any violence that occurs in the school environment. According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, it is then broadened to include any youth violence that happens on the way to or from school or any school-sponsored event, and/or during the school-sponsored event. It includes various behaviors such as bullying, pushing and shoving that result in emotional and physical harm.
What are the types of school violence?
There are so many forms of school violence. These forms include:
- Physical violence: It is violence which includes any form of physical aggression, using weapons and also acts like stealing or arson.
- Psychological violence: It includes any emotional and verbal abuse. It can take the form of insulting, threatening, ignoring, isolating, rejecting, verbally abusing, humiliating, ridiculing, spreading rumors, lying or punishing another person.
- Sexual violence: All violence related to sexual harassment, sexual intimidation, unwanted touching, sexual coercion and rape is categorized as sexual violence.
- Bullying: It is the most common form of school bullying and is often only discovered after the victims have been through it for a long time. It can take physical, psychological or sexual forms and can be repeated and intended.
- Cyberbullying: It is sexual or psychological abuse on social media or other online platforms. It can take the form of posting false information, hurtful comments, malicious rumors or embarrassing photos or videos online.
How to prevent the school violence?
There are some steps recommended by Dr. Daramus to help prevent school violence, such as:
- Report it to the school
If you find any indication of violence, report it to the school authorities. Some schools offer anonymous reporting to protect the students who report the case from being bullied.
- Tell to the adults
If you witness or experience violence, tell your parents, teachers or other adults you trust. Doing so may not only help the victims, but also prevent other students from being exposed to violence.
- For the school—be care to your students
There are many reasons for being bullied. It can be a feeling of “showing off how powerful I am” or “being neglected all the time” and others. School counsellors need to take care of this by providing a day of sharing so that students can feel comfortable talking about their feelings and have someone listen to them.