Have you ever had your child come home teary-eyed, pink-faced, or black-eyed? If you have, you've probably felt anger at seeing your child suffer the effects of bullying, imagining them helpless to counter the bully.
For them, the thought is shameful, and your child may even hide glaring symptoms from you until it's almost too late, and the child has completely withdrawn into their shell.
Bullying isn't something to condone - it’s something to fight back at with the strong arm of the law. And the Law Office of Neubia L. Harris is dedicated to protecting the rights of minors in North Carolina.
Kinds of bullying
The state defines bullying as “any pattern of gestures or written, electronic, or verbal communications, or any physical act or any threatening communication, that takes place on school property, at any school-sponsored function, or on a school bus...”
So, bullying can involve any of the following activities:
Creating a hostile environment for a child by considerably interfering with the child’s benefits or educational performance
Acts of hate and discrimination spurred by perceieved differentiating attributes like skin color and gender.
Spreading false rumors to the psychological detriment of the victim
Acts of violence and vandalism
How do you know that your child is being bullied?
Stories of bullying are more common than they should be today, especially in schools. More recently, workplaces have come under scrutiny for hosting bullies that make life difficult for their coworkers and underlings.
The effects of bullying go beyond the random sniffle here and shed tears there. They often stay with the victims (and perpetrators) over the years, impacting their personal lives.
The physical and verbal abuse lingers, making victims more prone to thinking thoughts of suicide, and feeling lonely, anxious, and depressed.
As a parent, it might take a long while for you to find the signs of bullying, as the act thrives on the creation of a demeaning sense of shame. This results in the inability of the victims to expose the act early to wiser seniors to act. So, the bullying often goes on for long before discovery.
Nevertheless, there are signs that you should look out for as tell-tale evidence that your child or ward is being bullied. Here are some of them:
Missing and torn items of clothing
A reluctance or even fear of attending classes at school
A sudden, withdrawn quiet and solitude unbecoming of the child’s regular carefree attitude
A sharp downturn in academic fortunes
Truancy
What can you do about bullying?
Bullying is a serious crime in North Carolina, and there are laws explicitly condemning it. In fact, a 2012 constitutional amendment extended the legal context to include cyberbullying.
This is one of the kinds of bullying that goes under the radar the most.
However, the crime continues unabated, even in the face of school crackdowns with anti-bullying movements, conventions, special programs, and policies.
That’s why you need Neubia Harris to get things done correctly and stop your child from getting bullied. Put an end to bullying today.