Why do schools ignore bullying? If you suffer constant bullying at school everyday, you’ve probably asked yourself this question many times. As someone with firsthand experience, I’m giving you the most common reasons every target of bullying should be aware of.
It’s bad enough when you’re a kid in school and bullies use you for target practice. However, when the school continues to ignore it, even when you report it, it only makes things exponentially worse.
If you’re like I was, you’re probably desperately searching for answers. As someone who has experienced this firsthand, I’m giving you the most common reasons why schools ignore bullying
In this post you will learn the seven most common answers to the question, “Why do schools ignore bullying?”
Once you learn these popular reasons, it will relieve any confusion and you will be able to address the situation more appropriately.
This post gives you the answers to the question on the minds of every bullying victim, “Why do schools ignore bullying?” These are the answers that every target should know.
why do schools ignore bullying?
All too often, schools ignore reports of bullying and leave targets to fend for themselves. Moreover, this happens much more than we know.
School staff ignore you when you report your bullies to them. Maybe they trivialize your experiences or worse, blame you for your bullies’ behavior.
They may ask you what you’re doing to make them mistreat you. As a result, you probably feel victimized twice, once by the bullies and again by those who are supposed to protect you.
But realize that schools tend to sweep incidences of bullying under the rug and sadly, they do this all the time.
Therefore, here are the seven reasons schools do nothing about bullying.
1. They’re lazy.
Conducting an investigation into the case of bullying is extra work. Therefore, most school officials do not want to make any extra effort in resolving a case of bullying.
Often, they take the easy way out by either denying that there’s a problem or blaming you. And when your parents or guardians get involved, the school staff may often label them as “the unhinged mom/dad,” which is only a cop-out.
2. Why Do Schools Ignore Bullying? They’re afraid the bullies’ parents will retaliate.
Bullying is a learned behavior. Consequently, many bullies have parents who are also bullies themselves. Many of these parents are self-entitled.
Also, your bullies may also have powerful political connections in the town or on the school board. Therefore, the school staff know too well that disciplining “the wrong kids” could mean an end to either their jobs or their entire careers.
3. They’re afraid that the school’s reputation may be tarnished.
Schools often hide cases of bullying to save face. In other words, the reputation of the school, sadly, takes priority over your well being.
Therefore, most schools know good and well when a child is bullied. However, they may consider that child a threat and, in worse cases, ostracize the poor kid and tell him/her to “keep your mouth shut” to cover their own behinds.
Moreover, bullied kids also have less power then other kids. So, it’s much easier for the school to not to do anything about the bullying when you report it.
4. Why do schools ignore bullying? They either don’t like you may even hate you.
Sadly, many teachers and school staff either dislike or hate their bullied students. Although these are supposed to be adults who were supposed to protect you, they don’t because of their personal feelings and emotions.
Moreover, when people bully you for a long period of time, they spread many lies and ugly rumors about you to defame you and destroy your reputation. It’s just another unpleasant aspect of bullying.
Teachers, principals, and school officials hear the lies and rumors as well. And they aren’t beyond making judgements based on what they’ve heard.
Additionally, school staff may even join in on negative gossip about you. Understand that although you may be one of the most goodhearted people around, the rumors and lies supersede the truth.
Therefore, in the minds of those at school, you’re “trouble.”
Lies and rumors are powerful and they keep you locked in a prison of scrutiny and suspicion. As a result, you cannot be your true, awesome self due to the stress of being marginalized.
5. they didn’t like the way you responded or reacted to the bullying you suffered.
In other words, because of having been bullied for so long, you may have reacted out of self-defense and exhaustion. You were so tired because bullies harassed you for so long that you really couldn’t help but to react.
Your bullies slyly used the reaction as further proof that you’re either trouble or you have a mental imbalance. Therefore, teachers and staff may think the worst of you.
Moreover, they may also think that because everyone else hates you, there must be a reason that justifies it. And so, they believe you deserve what is happening to you.
Consequently, when a teacher does not like you, they may either refuse to help you or secretly take pleasure in seeing you suffer. Realize that teachers and school staff are just as capable as the classroom bullies of hating and hurting students they deem undesirable.
6. Why Do Schools Ignore bullying? The bullies are athletes or cheerleaders
Understand that these kids make the school look good. Star athletes on sports teams win games and help the school team reach the playoffs. This only further bolsters the school’s image. The same thing goes for cheerleaders.
They enter regional and state cheer competitions and if they win, the schools’ reputation goes up. Therefore, the cheerleaders appeal to the self-interest of the school and school district.
7. The bullies excel in studies and are candidates for college.
Again, these bullies make the school look good. Schools desire to crank out graduates that are high achievers and go on to college. The more college-bound students they have, the better the schools look and the more parents will want to send their kids to the school.
Moreover, the more students a school has, the more funding they get from the government. Therefore, these schools aren’t going to do anything to mess this up.
Why Do schools ignore bullying?
What parents can do
This is why parents must stay proactive in protecting and advocating for their child even when it seems that the school isn’t listening.
Let them know that you will not go away until the problem is solved. Go to the media if you have to.
Therefore, gather your own evidence. Get a journal and have your child document each incidence of bullying, using the 5W method. And, depending on the laws in your state, you can have your child wear a hidden body camera or hide an audio recording device on them to get evidence of bullying.
Moreover, you must save any email correspondence with the school and save it on three different flash drives. Then hide them in different locations to keep the evidence safe.
Be there for your child. Assure your child that his/her reputation does not equal character and that the bullies have the issues.
Know there will come a time when your child will escape their tormentors and have true friends who love them for them. Constantly tell them that they are worthy of having friends and being loved.
You might just keep your child’s self-esteem from completely tanking and even save his/her life!
What you can do if you’re the victim of school bullying
When schools do nothing about bullying, it’s up to you to protect yourself.
Document each incidence of bullying when you get home from school. Do this while the incidents are still fresh in your mind.
I can’t stress this enough. Keep your documents at home. Never take them to school because bullies are nosy and they will rummage through your stuff when your back is turned. The last thing you want is for them to find your documentation.
Wear a hidden body camera or hide an audio recording device on you. However, be sure you know what the laws in your state allow before you do this.
If you live in a one-party consent state, cameras and recording devices are legal and you can use them. On the other hand, if you live in a two-party consent state, you must have the permission of the people you record before you can use them.
Therefore, it’s important to know the laws before you carry this out.
Another way you can gather proof is to screenshot and save any incendiary messages and comments on your social media pages. Moreover, save any bullying emails, and test messages.
The more proof of bullying you collect, the stronger case you’ll have if you must take it to the school board or to court.
This post is all about the question, “Why do schools ignore bullying?” so that you can have the answers you’ve been looking for and be better able to decide what your recourse should be.
Related posts you’ll enjoy:
1. How to Stop a Bully from Bullying You: 7 Powerful Strategies
2. Important Facts About Bullying: 3 Truths You Must Learn
3. Setting Boundaries: 3 Powerful Practices to Hold Your Ground
4. Know Your Enemy: 7 Reasons to Gather Intel on Your Bullies
First of all, I’m not making excuses for teachers but teachers are often times overworked and my innocently forget to deal with complaints of bullying. Therefore, it’s up to the target to keep reminding the teacher. You’re spot on about athletes, too many high schools in America do push sports over learning and treat the jocks as mollycoddled gods and therefore ignore any wrongdoing by them. Your advice is also the right thing to do, I wish I had recording devices back in the day .
I completely understand, most teachers are good people who love children. And teachers today have so much on their shoulders because when kids fail, people want to blame the teacher for it. That’s not right. However, there are a few bully teachers and many times they bully not only some of the students but the good teachers too.
I know all about it. Some people wrongly thought that I went into teaching to get back at the bullies, I never thought of that. I really wanted to help children.
Wow! That’s ridiculous. Who would go into teacher for that reason. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. Did some of your old bullies say that nonsense?
I think part of the problem is schools either aren’t equipped or don’t really want to do anything about it. Most anti-bullying policies are a joke. They are often created by school boards and students know teachers are often powerless. These days a kid might have to stay after school or a day of detention. Big deal. Many kids see detention as a free day. Then you have parents who will defend their child no matter what and some even think bullying is a “rite of passage.”
I especially think Middle School may be the hardest. At that time, puberty sets in and division begins to occur. You see the races hang out with one another less and less. You see some people going through physical changes while some kids are late bloomers and all that can be traumatizing and and if a kid becomes “popular” they tend to determine who the “cool kids” are and who the outsiders are. And it can be tough when people are changing physically. The late bloomer often gets bullied because maybe they can’t grow a little moustache if they are a guy or their breasts haven’t developed yet if they are a girl. And many times anyone who doesn’t look like a supermodel at that time despite being average to even good looking gets deemed unattractive. Even though those views often change over the time, many kids still feel the pain and many endure in high school as well. Often times a person looks their best and starts changing around and through college age because they have fully grown into their bodies but the years of torment destroy their self-esteem and they never get past it.
And yes there are those adults who never outgrow high school as well and will forever be bullies.
True that, Scott. Anti-bullying policies aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on because they’re not enforced. You can create policies all day long but if they don’t have any teeth, you might as well not have any at all. And you’re right about middle school as well. Those years are the hardest and because of puberty and hormones, bullying is rife during those years. Your first line of defense against bullying is confidence and if you can manager to hold on to it, you’ll be okay. Sadly, many have their confidence crushed and as you say, they never get past it.
All I got from staff when reporting bullying was “YOU ASKED FOR IT”. I even got detention for accusing a boy of attempted-rape (11th grade), in-school suspension for standing up to a kid who cut ahead of me and groped me (5th grade 1), framed for everything that happened to me by the very perps who bullied me.
Anyone remember Diego Stoltz’s horrific story of bullying from 5 years ago? https://www.foxla.com/news/moreno-valley-student-13-dies-from-injuries-sustained-during-fight-at-middle-school
My heart goes out to you, Sara. I got blamed for a lot of the bullying at my school too. No one said a word about the bullying but anytime I stood up to the bullies and told them where they could go, then everyone was outraged all of a sudden. But know that you aren’t alone and there are many people who are stuck in the same scenario. Sending you lots of warm thoughts.
Oops! Meant to add this. I did read about Diego Stoltz a few years ago and even saw it on the news. It struck fear into me because I suddenly realized that this could’ve happened to me years ago. I pray for the loved ones he left behind and that they get justice.