Being Bullied in School Can Affect Your Grades
by Ron Kurtus (updated 28 February 2022)
Being bullied in or after school can be very distressing. It can make your school experience unpleasant and can even affect your grades. Some students who are bullied don't even want to go to school, while others become depressed or lose their self-esteem and can't concentrate on their homework.
There are three types of bullies you may run into at school. One type is a physical bully, who picks on you and pushes you around. Another type is a verbal bully, who calls you names and insults you. The third type is a cyberbully. This person spreads rumors and says nasty things about you, primarily through the social media, such as Facebook.
In trying to stifle a bully, the first thing to do is to know what type of bully you are dealing with. This will help you provide a strategy to effectively deal with the problem. Also, many schools now have programs to stop bullying.
Questions you may have include:
- What is a physical bully?
- What is a verbal bully?
- What is a cyberbully?
This lesson will answer those questions.
A physical bully picks on other students who are physically weaker or less able to fight back. The bully feels it is fun to pick on someone.
Two extremes of such bullies
Often this type of bully is in some competitive group, such as a sports team at school. Since the student is not all that good at the activity, bullying others is a way to feel like a "big shot" to his or her friends.
On the other end of the spectrum are kids who are involved in gangs. Bullying weaker students is a way they can prove they are "gangstas" to their friends.
Can affect your grades
Being physically bullied often can make you fearful of going to school or being around these people. Some kids even hate going to school because of the bullies.
The worry and trauma of being pushed around can affect you both in class and at home. It can affect your grades. And this is something you don't want to happen.
Try to solve problem
If you are being physically bullied, there are a some things you can do to try to solve the problem:
It usually isn't a good idea to report that someone has been physically bullying you, because then you are considered a "snitch" and may get bullied even more by others.
Avoiding the bully can sometimes be effective. This is especially true if the bully is in a gang. However, you don't want to spend you school hours hiding. At the very least, avoid eye contact with these bullies and try to ignore them.
With some bullies, you can try a tactic of befriending the person. Say "Hi" to him or her and perhaps ask about some common interest. It might be worth a try.
The big thing is not to let the hassles affect you or your grades.
A verbal bully is someone who will insult you or call you names.
Often students kid around with each other, teasing or expressing put-downs. However, when the teasing becomes repeated mean-spirited insults, it can hurt.
Says you don't belong
Most students want to feel they belong and fit in with the other kids. A verbal bully will tell you that you don't belong because you are too fat, too ugly, the wrong color, the wrong religion, a geek, a nerd, a fag, or whatever insult they can throw at you.
Insults and verbal bullying are a way for the person to build himself or herself up at your expense.
Words can make you depressed
Feeling there is something wrong with you or that you don't meet the standards can make you feel depressed and unhappy. It can then affect your schoolwork and grades.
However, if you have some friends who will support you, you can rebound.
Try to solve problem
If you are being verbally bullied, you can do to try to solve the problem by completely ignoring the person or even telling the bully to mind his or her own business.
Realizing the person is just mean-spirited and not too bright can help you ignore the taunts. You don't want to show you are affected. Instead, be yourself and be proud of it.
The cyberbully posts insulting remarks on Facebook or other places. They spread rumors about someone they don't like. Some cyberbullies harass other kids through instant messaging, e-mail, and any other electronic means. Although you can delete messages, they still can hurt.
It can affect you
Not only do you feel bad about having such things posted about you, knowing that others at school have seen these things and may believe them can make you not want to go to school.
The problem with rumors is that you often don't even know about them until it is too late. What is worse is when they are on Facebook or MySpace. The whole world is shown lies about you or indiscrete pictures. Plus, you may not even know who is spreading the lies about you.
It can affect you in school, because you may be embarrassed to show up because of things said about your online.
What you can do
The big thing is that cyberbullying is against the law. You should report cases of cyberbullying to your parents and the school—especially, if you know who is doing it.
Other ideas concerning cyberbullying include:
Don’t be involved or support mean material, gossip, or rumors posted online. Don't even talk about it at school.
You need to be careful about pictures of yourself that you or others take. You don't want indiscrete pictures of you posted online.
Print out evidence of cyberbullying to share with an adult. No one is invisible online. Anything posted can be traced back to the sender.
Although cyberbullying is a big problem, don't let it get in the way of getting good grades in school.
Some nasty students may submit you to physical, verbal or cyber-bullying. Physical bullying is when someone picks on you or pushes you around. Verbal bullying is when a person repeatedly insults you or calls you names. Cyberbullying is when someone spreads rumors about you through Facebook or similar website.
Try to deal with the problem the best you can, getting parents and school officials involved, if it could help. Meanwhile, don't let the problem get you down so that it affects your schoolwork.
Don't let the idiots get you down
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Being Bullied in School Can Affect Your Grades