School Climate

By: Mimi

Many kids dread going to school because of stress, bullying, and many other reasons. School is looked on as a friendly, safe, and fun environment that kids thrive in, but does anyone actually ask how the kids are feeling?

Bullying is a huge part of school, and the worst part is that kids can’t escape it. They can get bullied at school and right when they get home, their phone subjects them to cyber bullying. There are three main types of bullying that students can or are experiencing:

• Physical: This type of bullying is more likely to be seen in boys and is all about dominance. This aggression involves hitting, kicking, and threatened violence.

• Relational: This bullying is used to bring down self esteem and is mostly used with  girls but sometimes can be seen with boys. It involves manipulation of social standing or reputation and is the most prevalent form of aggression and bullying.

• Cyber: Cyber bullying involves the use of electronics to degrade or bring down others. The perpetrators are harder to identify with this bullying because of screen names and can be quickly and impulsively be spread to larger audiences, and most of the time there will always be remaining evidence no matter how hard you try to erase it.

Bullying in Schools this website describes what goes on inside schools and gets more in depth about bullying.

Allergies: 

Allergies can cause a big problem in schools. Creating a whole separate table for peanut allergies, checking in Family Consumer Science if anyone is allergic to the food they are about to work with. Still schools manage to not fully think about how kids with allergies feel. 

Kids don’t want to sit at a table all alone just because they have an allergy. This subjects them to bullying and just because of these little reasons they open themselves to having an allergic reaction. Many kids have had some sort of reaction at school. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did research and found out the following:

• In a classroom of 25 students, at least one student is likely to be affected by food allergies.
• The number of people with food allergies are increasing
• About 20% of students with food allergies (1 of 5) will have a reaction while at school.
• 1 of 4 students who have a severe and potentially life-threatening reaction at school have no previous known food allergy.

Allergies at Schools this article talks more about managing allergies at school and how the schools can fix the problem.

Stress and Anxiety:

Stress is always going to be present in someone’s life. Whether it be everyday or once a week, but schools can still reduce or limit the amount of stress students have. Here are some things that make students anxious or stressed:

• Homework 
• Busy schedules
• Peer Pressure
• Image concerns 
• Financial worries/ Clothing choice

Teachers have a huge part of stress involved with students’ lives. They have control of the things they put in their classroom and what the class will do that day. They should put an arrangement of seating choices in the classroom for kids who have a difficult time sitting still. Also teachers should limit the amount of yelling in their classroom because some kids have a challenging home life and they should not feel like everywhere they go they are unwelcomed. They should also include many activities throughout the school week so kids can have something to look forward to for the week or everyday. Teachers should also be careful with homework, after a six hour school day kids should feel like they can go home and relax. Kids shouldn’t go home and have to do homework and then go to an extracurricular activity, they should have some downtime.

In this article About School Stress you will find more information about what stress feels like and how School Districts can help.

School Climate’s are very important for the students mental health and the overall experience of school. I hope this gave you some more information about how schools work and how you can help it!