How Can High Schools Prevent Girls Getting Bullied?

Girls are the main victim of bullying in high schools

According to Pacer, 18% of girls that get bullied have reported it being from rumors and being purposely excluded from activities, while only 9% of boys that get bullied have reported the same thing. This just goes to show the difference in the ways that girls are bullied. Being a girl in high school is already challenging enough. Fitting in is hard and other girls are very judgmental. Due to this, girls get hit the hardest when it comes to bullying. High schools should focus more on solving bullying within the female population rather than the male population.

Pacer also states that out of the population of high school students that report getting bullied, the majority of them are female. Why might this be? One might claim that boys think they are “too tough” to report being bullied”. However, it is just as hard for a girl to report they are being bullied as it is for a boy. Girls are stereotyped as being “too emotional” and “too sensitive” so many girls don’t report their bullying in fear of not being taken seriously. The fact that girls still report it more often than boys is astounding. 

According to Very Well Family, females tend to experience sexual bullying more than males do. Rumors spread like wildfire in highschools and many of these rumors are based on sexual activity in females rather than males. Girls and boys have different stereotypes in highschool. For example, boys are often praised and seem cool if they can get multiple girlfriends while girls are called names and picked on if they have multiple boyfriends. These unfair gender roles result in an increase of the amount of bullying that girls receive. 

Image from psychologs.com picturing a girl crying

What can high schools do?

Clearly, more girls get bullied than boys and with this information, there are a lot of things that high schools can do to stop this. In an article by Parent samurai, it mentions multiple ways for schools to reduce the number of girls that get bullied. For example, organizing social events. One example of this is a “No One Sits Alone” day at lunch. In doing so, this eliminates the amount of girls being left out and focuses on including everyone. This allows for people to make friends and get to know each other better. It can be hard to make new friends in high school but by implementing this activity, everyone can get to know each other. 

Another way that high schools can eliminate bullying is for teachers to get involved. Students spend all day with their teachers and most of the students look up to their teachers. If teachers started to construct positive classrooms that taught to minimize relational aggression, the amount of bullying that occurs in high schools would decrease. According to Parent Samurai, the most common thing that bullies who target girls go after is their relationships. Friendship is all based on popularity status in highschool. If someone is friends with someone who is not considered popular, it makes them seem not popular as well and in turn, more likely to get bullied. 

The Guardian claims that bullying within the male population has decreased because boys are more likely to get bullied physically rather than with words. They said that bullying through use of violence has decreased throughout the years but since 2006, bullying with inclusion and name calling has gone up.

Bullying within the classrooms can be ended with the teachers. A teacher can assign group projects so that students of all different popularity statuses work together. This allows for students to get to know each other better and in turn, decrease the amount of bullying. 

Bullying within friendships

Friendships between girls can be very toxic and unhealthy. Parent Samurai claims there is always a leader of the pack and whatever that girl says, the rest of the group does. This can be very unhealthy and result in bullying without anyone even knowing. The leader of the group could be constantly worried about losing her status and therefore, unintentionally bully the others to do what she says. All it takes is one member of the group to retaliate and then it spirals out of control. This type of bullying can be hard for anyone to spot because it may seem like everyone is friends. Authoritative figures in high schools can help prevent this type of bullying by having interventions or one-on-ones with members of the group to get their side of the story without anyone else chiming in. 

      

          Image from childrenshospital.org picturing a girl being bullied 

In all, girls in high school are often the victims of bullying more than males. In order to decrease the amount of bullying that occurs in high school, high schools should focus more on solving the issue between girls. Girls are the victims of bullying more than boys are so by decreasing the bullying on the girls side, the overall amount of bullying would reduce. Nobody should have to dread going to school everyday. Nobody should have to come home from school everyday with tears streaming down their face. Nobody should have to get bullied by their own “friends”. Teachers in high schools can put a stop to this by educating their students about the importance of including everyone and making all students feel welcomed at school.