Bullying and School Violence

Bullying and School Violence

The article title states exactly what the article talks about, the many different cases of bullying and violence in schools. The title tells you exactly what to expect from the abstract but does not give away any information on what it includes. The author did a good job deciding on the title because although it is simple, it grabs your attention, it certainly did mine. Bullying is a very common happening among young children so the title having the word bully in it, draws your attention. It could have been a little more creative but I do like the title and feel that it is both effective and appropriate.

The purpose of the study is evident and can clearly and easily be derived from the title of the article. The author, Dawn Pennington, uses a plethora of resources to conduct her research and makes very good use of the research of other specialists.The abstract is very informative, interesting and gives people who don't know too much about the topic some credible knowledge to go with.

I appreciated the way that Pennington began the abstract. She used a well known tragedy in the shootings at Columbine to grab readers' attention. I would say that she accomplished her mission in that aspect. However, that incident is actually a severe case of what she is writing about. This is what happens when bullying goes to far and the victims can no longer take it. Columbine being that it was such a large scale retaliation placed a stamp on this country's history. Pennington explores this occurrence

and takes the reader on a brief ride through it. She then moves away from the Columbine incident towards incidents of smaller magnitudes. The everyday bullying that goes on in schools all over the country. Pennington, with the help of some of her colleagues describes different theories and reasons why violence occurs in schools. Dennis Murphy feels that it is parents' false sense of security that allows violence to perpetuate. Most parents have the feeling of "not my kids, not at their school". Jill Riethmayer feels that it is children's inability to deal with their problems and the lack of friendly adult figures to confide in. Pennington, however, feels that children just need someone to talk to about being bullied and that the bullies are just misunderstood and are probably abused themselves and duplicate what they know. She writes very factually and gets straight to the