Dealing School Violence with Love and Care
It is seen that treating a bully badly because of his actions only makes him more aggressive later on. People with a violent and aggressive nature should be treated with love and respect. Only then the number of cases reported for school violence can be reduced.
School violence cases have taken a huge leap in the last decade or so. Newspaper reports and television have instances where there are cases of students going berserk and going on a shooting spree. What is the reason for this happening and why? What should we do to deal with it? Let us glance through some questions.
Usually, violent or aggressive students come from homes where they usually quarrel with their parents or are under drug or alcohol abuse. These students generally come from areas where the families living around them use a lot of abusive language. What is seen and heard is learnt by the students. They display the same anger to others and school is a place where they usually get to vent out their anger. They spew venom on other students having gone through hell and anger because this is what they a=have seen and heard. At times, the aggression can take a high note and may even trigger the child to take inevitable steps.
Our nest question is how to deal with students behaving such an aggressive or violent manner? Should we suspend them from school or just send them to juvenile jails? Will doing this solve the problem? The answer is a resounding no. How do we extinguish the fire in the students by firing them? Further humiliation, torture in jail or rustication from school may trigger the student’s violent behavior even more and he might choose to take revenge against every one who caused trouble for him.
Instead of answering with tit for tat, we must treat the students with love and care. We must also help them in doing little things like homework, dressing up neatly or helping with their exams. We must treat them with utmost care and comfort as these are the things which they are deprived of. There is a possibility that you may not see results instantly. But if you continue to treat then with love and respect, encourage them to think positive and praise them for little achievements then sooner or later they will respond in a similar fashion.
If a student is bullying or harassing other students, then he should be given proper counseling and made to realize the consequences of bad behavior instead of reprimanding him or taking to the principal. The students should be made to realize in a loving yet firm manner that the society doesn’t tolerate such behavior. If the aggression and rudeness continues to stay with the student then the student’s parents need to be summoned and advised to send him for some time to a rehabilitation centre where he can learn positive things and also learn to control his anger. Counselors and professionals are there in this field who deal with many types of students, understand their psychology and make them realize the consequences of their actions.
Try to put off a fire with fire can only lead to more fire. A violent and aggressive student, on being trusted and spoken to with love and respect, will realize his aggressive behavior and always remember for the love and trust you showed to him. It is like fighting fire with cold water. He will always ensure not to let you down and make a feeling of pride in you for him. We would not see the increase in crimes all over the world if putting the criminals in jail or persecuting them could solve the problem. Even if the crime is big, the person responsible must not be treated badly. Instead, he must be put to a juvenile jail where he should be treated with respect and helped to transform into a better person with constant effort, respect and love. This is only and the best solution to violence all over the world.