Should There Be Better Punishments for Bullying In Schools?

There should be better punishments for bullying in schools because in many schools I have been to, they don't punish them enough. they just give them a "referral" or simple in-school suspensions. I think they can do better!

"Rehabilitation has been much better to prevent crime than harsh punishment." This is the quotation that I learned from one of my class, which is policing in America. While I was waking criminal justice courses, numerous times, I learned that harsh punishment could not really fix problems but tended to make them worse. Based on this idea, we have to approach school bullying in different ways. Thus, there would be three ways that can reduce school bullying: (1) taking intensive counseling for bullies, (2) placing them on probation, and (3) teaching their parents.
First of all, once a student is reported as a bully, that student must take intensive counseling in which a psychiatrist is waiting for his or her. While the student is taking the counsel, the psychiatrist gives small assignments to that student such as apologizing a bullied student or writing a long apology essay. After he or she finishes those assignments, the psychiatrist will review them. However, if the counselor found that there was no sign of regret, then he or she would be placed on probation.

Probation would be another way to reduce school bullying such as placing the bully on EM (electronic monitoring), which is arresting people in their house and monitoring their activities. Some might argue that probation should only be used for criminals, not bullies. However, probation such as EM has been proved to be useful to both offenders and bullies. Once a bully failed to take the counseling, a probation officer will come to a school and then place him or her on EM for two or three days. If this is still not effective, the last step is to order his or her parents to take several educational courses.

There are two courses for the parents. The first course will teach them how to give right punishment and to stop abusing children. In this course, they would learn what punishment makes their children deviant and how parental abuse affects their children's psychological development. The second course will teach the parents the effects of school bullying. Unlike the first course, the second one is to focus victim based on learning, which lets the parents know how bullied victims have struggled mentally and emotionally. Those two courses are eight week courses that they must take them.

I have introduced three possible ways to reduce school bullying: (a) taking intensive counseling for bullies, (b) placing them on probation, and (c) teaching their parents. These ways are actually based on rehabilitative philosophy rather than harsh punishment. The expected result of utilizing those methods is to eradicate school bullying. As I mentioned in the introduction, merely giving harsh punishment is not effective; instead, rehabilitation will help bullies quit their deviant behavior at school.