Trauma from Bullying

In the latest issue of the Catholic Times, a special feature was an article on school violence, covered also in an editorial. Recently, the seriousness of school violence has been re-examined as some athletes, celebrities and well-known people have made known the bullying they received as children.

School violence (academic violence) is shaking up Korean society. Confessions and revelations of victims of school violence have made the news daily and don't want to stop. The disclosure of new facts and the dispute over the truth between the victims and those identified as perpetrators are pouring into major media sources.

The fact that most school violence is known more than 10 years after it occurred means that the wounds in the heart are difficult to erase and remain a long time;  easy to understand the need to hear an apology to heal the pain

Students who are victims of school violence often cannot get over their experience even after they become adults due to low self-esteem and depression. One authority in the field said, "If you get unfair violent treatment from the outside, you will have trauma, which is an unhealed wound, and because you remember it vividly from childhood, you want revenge." The heart has no statute of limitations.

This is the reason school violence is serious since tends to instill feelings of retaliation in victims and produce other acts of violence. Consequently, families and schools need to accompany those who have been bullied with personal attention on a level that they can understand.

Victims will continue to expose celebrities' past school violence. Those identified as perpetrators flee the public eye, announcing their retirement because of strong public criticism.

However, experts also express concern about school violence perpetrators taking steps to bury themselves. The opinion is that protecting victims should be the top priority, more important than the punishment of the perpetrator is their guidance. One lawyer said: "There is a positive aspect that school violence disclosure is a great comfort to the victims but the victims can in this situation become the perpetrator again and the violence repeats."  
 
Christianity is essentially a religion that teaches peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness as core values. It is sad to see the cases of school violence that stimulate people's interest and curiosity in the world with the lament: "What's wrong with the world?"

The role of families and religious schools should set a better example for preventing school violence. In fact, there is little school violence in religious schools, but efforts to restore relationships between both perpetrators and victims should continue.