“We can’t afford these prevention programs,” the new theme song goes…

With the widespread of budget cuts, most schools cannot afford bullying prevention programs because these are not priority programs in schools. That, by itself is the genesis of other problems.

“We can’t afford these prevention programs,” most school authorities would say. My question is, can we afford the social cost we pass on to society as prevention programs fall off the chopping board in shreds and pieces?

The real cost of doing nothing to prevent school yard bullying and cyber bullying are stunning, if you pause to think about them. Here are 5 costs ensuing from to bullying that schools and communities bear.

Absenteeism
Everyday, 160,000 students skip school because of bullying-related anxieties. Stunning figure! the increasing prevalence of cyber bullying, this is not getting any better. Nationally there are about 120,000 schools in K-12. This means this is very far-reaching issues and no school is insulated from this issue.

If you think it is not a tragedy, does this qualify for comedy in America? How does this help America ‘s competitiveness?

Poor Grades
Skipping school inevitably catches up with the student. Sooner than later the absenteeism will take its toll when it undermines the student ‘s performance in school tests. This drags drags down the student, (victim), the family, the school and the nation. It doesn’t help the school ‘s yearly report card, the Annual Yearly Progress (AYP).

I grew up in Africa, and lived 7 years in Singapore. When it come to school matters, they are not letting up, grades are gold and school if life!

Low Self-Esteem & Depression
When a schools fails to address issues like bullying, it fails its very mission of educating young people to live fulfilling lives. Bullied students suffer from low self esteem; they may get even depressed. This is an invisible fire that can burn and live scars for a lifetime.

Preventing bullying is not luxury schools can’t afford, it is a much needed reprieve to enable schools to be schools.

School Dropouts
A recent study by UC Santa Barbara found that the school drop-outs cost the State of California over $1 Billion per year. If that figure is computed for the entire country, it will may well cause a bomshell.

According to the International Association for Truancy and Dropout Prevention, “Every school-day in America, 171 school buses loaded with children leave school never to return. That is our daily dropout rate.*”

Suicidal Students
Besides school dropout, low self esteem and poor grades, 19, 000 victims of bullying attempt suicide every year. In three quarters of the incidents in which the students effectively committed suicide, the parents and the educators did not know about any underlying issue until the tragedy happens.

Having worked with young people on three continents, I continue to hear similar complaints. “Adults don’t understand us.” It troubles me.

Social Cost
When students drop out, the money initially budgeted to educate them might up being diverted into another account. Let ‘s say it used to fix a roof. That means a foreign government (maybe China) benefits more from the revenue. Don’t get me wrong, fixing a room is a good thing, but educating the child for whom that money was allotted is a better thing.

If he or she gains the right skills, in future, he or she may invent the next type of roofing that will take America ‘s economy forward. Too bad, he dropped out, joined the wrong gang and sooner than later ends up in jail on a life sentence. The tax payer bear the brunt, a family hurts, the nation continues to loss its competitiveness to India, China, Singapore and the story continues… “We can’t afford these prevention programs,” the new theme song goes…

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