How should we stop bullying?

Bullying is an ongoing problem thats happening in the United States. There are 60% of middle school students that say they have been bullied, while 16% of staff believe that students are bullied. Also 160,000 students stay home from school everyday due to bullying. Many people think that bullying just involves physical abuse. If you believe this, you're wrong. Unfortunately bullying comes in many forms, including name calling, spreading rumors, excluding others from groups, intimidation, and cyberbullying. Although school systems are funding programs to help stop the bullying in schools, it is still going on each day. I truly believe that this happens because children of all ages don't feel comfortable telling someone they are being bullied, due to the fact that they are embarrassed, scared or whatever the case may be. If a child is bullied their whole life, or even a small part of their life they are more prone to being affected by things such as low self-esteem, difficulty in trusting others, lack of assertiveness, aggression, difficulty controlling anger, and isolation later in life. This is one of many reasons why we need to stop bullying before it starts at a young age.
As teachers, parents and other students if we hear or see someone being bullied you must not ignore it. If people ignore the problem it will never be fixed. As a teacher if you hear or see someone being bullied you must intervene and try and stop it. You must talk to all parties involved, the bully, the victims, and the other students in the class. You need to get parents involved and maybe even the principal. Also as a teacher you need to encourage your students to come to you if there is a problem or they feel that the aren't being treated right. As a parent, you need to be involved in your child's life in every way you can. By being involved in your child's life you are preventing your child from being a bully or from being bullied. As a student being a bystander to someone being bullied you need to speak up and tell someone who has authority to stop the bullying before it gets too out of hand.
Bullying in my opinion is the worst problem that occurs in schools. Its not right in anyway and it needs to be stopped. School systems are making progress to help stop bullying by funding programs, setting rules, and making it known that bullying does exist. I think that programs need to be more involved in schools and I think that these programs need to show the effects of bullying. Administrators need to make it more aware that it is okay for students to come to them in times of need when they see someone being bullied or if they are being bullied. They need to make it known that what ever they tell them, it will remain confidential. The punishments due to bullying need to be known and enforced by everyone and anyone. School systems, parents, teachers, administrators and students all need to come together and put a stop to bullying before more and more children and young adults are affected by it.
http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/school-bullying.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/00117/typesbullying.html