The effects bullying and homelessness has on our youth

Have you ever been bullied? Well, about 20-30% of children aged 6-12 have been. Along with that, 1.37 million children experience homelessness. Altogether, 42% of students are bullied for being homeless. This bullying of homeless youth needs to be addressed in schools and communities because it harms students’ mental health, disrupts their education, reinforces harmful stigma, and increases the risk of long-term negative outcomes. 

One huge way bullying, accompanied by homelessness, affects students is on their mental health. According to Fox News, a homeless 14-year-old boy in Santa Clara, California, took his own life because he was being bullied by classmates at school. The news site says, "They were spitting on him, hitting him on the back of the helmet..." They would also verbally abuse him by calling him homeless and motherless. This just shows how cruel properly housed peers can be in schools and how little the administration is doing about it. 

Many students also report feeling anxiety and depression because they are being bullied in school. This can cause emotional trauma that can't be reversed. They also feel anxiety and depression just from being on the streets. 

Going along with the anxiety and depression homeless students often miss a lot of school, negatively impacting their education. Having anxiety about being bullied and depression because of bullying makes students not want to go to school. They also might have a lack of transportation. According to School House Connection, we need to work as a team to support transportation needs. Whether it's to school or medical appointments, homeless students also often have many health issues. 

The most important thing we need to do is foster a supportive school environment. Teachers need to be trained on all types of inclusion to make all students feel seen. We need to get a handle on stopping bullying and making students want to come to school instead of being scared to. 

Another reason students often don't want to go to school is because of the negative stigma around homelessness. They are often portrayed as lazy and responsible for their own circumstances, when that is often not the case at all. Their parents lose their jobs or are laid off, making their whole family unable to afford housing, and being laid off is no one's fault. They are also often called dirty when they are not. Some still have clean clothes, but they may just wear them a few days in a row. Overall, the stigma around homelessness is often not true; kids are just mean, and it's easier to be mean to someone than to try to support them. 

One long-term negative outcome that unfortunately happens a lot is illicit drug use. In a peer reviewed journal called Bullying at school and on the street: risk factors and outcomes among homeless youth it says “…approximately one third of homeless youth use illicit drugs, and drug use may lead to both prolonged substance abuse and long-term homelessness.” As this says, drug use can also lead to prolonged homelessness or poverty cycles. Drug use becomes a problem when students have been victimized in many ways, such as child abuse, sexual abuse, physical assault, etc. They start to rely on drugs to cope with the trauma they've been through. When they've relied on drugs for such a long time, they will spend all the money that they do have to get more drugs, which is what causes prolonged homelessness. 

Another negative outcome that could happen to homeless youth is risky behaviors. An example of one of these behaviors is risky sexual behavior. This includes having many sexual partners, unprotected sex, and even prostitution. Students also tend to start having sex at a younger age than their properly houses peers. This is risky because they could develop sexually transmitted diseases at any age. They could also become pregnant and have nowhere to raise a baby, and no money for the baby. Pregnancy could also cause dropouts. Another risky behavior is just risking their lives in general. They will be especially careless when driving, they'll stay out at night alone, they'll meet up with strangers to do drugs, etc.