Students’ Experiences, Reactions and Opinions on Bullying at Esperanza National High School, Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat, Region XII, Philippines

This study was conducted to determine students’ experiences, reactions and opinions on bullying. It used a descriptive research design wherein students’ experiences, reactions and opinions were gathered through survey questionnaires. Purposive sampling technique was employed using snowball sampling technique. Online survey questionnaire was sent to the selected students via messenger. These students forwarded the online survey questionnaire to those students who they thought potential respondents of the study via messenger too. Finding revealed that Esperanza National High School has maintained a healthy school environment suited to the different types of learners since the bullying was less evident in the school. Occasional occurrence of bullying in the school prompted the students to rarely report the incidence to the concerned people. Students very seldom experienced the bullying from the people they frequently engaged and communicated. They normally responded to the minor incidence of bullying they experienced from the school or at home. They believed that bullying has a less extent of effect on their personal development. It is, indeed, recommended that Esperanza National High School should sustain building a positive school environment and should maintain the zero tolerance of any bullying incidence in the school.


INTRODUCTION
Bullying exists in all communities since long time ago. It is considered as a common form of violence in schools. Various studies indicated that bullying makes schools to be unsafe places for students as it contributes in the belief that some schools are no longer safe for children. Bullying is deemed a very serious problem in academic setting in all parts of the world. It has a negative impact on academic performance and behaviors of students (Al-Raqqad et al., 2017).
Despite of the strong and firm stand of any learning institution against any form of violence in school, bullying still happens. Bullying is a repetition of irritable conduct displayed by someone using force or coercion to disturb others, particularly when this behavior is routinely manifested and involves one-sided influence. It includes verbal harassment, physical assault or blackmail and may be directed repeatedly towards particular victims, perhaps on grounds of race, religion, gender, sexuality, or ability. Li (2015) stated that bullying can affect students -those who are bullied, those who bully, and those who witness bullying. Bullying is linked to many negative outcomes including impacts on mental health, substance use, inferiority complex, and sometimes suicide. Maliki et al. (2009) stated that lesser quantities of bullying incidence are found in schools with a positive school environment. Classroom climate would be less positive with bullies and victims. Depression, social isolation, mental health problems, anxiety, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, change in sleep and eating patterns, loss of interest in activities and lower academic performance are some identified effects of bullying. These issues may persist into adulthood, health complaints and decreased academic performance and school participation. Students who are part of bullying incident are more likely to miss, skip, or drop out of school. A very small number of bullied children might retaliate through extremely violent measures. Forsberg (2016) emphasized that a student is being bullied or victimized when he is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more students and the student who is exposed to negative actions has difficulty defending himself against bullies. This simply means that if a student is bullied, either he or she will become defenseless or he is triggered to bully other students.
Further, bullying is largely connected to the school context. Learning institutions have to be goal oriented in their child protection policy, prevent bullying from occurring, as well as put together yearly a comprehensive plan regarding their arrangements to counteract bullying or any form of violence. Although bullying is highly prohibited in schools, many incidents of this detrimental behavior can be observed. Teachers and staff should be subscribed with responsibilities to counteract such incidents.
Any form of bullying is unacceptable in the schools and will not be tolerated. Thus, this research generally aims to determine students' experiences, reactions and opinions on bullying as a basis for developing school-based child protection policy which hopes to end any act of exploitation, violence, discrimination, bullying and other forms of child abuse in the school. It will be conducted to protect the rights of all students by offering them an opportunity to learn, boost their full potentials and ensure that they can work in an environment without fear.

Statement of the Problem
This research aimed to determine the experiences, reactions and opinions of students on bullying at Esperanza National High School for the School Year 2020 -2021.
Specifically, this study sought answers to the following questions: 1. To what extent are the experiences of the students on the following types of bullying at school and at home: 1.

Research Design
This study used a descriptive research design wherein students' experiences, reactions and opinions will be gathered through well-structured survey questionnaires.

Participants and/or Other Sources of Data and Instrumentation
Students from all grade levels served as the respondents of this study. This study was conducted during the strict implementation of the COVID-19 protocols and lockdowns. Thus, purposive sampling technique was employed using snowball sampling technique. Online survey questionnaire was sent to the selected students via messenger. These students forwarded the online survey questionnaire to those students who they thought potential respondents of the study via messenger too. Snowball sampling is a nonprobability sampling technique where the selected potential respondents of the study recruited other potential respondents from their acquaintances. Thus, the sample group in this study grew like a rolling snowball.
A well-designed researcher-made survey questionnaire using 5-Point Likert Scale (5-Always; 4-Often; 3-Sometimes; 2-Rarely; and 1-Never) was employed to determine the experiences, reactions and opinions of students on bullying (See the attached survey questionnaire). It consisted of 5 parts. Part I determined the extent of the experiences of students on bullying. Part II described the extent where the students reported the bullying incidents. Part III elicited the extent of the persons who might bully the students. Part IV determined the reactions of students when they were bullied. Part V described the opinions of students on the psychological effects bullying.
This research instrument had undergone validation and reliability tests to accurately elicit information needed in the study.

Data Gathering Methods
When the research instrument was found valid and reliable, the researcher sought the approval of the Schools Division Superintendent to conduct the study entitled "Students' Experiences, Reactions and Opinions on Bullying at Esperanza National High School, Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat, Region XII, Philippines". Statistician was consulted for the computation of the number of samples.
Letter addressed to the School Administrator of Esperanza National High School was secured. Online orientation with the respondents was conducted before the distribution of the online survey questionnaires. The researchers explicitly explained the contents, purpose and significance of the study in order for the respondents to understand better what they answered, thus, giving more chances of accurate responses.
Class advisers were coordinated to help the researchers in getting very reliable sources of data and in the online distribution of the research instrument. Upon the possession of the

Rodalyn O. Lapada, Elmar S. Lapada
-173-data from online survey questionnaires, the researchers tallied the data for further analysis, interpretation and implication of the data.

Data Analysis Plan
To describe students' experiences, reactions and opinions on bullying they experience at school or at home, weighted mean was employed (for all research questions).
The following parameters was used to describe the experiences, reactions and opinions of students on bullying at school or at home:

Bullying Incidence at Esperanza National High School
Bullying is a repetition of irritable conduct displayed by someone using force or coercion to disturb others, particularly when this behavior is routinely manifested and involves onesided influence. Table 1 presents the extent of bullying incidence at Esperanza National High School. As shown, the overall mean of 1.80 described as "Rarely" means that there was only a minor incidence of bullying incidence at Esperanza National High School. Cyber-bullying and sexual bullying received the lowest means of 1.42 and 1.54, respectively. These two types of bullying did not ever happen in the school or at home as manifested by the verbal description of "Never". This signifies that both students and teachers were aware that any type of bullying doesn't have a place here at Esperanza National High School.
The above data confirm that Esperanza National High School has maintained a healthy school environment suited to the different types of learners. Al-Raqqad et al. (20217) stressed that a school with less incidence of bullying can really invite the learners to embrace the learning opportunities intended for their personal welfare and development.

Reporting of Bullying
If a student is bullied and he has the courage to report the bullying incidence, bullying can be minimized. Table 2 presents the extent of reporting of incidence at Esperanza National High School. As shown, the overall mean of 2.54 described as "Rarely" shows that students rarely reported the minor incidence of bullying the experience from the school or at home. This finding is in consonance with the data in Table 1 that there was a rare incidence of bullying incidence they experienced. This means that the bullying they experienced was tolerable. In other words, bullying needs not to be reported since it doesn't really hurt them emotionally. That's why, they also rarely reported it to the concerned people.
The highest mean of 3.02 described as "Sometimes" indicates that students occasionally reported the incidence of bullying to their friends. They felt that the minor bullying they experienced should be reported to their friends rather than to their parents or teachers. The lowest mean of 1.94 described as "Rarely" denotes that students seldom reported the bullying in their neighbors.
It is, indeed, suggested that school should sustain the programs and activities in order to maintain the least extent of bullying at school.

Bullying Experiences of Students
Studies reveal that the lesser the extent of bullying in the school, the higher the motivation of the students to engage in the learning opportunities offered by the school. The extent of the bullying experiences of the students is presented in the following table. As can be glimpsed from Table 3, the overall mean of 2.07 described as "Rarely" signifies that students very seldom experienced the bullying from the people they -175-frequently engaged and communicated. In other words, these people were good influence in their day-to-day activities.

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The highest mean of 2.36 still described as "Rarely" means that students experienced a bullying incidence from their friends in a least extent. In layman's language, they were compatible to mingle with their friends as they just only experienced a minor incidence of bullying from them and this is a normal situation for the teenagers to receive a rare bullying incidence from their friends.
This study suggests that students should choose their friends who can give them a good influence to grow as better persons. Hodges and Perry (1999) emphasized that students who are surrounded by good friends show positive attitudes towards studies.

Reactions of Students when They are Bullied
It is normal for the students to react if they are bullied. The extent of reactions of students when they are bullied is presented in Table 4. As shown, students' reactions if they are bullied were described as "Sometimes" as revealed by the overall mean of 2.71. This indicates that they normally responded to the minor incidence of bullying they experienced from the school or at home. As a matter of fact, out of 10 statements, 6 of them received a verbal description of "Sometimes" and 4 statements garnered a description of "Rarely".
The highest mean of 3.34 described as "Sometimes" was received by the statement "Not fighting the bully as this may escalate things and the situation may become worse". This means that majority of the bullied students didn't fight back so that the bullying incidence will not be worsened. This is a very good reaction of the students who are bullied. However, they are advised to report the major bullying incidence. The indicator "Trying to act unaffected" received the second highest mean of 3.06 also described as "Sometimes". This means that students who are bullied by other students were pretentious as they were not affected. The lowest mean of 1.81 described as "Rarely" was received by the statement "Immediately retaliating". This indicates that students who are bullied didn't retaliate so that the issue will not become worse. The second to the lowest mean of 2.26 described as "Rarely" was received by the indicator "Reporting the bullying incident to the concerned authorities such as teachers and policemen". This means that students didn't report the bullying incidence to the concerned authorities since they believed that this bullying incidence was just only minor and tolerable.

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The above finding indicates that majority of students just only ignored the bullying incidence since it was just only minor. Not fighting the bully and ignoring the minor bullying incidence they experienced was a good reaction of students so that bullies will not be tolerated to bully other students if they are always ignored.

Effects of Bullying
Studies indicate that bullied kids experience anxiety, fear, depression, and low self-esteem. They also may experience physical symptoms, and struggle academically. Targets of bullying also experience some unique consequences and negative feelings. Table 5 presents the extent of effects of bullying to the students. As shown, the overall mean of 2.71 described as "Sometimes" indicates that students believed that bullying has a less extent of effect on their personal development. This finding is in consonance with the data in the previous tables that students experienced a less extent of bullying from the school and at home. In this case, they believed that this minor bullying they experienced had a less extent on them. This finding is confirmed by the 7 indicators described as "Sometimes" and 3 indicators construed as "Rarely". In other words, students who experienced less extent of bullying believe that it didn't really affect them as persons. The highest mean of 3.35 described as "Sometimes" was received by the indicator "Lack of Self-confidence". This means that students sometimes believed that if they are bullied, their self-confidence will become low. The indicator "Wanting to be Left Alone" got the second highest mean of 3.10 described as "Sometimes" also. This indicates that if they are bullied, they later wanted to be alone to think of the reasons why are bullied. However, this thought was seldom only as indicated by the verbal description of "Sometimes" only.

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Previous tables confirmed that there was a minor incidence of bullying at Esperanza National High School. Students preferred to ignore the bullies so that the situation will not become worse. They opted to report the bullying incidence to their friends. They believed that if they are bullied, they become less confident.

CONCLUSION
Esperanza National High School has maintained a healthy school environment suited to the different types of learners since the bullying was less evident in the school. A school with less incidence of bullying can really invite the learners to embrace the learning opportunities intended for their personal welfare and development. If there is a rare occurrence of bullying, then students rarely report this incidence to the concerned people. Students very seldom experienced the bullying from the people they frequently engage and communicate. They normally responded to the minor incidence of bullying they experienced from the school or at home. They believed that bullying had a less extent of effect on their personal development.

Recommendations
Based from the findings and conclusions of the study, the following recommendations are herein formulated: 1. Esperanza National High School should sustain building a positive school environment and should maintain the zero tolerance of any bullying incidence in the school. 2. School should keep lines of communication and encourage students to report any form of bullying in the concerned authorities. 3. School should maximize the collaborative learning opportunities of the students so that they have the chance to have fun and meet other people with the same interests. 4. School should help the students to build their confidence and friendships that prevent them from any form of bullying. 5. Parents and teachers should help the students understand the bad effect of bullying.
They should talk about what bullying is and how to stand up to it safely.
I. Use the 5-Point Likert Scale below together with its verbal description to accurately give your experiences regarding bullying incidents. Encircle the number that corresponds to your choice. II. Where do you prefer to report the bullying incidents? Please give your perception in the space provided for each type of persons you intend to report the bullying incidents at school or at home. Use the 5-Point Likert Scale for your answer: 5 -Always, 4 -Often, 3 -Sometimes, 2 -Rarely and 1 -Never.

Friends
Classmates/Schoolmates Neighbors Teachers Relatives Parents III. Who bully you in the school or home? Please give your perception in the space provided for each type of persons who bully you school or at home. Use the 5-Point Likert Scale for your answer: 5 -Always, 4 -Often, 3 -Sometimes, 2 -Rarely and 1 -Never.

Friends
Classmates/Schoolmates Neighbors Teachers Relatives Parents IV. The following survey questionnaire will determine the level of your reaction when you are bullied. Please encircle the number of your choice.