Dangers Of Public Discipline

Every forty seconds, a person makes a suicide attempt and succeeds. Adding to one million deaths annually, suicide is the tenth leading cause of death for Americans, and youth suicide rates continue to rise. People of all ages make the decision to end their lives for a variety of reasons, but patterns are common. Certain emotions or perceptions, such as those of failure and isolation, are common in suicide victims. Public disciplinary actions can evoke the aforementioned emotions. The practice can be broken into its two terms, “public” and “discipline.” Discipline is defined as an action taken to impart knowledge or teach a lesson, and public is defined as in the presence of others. For example, a parent scolding their child in a grocery store

The parent does so in the presence of other shoppers, both children and adults, making the discipline public. As with any other aspect of life, public discipline has the potential to be taken too far. If and when this occurs, the constructive nature of the discipline is lost. Public discipline’s negative effects can even lead to suicide. Due to its detrimental effects, including negative perceptions and a link to suicide, public discipline should not be practiced.

To understand truly the dangers of public discipline, one must first understand the situations, emotions, and underlying causes of suicide. Each victim’s experience is different, be it majorly or only in details. No event always will or always will not lead to the possibility of suicide. Patterns, however, have been observed. When those who have attempted to end their lives choose to tell their stories, experts listen and compare in an effort to lower suicide rates. The causes “inability to deal with a perceived ‘failure,’” “feeling that things will never ‘get better,’” and “a feeling of not being accepted by family, friends, or society” were included on a list of events with the potential to cause suicide (Caruso 1). A person who perceives themselves as a

Psychologists conduct research on disciplining children and adults, as well as the effectiveness of different methods of doing so. Respect, fairness, and consistency are necessities for discipline to be effective. Unfair and inconsistent actions construct a relationship without respect, and “harsh discipline such as humiliation (verbal abuse, shouting, name-calling) will also make it hard for the child to respect and trust the parent” (National Center for Biotechnology Information 1). When disciplinary action becomes public, it often escalates and causes the recipient to perceive humiliation and embarrassment. Humiliation, and subsequent lack of respect, diminishes the effectiveness of discipline. The lessons meant to be taught by the discipline never reach the recipient or are ultimately forgotten. Humiliation also causes a perception of failure, linked to suicide. The link is evident in the case of a thirteen-year-old girl. Shortly after a video was posted online depicting the girl being “shamed by her father after he chopped off her hair, the teen jumped to her death from a Tacoma bridge” (Golgowski 1). The girl’s father cut her hair following an unnamed act of disobedience, taping the disciplinary action. While accounts differ as to whom posted the video online, a negative outcome is certain. The girl chose to end her own life rather than deal with the humiliation. Had the father kept the