Bullying

When adults ask me if there is bullying in my school or if I have seen bullying around me, I don’t know what to tell them. I might be too oblivious to notice it around me, but honestly I don’t know what I’m looking for. When teachers or administrators talk to use about bullying, many students think of physical hurt. Even in movies we see more physical abuse and mean girls calling other girls that they don’t like mean names. When students are put into a school situation of bullying, it is friends making mean jokes about others. Even though everyone does it, even though it seems normal, it is a form of bullying.

          Recently, our school had an assembly based on bullying because there was a freshman who had committed suicide. The teachers and administrators thought that the school should have a school wide talk about being kind to others around you, even though you might not like that person.  We had Nina Yu speak about what she did as Ms. Teen Iowa. She goes to other schools to share that schools need to have as much ethnicity in schools as possible. And also how ethnicity means unique students and different types of people in our school. Nina also said that what some students might say as a joke other students could get offended by the words or actions. We also had a newspaper person who spoke about her tough times in the news room. I thought that she was very courageous to stand up to all of the people who fought against her. In one situation she talked about how someone called the news room to tell the manager of the news station to have that certain news caster off of the TV screen. Since the TV room had caller ID, the news caster called the woman back and asked her what she wanted. The woman on the phone didn’t realize that her call would get back to the news caster and apologized for her behavior and words.

          The definition of bullying is use superior strength or influence to intimidate someone, typically to force him or her to do what one wants. Bullies usually make people feel bad because they are not doing well in their own homes. Many bullies either take out their anger on getting high on drugs or alcohol or hurting someone else. They can’t handle their lives and take it out on other people. These people turn into bullies. They need to have guidance in their life, but not many get it.

          In many movies you see a girl get attacked with mean words or physical abuse. The girl usually takes drugs to kill herself and her mom usually finds her right before she dies. The medial crew gets there before the girl dies and saves her. When the girl finally recovers, she goes back to school and stand up against the mean girl. It was a good movie over all, but it doesn’t capture the true meaning of bullying. We get shown clips and movies of the stereotypical type of bullying. People think that bullying is about certain people and certain types of words used on people and the abuse is harmless, but it drives people over the edge. I think that there should be a new movie out to show the ‘real’ type of bullying that is going on and it should include viewpoints of actual victims of bullying.

          School staff members do an okay job at trying to keep bullying at bay, but not everyone is nice to one another. In our school students should take a stand by themselves to stop the bullying. Students should take it up on their own and not have teachers plan a school wide meeting about bullying. We should have organized sections for students who feel worthless. The school should have groups to help students, but they shouldn’t be pushed. I think the school should also make their own movie about what bullying really is. Including all students in the movie, whether they are writing the scrip or helping as actors, just to let the students know that they are missed and are cared for.

          I think that bullying should be a bigger deal in the school day and that everyone should be kinder to each other, whether in the halls or in the school parking lot. Students and teachers should make an effort to be kinder to each other.