BULLYING
Don't Turn a Blind-Eye to Old School BullyingBY GARRETT HILL ON DECEMBER 19, 2013
Many people seem to think that the old school style of bullying is gone and dead. Sure, you don’t see the stealing of lunches, people giving swirlies or people being stuffed in lockers, but bullying is still very much alive at Rose, even if most of us don’t see it.
With the explosion of social media over the last ten years, we’ve all been bombarded with the “say no to cyber bullying!” spiel numerous times. We have been informed of the risks of sending crude pictures online and how malicious messages and posts can do serious damage to people’s self esteem. However, this growing awareness of virtual bullying has taken attention away from the physical and verbal bullying that still occurs in school hallways. It’s astounding that these occurrences so often escape our eyes, but there is a sort of paradox that keeps the victims of these actions from stopping them on their own. Someone who is getting bullied has many different things to consider when looking for a solution, and this often leaves them feeling trapped. “I could tell an administrator…no... those guys will just be worse to me for trying to get them caught. I could try to fight back… no… just no. I could try to ignore it… but it’s so hard to take this every day.” These cause and effect situations provide no true answer for someone in a bad position. Reading this you might be saying, “There’s no way this really happens like he’s making it seem.” I wish that statement were true, but I have heard some very sad stories over the past couple of weeks, first hand, from the mouths of a few different victims. Here is some of what I heard: “almost every morning when I come down this hall there is a group of guys that says really hurtful things to me. They push me up against the wall and laugh at me. I don’t know why they do it, but sometimes I think it’s just because everyone hates me.” Another person told me a story about having their money taken from them so they can’t buy lunch. This is odd isn’t it? These images are starting to make Rose sound like an old high school movie with generic, mean jock guys. I am not writing this so I can tell anyone reading it not to be a bully, because honestly anyone capable of doing the cruel things I’m talking about most likely won’t be reading this in the first place. I am writing this to sincerely ask all of you to do something if you see things like this with your own eyes. Don’t just ignore what you see or hear and move on with your day. If you hear about someone, or know someone dealing with any of these problems, talk to that person, get the full story, then talk to a teacher you trust and go from there. I know this whole topic might seem unrealistic or cliche to most of Rose students, but there really are students who need our help. Keep an eye and an ear open, that’s all I ask. HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
|