Why We Are Not Doing Enough About Bullying

Story shared from Huffington Post.

Teasing, picking on, bullying. It all means the same thing. For my generation, bullying is probably one of the biggest issues we see in schools. I see both private and public schools insist that they are doing everything they can to decrease the amount of bullying happening in their schools, but is it enough? The truth is, it probably isn’t.

Despite the school assemblies, the several warnings that are given to the bullies at school and the countless movies that try to get the point across that bullying can be more harmful than most people think, the job is just not getting done. In this era of technology, it’s pretty safe to say that it’s harder to hide from the bullies than it may have been 20 or 30 years ago. Some kids have to face it not only for seven hours at school, but also every hour beyond that because of the constant contact that can be made via text message or social media.

Chelsea Shaffer, a regular senior from western Pennsylvania, opened up to me.

“Bullying sucks, especially when you’re one of the few African American or mixed kids in your school. I got picked on so much during middle school. I’ve been through everything from being called racial slurs to losing all of my friends because they wanted to go with ‘the cool kids,'” she said. “It has slightly gotten better over time, but in the middle of my junior year there was a rumor going around about me that I was pregnant and I dealt with it for two and half months and finally caved in and got cyber-schooled.”

Katie Black, an 18-year-old girl from western Pennsylvania, also told me her heartbreaking story of bullying.

She explained: “This year, my senior year, I came out as bisexual. Then, things went downhill again. I knew people wouldn’t be okay with it, but I was prepared for it. I wasn’t prepared for what was going to soon happen. The day after I came out via Facebook, I had cheerleading practice. I walked into the practice, and nobody would look at me, then I just knew why. They all said ‘We don’t want her here anymore, it’s disgusting.’ I cried in the bathroom for half of the practice, and nobody would even come to check up on me when they all knew that’s what I was doing. I called my mom and told her to pick me up, then I quit. I had to quit something I loved and was good at, because of that. It sucks, but it’s just something I had to do.”

Can you imagine how people who get bullied repeatedly feel? One of the scariest stories I heard was from Becca Will.

Read more here.