Ya know, it is good that bullying is getting attention, so maybe someday we can stop the social pressures and bullying of kids that are different, but GAY kids are NOT the only ones bullied in school.it is very big in the media right now due to the suicide of a young gay student, harassed and bullied by other students over being gay.
Yes, this is not a light issue at all, and it does need attention, as it is becoming a bigger issue as homosexuals “come out” earlier in life due to overall social “acceptance” but ALL children need to be educated on bullying of ALL types.
Children with learning disabilities are bullied every day, autistic kids are bullied every day, ADHD kids are bullied everyday, FAT kids are being bullied and pressured with the negative pressure from society on obesity everyday. Poor kids, “ugly kids”.. the list goes on there will always be a bully issue, because there will always be a issue with prejudice and discrimination in our world.
BULLYING PERIOD needs to be dealt with. This is a LARGE reason why I homeschool, because the sheeple mentality in a group/gang settings like school playground/hallways creates negative social interaction for children who are already struggling enough in life trying to learn, and grow up, and figure out who they are!
I was bullied in school, for being overweight. I was oinked at in the halls for eating anything. To the point I stopped eating in school, I went to a school an hour away by bus in my rural hometown in Cape Breton, and I refused to take a lunch and eat in front of people. I was called a cow, laughed at, had my gym shorts pulled down so often I either skipped gym and failed the class, or started wearing a bathing suit under my clothes to protect myself from be declothed completely so assholes could look at my “fat ass” and point and laugh.
Then because I found friendship in other girls who were overweight as well, we were then teased and called fat cow lesbians, for no other reason then we were girls who danced at the school dances together ( fast songs) because being a “fat cow” we could not get dates or have boyfriends from our own school, and because when the slow songs played we’d go to the bathroom to avoid the young teen girl misery of being the select few without a boy to slow dance with.
Schools have not changed. Society has not changed. Bullying won’t change. But how we react to the bullying can change, and that is where we need to look at this. You can’t teach a asshole to not be an asshole, regardless of if they are 14, 18, 25, or 40. A kid who is a bully is usually getting mental reinforcements of their underlying attitude in their homes, by their parents.
Bullying does not stop out of school. It is part of our world. As long as we have a society that places higher value on one set of people over another there well be mental,physical and philological bullying, always.
Just look fat vs thin, poor vs financially secure, good grades/good jobs vs people who struggle to get through school due to learning issues, and those who cannot attend secondary schools and get well paying socially prestigious jobs.
Christians VS Mulsim, Anti Gay Vs the homosexual population of our world.
Wars have been started over the bullying mentality, the “I’m better than you” mentality.
IT WILL NEVER END
We need to teach people to stand up for themselves, and not let some ass hat decide their worth for them in our world.
Bullied people need to be taught to NOT BE A VICTIM. Because the bullies are never going to go away.
We as parents need to teach our children that their self esteem and value is not calculated by the amount of friends they have, or how many parties they are invited to, or what they look like or how much they weigh, or what clothes they can afford to buy or if they are attracted to the same sex, or what secondary schools they can afford to attend. Their value is in being a good person to everyone and to teach acceptance and understanding and kindness and compassion, and not being prejudiced of others, and not bullying others themselves, and by the good they do in this world.
As a bullied kid, who is now a 36 year old mother of two who has struggled her entire life with self esteem from the bullies in school who I LET have power over my happiness, I say…Take back your power, as the bullied….because in this world there will ALWAYS be a bully in your life. Learn to walk away.
You cannot be bullied, if you don’t let it hurt you. they can try, but their words and actions fall at your feet and don’t penetrate your heart and mind if you don’t let it.
I told my mother about the bullying. She spoke to the Principal, the kids were spoken to by the principal in school with their parents. It didn’t stop it, they just then picked on me for being a cry baby. I retreated inward, became a loner, dressed in black because it was sliming and not noticeable as colours on a “fat ass”. IT didn’t help to tell people…I was still miserable until those older kids graduated and left the school, it lifted a bit, to the point of it not being to my face that they laughed at me. Some days I wonder if it mattered to tell anyone, but we tried, and my mother’s words to me of “don’t let them have that hold over you. Don’t let it get to you”, might not have been 100 percent effective in not having bullies damage my esteem and self worth, but it was good to have the reminder and someone in my corner.
I spent a large part of my life worrying about what others thought of me, trying to fit in, not being too noticed in order to be picked out and picked ON. In part i think the reason my ADHD and dyslexia was not Dxed in school, was because I hid any and all issues that would make me stand out.
It took me a long time to get here, where I am now. I’ve had to deal with a lot of emotional baggage, and discover myself through all of that crap, but now as an adult, I don’t have people in my life who make me feel inferior for any reason. You are either contributing to my happiness, or you are contaminating it, if you are contaminating it, you are not in my life for very long.
I wish I had had the strength in my heart to have known this then, or had had people to teach this to me then, it would have made a HUGE difference in my life, and the years I’ve wasted letting those bullies from school still follow me through the years in my mind and in my heart would have been less.
I hate that I let them have a say in my life for so long, even after the school years, when they no longer even thought of me.
Don’t let that happen to you…Take back your power!
