Free Write: Stop the Bullying!

A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stamp on it and really mess it up but do not rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirty is was. She then told them to tell it they’re sorry. Now even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it. That is what happens when a child bully’s another child, they may say they’re sorry but the scars are there forever. The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home.

I believe bullying has truly turned into an epidemic. I find that harassment is more common and serious than most people realize. Each day, about 160,000 American kids skip school because they're afraid of bullies.  Although bullying isn't new, it's becoming increasingly dangerous as proven in the National Education Association's bullying and sexual-harassment prevention/intervention program. What I notice happening is that in some cases the targets of abuse are afraid to tell their parents or teachers, so they put up with it until they start to think about revenge. Studies have shown that 87% of teenage shootings are motivated by a desire to “get back at those who have hurt them.” 86% have said, “other kids picking on them, making fun of them or bullying them” causes teenagers to turn to lethal violence in the schools.

As shown by some of the above statistics, we need to do more in order to prevent students from getting bullied because this will only lead to negative consequence. As a future educator, I will be sure to let my students know that they can always come to me in regards to any issue or concern they may have. By creating a sense of comfort and trust with students and children in general, we can assist in decreasing the number of children and teens who are bullied.

-- Please Help Stop Bullying!