THE MANY FORMS OF BULLYING

Tonight my wife Kathy and I went to see the movie Bully. It was a very well done documentary about the effects of bullying. It was so sad and heart wrenching to see how many kids are affected by bullying in the schools each and every day. Some of these kids don't even realize that they are being bullied. They think it is just the way things are. The punch in the arm, the stabbing with a pencil, the throwing into the locker. In fact one of the kids said the reason why he didn't tell his folks was because it thought it was "normal." 


One of the kids in the movie was a 14 year old girl who pulled a gun on a school bus because the kids had called her names and taunted her to that point. The sheriff  said he could see NO reason for this "little girl" to  pull a gun on those kids on the school bus unless she was on the ground being beaten. I just gasped at that comment. There is such a thing as emotional bullying and yes I can see how someone could get to the point that this "little girl" got to.


Many of the kids that were bullied got to the point of darkness and NO return and they committed suicide. Most of the parents were shocked because they had no idea this was happening to their kid. Some  kids, according to this documentary,  don't say anything to their parents. I can believe this is true. Because I was the victim of a form of bullying that I call abuse.

 It was my first grade year. I was only 6 years old and it was at the hands of my first grade teacher. One of my cousins and I were in the same first grade class in Southern Pines. My teachers name was Miss Cameron. She was an old bitty. Every single day she would take my cousin and I to the dark walk in closet and paddle us. She would say to us that she knew at some point during the day we would get into trouble so she wanted to go ahead and get IT over with. She would leave us in there for a while in the dark. She would also tie my left hand to the desk because she wanted me to use my right hand. I never told my Mom about any of this.

 We are ALL these kids have to protect them from these bullies. The schools can't take on ALL the responsibility. It takes us all. It takes legislation so the schools and the law enforcement officers have more authority. It takes parents and folks like you and me to be there for these kids. They need to know that bullying is wrong and that they have a voice in us. NO ONE SHOULD BE BULLIED.


These are my thoughts and feelings from Jillsville.