Bullying in school has become such a huge problem across our
country. So many lives are being
affected in so many ways. Every day
there are thousands of children contemplating suicide. They feel alone and don’t know what else to
do. They don’t seem to fit in. They may not dress according to how everyone
thinks they should, they may not look as pretty as the other girls. Whatever the reason, they do not deserve to
be bullied. No one deserves to be
bullied.
I
interviewed my daughter, Kira Ramsey.
She is a seventh grade student at John Chavis Middle School. I asked her if they had a program at her
school that taught about the consequences of bullying. She told me about “Rachel’s Challenge”. In the program they are taught to seek out
teachers or the guidance counselors if they are being bullied or know someone
who is. The teachers or principle will talk to the student to try and find out
what the issues are and they will decide the punishment for that student based
on the severity of the bullying.
Punishments can vary a lot. They
can be just getting the two students together to talk out their problem, to
in-school suspension, to out-of-school suspension, to possibly even being sent
to a juvenile facility.
The “Rachel’sChallenge” is being used at schools all over the country Rachel was the first student shot at the Columbine
High School shootings. She was a very
smart and caring person. After her
death, her family found some of her writings and decided to start a program to
be used in school. The program was to
help teach our children how just being kind to someone may change everything
for that person. Rachel’s beliefs were that if one person could
show kindness toward someone else, it would start a chain reaction of kindness. People need to reach out to each other and
really listen so that we may find the reason the person bullying is doing the
bullying. Just that one kind word, on that one special
day, may be the difference in whether that person goes home and loads that gun
to kill themselves or others.
The
statistics on bullying are astounding. It
is believed that approximately 160,000 students a day are absent from school
because they are afraid to go. They may
be afraid of being hit on or even just words being said. That is way too much! What is even more frightening is that one out
of twenty students has seen a gun at school.
According to the statistics, the
reason for most shootings is revenge.
About one out of every ten students, who drop out of school, has
reported that it is because of being bullied.
Every child deserves an education.
Bullying should not be a reason for them not to get it.
There
are steps we can take to handle the issue of bullying. Intervene immediately to the situation. Stay calm and be respectful of the
individuals involved. Listen to what is
being said. Getting the story from all
sides will be very helpful. Never jump
to conclusions or put the blame on one person until all the facts are
gathered. There are always two sides to
every story.
The
best way to stop bullying is to stop it before it begins. To do this, we as a community, need to stand
together and show our children that this behavior is not acceptable. There needs to be a plan set up in the schools
so that children can feel safe to come and talk to someone if they are being
bullied or see someone being bullied.
Teach our children not to be bystanders and just watch as someone else
is hurt. They should be taught, that is
the right thing to do, to tell someone if they witness someone being
bullied. It all starts at home and
carries over to school.
Works Cited
