The fight against bullying

"The Girl you just called fat? She is overdosing on diet pills.
The Girl you just called ugly? She spends hours putting makeup on hoping people will like her.
The Boy you just tripped? He is abused enough at home.
See that man with the ugly scars? He fought for our country.
That guy you just made fun of for crying? His mother is dying.
You never know what its like until you walk a mile in their shoes"

Bullying is a harsh reality in schools today, it is something that teachers, administration, parents, and even the students themselves can put an end to. It wont be an easy task because bullying comes in so many forms, and many times they are not visible to the eye, cyber bullying for one is something new that we must add to the list. Before we can figure out how to put an end to it, lets take a look at what bullying is.

Bullying is any type of physical, emotional, psychological initimidation over another person, doing something to have power over another

• Name calling
• Leaing people out of activities
• saying or writing mean things
• Threatening
• Making someone feel uncomfortable
• Scarying someone
• Using violence against someone
• Physically hurting someone
• Making them do things they do not want to do.

Who are the Bullies??
Someone who has low self-esteem but puts on an act that they have a strong self-esteem. Someone who wants to overt control. They may come from homes where violence is the norm. They may see it as a way of being popular, or making themselves look tough and in charge. Some bullies do it to get attention or things, or to make other people afraid of them. Others might be jealous of the person they are bullying. They may be being bullied themselves. Some bullies may not even understand how wrong their behaviour is and how it makes the person being bullied feel.

Who is the victim?

It can be anyone, it can be the bully themselves. Many children that are being bullied seem insecure, socially isolated, anxious. Some young people are bullied for no particular reason, but sometimes it's because they are different in some way - perhaps it's the colour of their skin, the way they talk, their size or their name.
Sometimes young people are bullied because they look like they won't stand up for themselves.

"Some people think bullying is just part of growing up and a way for young people to learn to stick up for themselves. But bullying can make young people feel lonely, unhappy and frightened. It makes them feel unsafe and think there must be something wrong with them. They lose confidence and may not want to go to school any more. It may make them sick."

We need to stop bullying, but how do we do this. First thing is that we need to raise the awareness so that it does not go unseen, that parents, adults, teachers, administrators and everyone in a childs life knows what to look for.  Once we know how to look for it we need to have responses in place that we can use to stop it. We can create a better school environment by having teachers and students practice peer mediation. We can have rules put into place in the classroom that the students help to come up with against bllyings and the consequences against it. 

USE COOPERATIVE CLASSROOM LESSONS!! 

This encourages students that wouldnt normally work together to do so, it reduces social anxiety and it allows these students to have a voice that they would not other wise have.  

"Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke."

"Everyone who wants to do good to the human race always ends in universal bullying. "