Colin Holter
10/30/15
Have you ever been bullied? Have you ever witnessed bullying? It is a weed. A weed that is going to keep spreading until it infects the whole garden. It needs to be eliminated, and throughout this project I will try to raise your awareness on this issue.
Bullying can be shown in many different ways. The first way is verbal bullying. Verbal bullying or bullying with cruel spoken words, involves persistent name-calling, threatening, and making hurtful comments about someone’s appearance, religion, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation etc.
The second way is Physical bullying, or bullying with aggressive physical intimidation, which involves repeated hitting, kicking, tripping, blocking, pushing, and touching in unwanted and inappropriate ways.
The third way is Relational bullying, or bullying with “exclusionary tactics”, and involves actively preventing someone from joining or being part of a group, whether it’s at a lunch table, game, sport, or activity.
The fourth and final way is Cyberbullying. It involves harassing someone by spreading mean words, lies, and false rumors through e-mails, text messages, and social media posts. I believe that this is the most effective and cruelest way of bullying. I think this because when you’re being bullied in person, the bully can see the victim’s reaction. This might change his or her thoughts about what he or she had just done because of this. But with cyberbullying, you cannot see the person’s reaction, which makes it much more effective.
Studies show that one out of every four students (22%) report being bullied during the school year. Compared to students who only bully, or who are only victims, students who do both suffer the most serious consequences and are at greater risk for both mental health and behavior problems. Overall, bullying does damage to both ends of the spectrum.
I’m just asking you to stand up for yourselves and stand up for your peers. Whenever you see someone in the hall who’s being bullied, stand up for them. Studies show that more than half of bullying situations (57 percent) stop when a peer intervenes on behalf of the student being bullied. Stop it before it starts.
— Colin Holter, Harwood Union High School, Moretown, Vermont
