November 15-19 is Anti-Bullying Week and so alot of articles are going around the twitterverse. One particular article really hit me in the heart and so like many others I have decided to speak out.
In the 7th grade I got beat up, bullied and picked on by 8th grade girls nearly everyday. I know other students saw it but they did nothing. I can’t really blame them, standing up to a group of people bigger and stronger than you is hard. So like any other normal child I went to an adult. Unfortunately they did not believe me and called me a liar. No one would come forward to confirm my story except for my attackers that claimed I was the one lying. It didn’t seem to matter to anyone that I was a straight A’s student and they were delinquents. The adult’s in charge just ignored my cut lips and bruises and sent me back to class. After a while I started to feel it was my fault this was happening, like I had done something wrong an this was my punishment.
No child should ever have to feel that way. Not ever.
Finally after months of taking the beatings I did tell my mother what had been happening to me. She was horrified and livid. But no one would do that to her child and get away with it. She marched down to the office the very next day. The end result was two teachers were fired. The vice principle resigned and the girls never laid a hand on me again after that. The sad part, they also were never punished for what they did. The only one who got punished was me. I got detention for my extensive amount of tarties to class. It didn’t seem to matter that I had been late to class because I was being beat up.
No kid deserves to have this happen to them. Bullying does not belong in our schools or in our world.
If you are being bullied or abused speak up. If you know someone who is being bullied or abused speak up. We may not be able to end bullying but we can change the world for the better if we just speak up.
