Bullying in Schools

This is a subject that especially enrages me (I'm fuming while writing this). I can not stand bullying in any form and if I ever do see it, I do everything in my power to stop it. I am glad that we read Pascoe's book, even if there was this fire burning inside of me.

I went to an all girl's high school so I am mostly going to be drawing from my experiences in my co-ed school that I went to from Pre-K to 8th grade. This school was absolutely terrible. Looking back on my time there as an adult, I am really repulsed by the things that went on and how no one did anything to stop it. There was an extreme amount of bulling and disgusting behavior that occurred on a daily, if not hourly basis. I had many friends who were bullied so such an extreme amount that they changed schools. Students would get bullied for a variety of reasons, mostly just for being "different" in some way. Though this bullying did occur in our grade school days, is exploded even more in middle school, naturally. Boys and girls we mocked and physically harmed every day while authority figures literally watched and did nothing. I remember seeing one girl who was grabbed by her jacket by a boy, who then ripped her jacket, and threw her onto the cement. I couldn't even list all of the verbal and sexual assaults.

A time had occurred where I realized that I could bully other students to be with the so called "cool" students, but I couldn't do it. I absolutely could not do it. This did result in me getting bullied, but young me did find it more preferable than being mean to others. Pascoe writes that we need to "make our schools safe." We honestly do. I have met people who went to schools that didn't have bullies or were never bullied themselves, but it does really happen. My friends and I did not feel safe in that school, because even if we were harmed in anyway in front of an adult nothing would happen. Of course bullying does occur in higher education and I have seen and experienced it, my deepest experience of it was in my first school.

There is bullying that does happen on this campus even if people may not realize it. For example, one club that I will not name, collectively (apart from a small few) decided to bully one of its members, even the e-board! Yesterday, I even saw the harassment of this individual extend to social media. This bullying has gone on for more than a year. I got my friend in that club, who is not mean to this individual, in contact with an individual to address this issue.

There are several measures that can be taken to address and work to conquer the issue of bullying in schools. The first and most obvious one is to try to stop it if you see it. Even if they aren't your friend no one deserves to be treated invalidly. Secondly, as Pascoe explains, schools need to have policy changes to prevent or lessen harassment for bullying, sexism, and homophobia. I think that this is especially needed in middle school and high school. Furthermore, I believe that all schooling should have school sponsored events where speakers address these subjects. If not, there should at least be required videos to watch and texts to read on these issues.