The Issue of Bullying
Bullying is a problem that affects millions of students of all races and classes. 1 out of 4 kids is bullied and depending on their ages up to 43% of students have been bullied while online.
Child and teen Bullying and Cyberbullying are at an all-time high. Some kids are so tormented that suicide has become an alternative for them. It has everyone worried. Not just the kids on its receiving end, but the parents, teachers and others who may not understand how extreme bullying can get.
It should not be difficult and scary to be a kid. This is a time when we should be free to be open and truly explore who we are and to just experience all life’s magnificent adventures. But, for many of us, our childhoods were not this carefree…in fact, for a lot of us, our younger years are filled with scary and painful memories. For myself, I can vividly remember being terrified to go to school…I was afraid to wonder to far out on the playground for fear of being beat up and harassed. I was bullied and made fun of on a daily bases. I would make myself sick…I can remember sitting alone on the steps nearest to the school office where I felt somewhat protected and all I could think of was how am I going to get out of here?…how am I going to survive another minute?
I can remember this one day…it was super cold…dead of winter…my mom sent me to school all bundled up with new gloves, beanie hat and a big warm jacket…my mom was so sweet, she always wanted us to be matching with new clothes for every season…on this particular morning…I was standing in the cold trying to stay warm just watching all the kids play in the newly fallen leaves…thinking, why was I different? How come I couldn’t be that happy? Why didn’t I have friends? Why were the kids so mean to me?…the next thing I remember is being dragged out to the back of the school, severely brutalized…my jacket torn up, my gloves ripped from my hands, my hat all unraveled and my mouth stuffed with dried leaves, then, left bloodied and alone in a pile of leaves humiliated I wondered why, what did I do to deserve this?…all this done by the hands of angry children…I often wonder where they learned to be so cruel and what did I represent to them that evoked such violent behavior? I don’t have the answers to those question, but what I know for sure is…being bullied as a child hurts, it’s painful and it leaves gaping scares…scares that some people never heal from. And when I think deeply on this subject…I can’t help but understand that there must be wounds left on the children that did the bullying…they had to learn there behavior from someone…I don’t believe they were born “bad”…it’s a cycle of abuse that was learned and it will continue until we become mindful of the realities we face. Nothing will change until there is a continuous, honest dialogue about this destructive epidemic and the devastating effects it has on our youth.
Bullying Statistics
- 1 out of 4 teens are Bullied.
- 9 out of 10 LGBT students experienced harassment at school and online.
- 8% students stay home on any given day because they’re afraid of being bullied.
- 1 out of 5 kids admits to being a bully, or doing some “Bullying.”
- 43% fear harassment in the bathroom at school.
- A poll of teens ages 12-17 proved that they think violence increased at their schools.
- 282,000 students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month.
- More youth violence occurs on school grounds as opposed to on the way to school.
- 80% of the time, an argument with a bully will end up in a physical fight.
- 1/3 of students surveyed said they heard another student threaten to kill someone.
- 2 out of 3 say they know how to make a bomb, or know where to get the information to do it.
- Playground statistics – Every 7 minutes a child is bullied.
Adult intervention -4%
Peer intervention – 11%.
No intervention –
85%.
As I have this discussion with friends, I’m amazed at how many of them were bullied themselves, people that I would have never imagined would have been bullied and it just confirms the facts: THIS IS AN EPIDEMIC. I’ve healed from my trauma, but only through forgiveness have I been able to move past it. Also, knowing on a deep level that those who do the abusing are also struggling with inner issues, and knowing it was really nothing I did that caused it…I think kids that are highly sensitive are easy targets…it’s a tragedy because so many of those sensitive kids are silenced before they have a chance to blossom into the brilliant souls they were created to be…silenced without a sufficient support group to help them heal.
My dream is for humanity to have a mass and continuous heart awakening…an awakening where we will come together as a society and collectively learn generous giving and teach a new generation of human beings how to lead from the heart and let their souls be a shining beacon of hope, love and light.
An excerpt from my upcoming book:
SHIFTING POINTS On The Heart
