Bullying: Can I make a difference?

But I am here to tell you, as a TAHS graduate, that it is real and that it really does happen. You hear about it in your 7^th grade life skills class, you go to assemblies centered around it, and you can find at least five posters about it in our guidance office alone. But where do we start? How do you make a difference and how do you help out a friend?

I want to tell you the hard truth with no sugar added; you just have to start. You just have to care. You have to stand up for the kid in your math class or your English class or in gym.

When I was in seventh grade, I remember sitting in life skills and learning how to stand up for someone and who to tell when you don’t know what to do. After that I was on MySpace (because that was the “Facebook” of that time), and I stumbled across a profile of one of the teachers that I knew. But something seemed off and I knew there was something wrong with it, so I checked it out and I found that it was an account made by a student to make fun of this teacher. I was shocked and I was appalled. I wrote down the link of the profile and the next day I took it to the guidance counselor and they found out who made the account and the profile was taken down.

When I was in ninth grade I remember standing at the end of the upstairs hallway near the parking lot, with almost my whole entire grade looking at me, waiting to see what I was going to tell the teacher asking me what happened. I had witnessed, like most of my grade, a group of students throwing milk all over another student. I had a choice that day, I could have ran down the hallway like the other students who were around the aftermath, I could have lied to the teacher, or I could have simply said that I didn’t know what happened. But, I put myself in that student’s shoes for a second and thought about what I would want them to do if they were in my position. And so I told this teacher what happened even though I knew that most of my grade was listening to me and I knew that people would talk about it for a long time. I stood up for this student because it wasn’t right.

When I was a senior I was at a Friday night home football game and I was walking around with a friend and I saw a girl that I knew hitting her ex-boyfriend and calling him names. I stopped her and told her to stop. She just looked at me. I stood my ground and told her to stop. I told her to leave and go that way. I then looked at the boy and made sure he was okay and told him to go the opposite way. From what I understand nothing else happened between the two.

Later my senior year, I was walking between classes and saw one boy hitting another. There weren’t any teachers around at that very moment, so I stood up and I stepped in and told them to stop. I made sure that they were going to listen to me before I went to the nearest open classroom and told the teacher inside. Later that day, I was asked by multiple people why I did it, why I stopped the fight when I didn’t know either person. I looked every person who asked me that in the eye and asked, “If that was you being hit and I saw it would you just want me to walk away?” Not one person knew how to answer that.

So I am here telling you that bullying does happen. It happens every day. And I am also telling you that you CAN make a difference! YOU have the power to help someone, even if it is just one person, you were able to help them. And that is truly what makes the difference. Yes TAHS has amazing staff that would drop anything to help any one of you that needed it, but we both know that there are more of you than there is of them. They are working to do everything that they can to stop the bullying, but they cannot be everywhere at the same time, and that is why it is up to you to make a difference. That is why it is up to you to take a stand, even if you only help one person.

I am here to say that you have a voice and you have the power to make it heard.

 If you or anyone you know is being victimized tell a trusted adult and get help. Take a stand against bullying. “Aevidum, I’ve got your back.”