Jordan Matos Grade 11 School of Culinary Arts, Hospitality and Tourism @ Eastside High School “Hey have you seen that picture of him with that guy? It’s all over Facebook and Instagram, I heard they both did it. Look there they are.” This is the kind of thing students say when they hear a rumor. They’ll say something behind their backs and eventually put them on the spot. Bullying in schools across the United States is wrong and must be put to an end. You might ask, what is bullying? For the uninitiated, bullying is when a person uses force, threatens, or even abuses another. What does this entail? According to stopbullying.gov there are different types of bullying. One such is verbal, which can mean making inappropriate sexual comments, name-calling, and getting taunted. Social bullying is when a person hurts one’s relationships and reputation, which can include making rumors, embarrassing someone in public, or leaving someone out on purpose. There is also, in my opinion the worst offender, physically bullying. This is what it sounds likes, it’s when someone hurts another physically, and this involves punching, kicking, spitting, stealing someone’s possession, and making rude gestures. If that is not enough in today’s technological world we now have to deal with cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is essentially what I’ve gone over but through social media such as Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. Verbal bullying, is saying rude or writing mean things. Nobullying.com states in a study performed in 2007, 80% students in a school setting are verbally bullied. Some students, just to escape the idea of being verbally abused skip school. Imagine missing out on an education, not because you don’t want one, but because you fear the repercussions from your peers! The effects of being bullied verbally are depression, low self esteem, and a negative affect home life. Unfortunately I know how this feels because I was a victim of this type of bullying. Too often students used expletives when referring to me. It hurts having people; most who I don’t even know come out of nowhere calling rude and offensive names. But it’s not just me, it’s others who get verbally bullied. This leads into my next topic. Social bullying is when the bullied victim’s reputation and relationships get damaged by another. An example of this would be making a rumor on someone, whether the rumor itself is true or not it can have an effect. For example, a friend of mine was a homosexual. He didn’t want to share it with anybody, he told me because he knew I was to be trusted. However, someone took a picture of him and his boyfriend and posted it on social media. This picture spread through the school like wild fire and my friend was harassed daily. Some of his “friends” started to distance themselves from him. This hurt him incredibly and it was all thanks to a bully and social media which brings me to my next topic Cyber bullying is social bullying using the internet as a weapon. According to internetsafety101.org which contained researched dated from 2007 to 2009, 43% of teens aged 13 to 17 reports that they have experienced some sort of cyber bullying in the past year. What’s more shocking is that 81% of youth agree that bullying online is easier to get away with than bullying in person, and that 80% think it’s easier to hide being bullied online from their parents than if they were bullied in person. This type of bullying happened to Tyler Clementi. Clementi was an 18 year old student at Rutgers; He was a talented violinist and seemed to be on a good track for his future. Yet his roommate Dharune Ravi found out that Clementi was gay, and when Clementi and another man wanted to be in the dorm alone, Ravi set up a webcam and streamed a video of the two kissing on iChat; an IM service buy Apple that is now discontinued. Ravi did this twice. Ultimately Tyler requested a single room but the damage had been done. On September 22, 2010 he posted on his Facebook account "Jumping off the gw bridge sorry." His body was found a week later, and Ravi was charged with two counts for invasion of privacy. Ravi was indicted by a grand jury on 15 counts of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, tampering with evidence, witness tampering, and hindering apprehension or prosecution. He faced deportation as well as 30 days in jail, though was released after only 20 days. This form of bullying was so detrimental that it led to Tyler taking his own life. Finally there is physical bullying, need I say more? As the name gives away, it’s when someone uses force, such as punching, kicking, beating, and spitting. Not only beatings, but sexual harassment can go into this category. One act was the end of one, Phoebe Prince. She was of Irish blood, and emigrated to the U.S in 2009. She attended South Hadley High School in Massachusetts. Seven students of the aforementioned school were persistent in making life miserable for her. One act on January 14, 2010 was the killing blow for her when a student targeted her. Said student threw an empty can at her, as she was walking home. In turn her 12 year old sister discovered her hanging in a stairwell of her apartment. What’s most despicable is when her death was a Facebook page in her memory was made, it was defamed by others who wrote rude remarks on said page such as “accomplished”. I myself was a victim of being physically bullied. In 8th grade I transferred to another school, I was shy and awkward. Here I met this boy who I won’t refer to by name. There were times he would throw me on the floor during lunch, and even put me into chokeholds to a point where I saw my vision fade from normal to a glassy and distorted view. I wanted to tell someone about this but was afraid. One day he pulled down my pants in front of my gym class. After this a lot of things ran through my mind “Why does he do this to me? What can I do?” This is what brings me to my final thought. Bullying is an injustice. When I was given this assignment I could have written about police brutality, child labor, marital rape, the list could go on but I wanted to write on something that really hit home. It was this drive that motivated me to write on bullying, not only for how I’ve experienced this, but for the others who suffered the same treatment by others. Although some states have laws and policies against bullying, there is no Federal law that solely applies to bullying, which I want to be a reality. We’ve lost people because of they were bullied in different manners, people like Tyler Clementi, Phoebe Prince, and so many others have brought attention to bullying due to them takings their lives. We need to gain support and show law makers that bullying needs to end. There needs to be a federal law against it. By petitioning and calling our local congressmen we can make things happen. African Americans fought and marched for desegregation, Lincoln made a proclamation ending slavery, people called out when Eric Garner was choked to death by police officers. We can do the same for bullying in an intelligent and adult manner. Let’s use social media to our advantage. Through social media we need to bring awareness to people on the effects of bullying. We should start #EndBullyingNow. This could be a place on Twitter where people could share stories and bring awareness to just how devastating bullying can be. To those who are being bullied I can say this to you snitches don’t get stitches, if you’re getting bullied tell someone. Works Cited Living With Social Phobia. (2015, January 1). Retrieved March 2, 2015, from http://nobullying.com/social-phobia/. Cyber Bullying. (2013, January 1). Retrieved March 2, 2015, from http://www.internetsafety101.org/cyberbullyingstatistics.htm. What is Cyber Bullying. (n.d.). Retrieved March 2, 2015, from http://www.stopbullying.gov/cyberbullying/what-is-it/index.html.
