MAKING A STAND (AGAINST BULLYING)



MAKING A STAND
(AGAINST BULLYING)

A pamphlet made by 11-grader Raina Loreen Q. Ramos

for a school project. (The artworks made into a

cybertistry/collage were said to be taken from

various anti-bullying websites. Unfortunately,

the names of the artists were not obtained.

So, if ever they recognized their work

included in the pamphlet cover,

please make a comment here
so that I could give courtesy.)

       Bullying is one horrible part of human nature. Most people experienced an aspect of it in his or her lifetime.

       A shy skinny male student became the object of physical and emotional torture, by the bigger boys, and most especially by the boys coming from rich families. He begins to experience the feelings of tightness and phobia, of anxiety and nervousness, and of insecurity, whenever it happened. His uncle’s friend, a Wing Tzun master, taught him how to defend himself, yet the anxiety remained and lingered for years.

       During high school and college, he was ready to defend himself whenever someone tried to bully him. He got hurt in more than one occasion and almost broke the shoulder of one bully. Being trained in martial arts is not enough assurance against bullying. Then he learned to overcome his shyness and surround himself with friends. But even with lots of friends, the act of bullying doesn’t stop. It got worse. At one time, it almost ended into a rumble between two fraternities, one trying to bully him and the other, coming to his aid.

       How do you really face this menace, especially now that it has become so prominent? The fact that the word “bullying” now has its own specific meaning speaks frighteningly of how common it has become. Boys and girls, and even adults, in many instances, gets bullied for the slightest trivial reasons.

       The statistics on bullying are astounding: One in five kids has been bullied at school, and one of every four kids that goes online has been bullied in social media. Bullying is never a rite of passage, and it’s not an inevitability. Those that say “kids are just being kids,” are indulgent idiots that promote the menace. Bullying is an intense and complicated interaction that is about power, shame, and humiliation, but it is preventable and there are things that we can do.

       It has become an enormous task, covering a whole host of different circumstances for bullying, from gender to weight and appearance issues, to “disabilities” and racial discrimination. The social cancer has spread that it needs both schools and communities to work together to mitigate it, more to eradicate it.

       The list of “bully magnets” is long: children who has gender peculiarity, children who have unusual physical appearances, who receive special education, who are poor, who practice a minority religion, who have atypical family structures, etc.

       Parents and educators need to formulate an acceptable program to protect children from the negative impact of bullying such as by creating a home environment that is self-affirming for children, by promoting responsible use of technology, social media, by changing the cultural attitude of aggression and cruelty, by correcting product marketing schemes that causes disrespect, and by correctly responding to both bully and victim.

       The tasks and responsibilities fall in the hands of parents, schools, even toy retailers and clothing marketers, and society at large. In short, in order to curtail the negative behaviors, we have to nurture the acceptance of diversity, respect, and empathy from the very beginning. To make a definite stand from the very beginning.

 

Hotlines where to call for help and report incidents of bullying.