What You Should Know About Anti-Bullying Month

Discrimination. Bullying. We have all heard those words. They are the unjust treatment of different people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, religion, sex, and more.

In school, this is becoming a huge problem. Discrimination often comes to light in the form of bullying. About 160,000 children miss school every day and 1 in 10 drop out due to consistent bullying. Bullying can make it very hard to focus on school work. Olivia Kellicut can empathize with these statistics.

“Bullying has affected me by getting in the way of school work and being able to concentrate on moving forward with life,” Kellicut said. “When people decide to take time out of their lives to make fun of you for something or point out something that’s obvious it isn’t always avoidable, sometimes it is to a point but it is not 100 percent [avoidable].”

Bullying can trigger depression, among other things. Victims of bullying are 2 to 9 times to commit suicide than people who have not  been discriminated against. Bullying often comes in many forms, not just physical. It can be mental/psychological, and due to technological advances, the amount of people  bullied on the internet is rising as well. Over half of the teens in the U.S. have been bullied online, and about the same number have taken part in the bullying. 68% of teens agree that cyber-bullying is a big problem with their generation.

Discrimination based on sex is not exclusive to females- it has affected all genders on the spectrum. Based on overall reported incidents, approximately 25% of boys report being bullied while on 20% of girls do. Boys and girls alike can be discriminated against for not fitting societies standards of beauty. People who consider themselves any variation of gender get bullied for simply existing. As well as not fitting the traditional beauty, many, like Isabel Rushton ’18, get bullied for their interests.

“I’ve been discriminated against for being female,” Rushton said. “I remember one time I tried to talk about video games with some guys and one of them said ‘you don’t know anything about this, you’re a girl’”.

Ethnicity has also been a common factor in cases of discrimination against students. Among other reasons, students may discriminate against people of color because of recent tragedies or happenings around the world. Atrill Salazer ’17 believe by taking pride in who you are and standing up for yourself, the bullies may back down- since they generally ‘go after’ easy targets.

“Ever since I was in kindergarten I was bullied for my hair, not only that but for my race. In 2nd grade I started standing up for myself. In April of my 2nd grade year I almost killed a kid who had bullied me for ever. And in 7th and 8th grade I got depressed but I was so in denial about it I cured myself and from that day I just stop caring about what everyone said [about me]. … And in my freshman year I found my true black history and now fight for my race.” He also went on to say how “from all of that I fight bullies no matter what”.

In general, anti bullying month wants to share the message to students who believe they’re just poking fun that others can be more sensitive and may not take it as such.  Anti-bullying activists advise to watch for people’s initial reaction and body language and use those as a guide. What you do, or in this case what you do not do, can impact people’s lives forever.

“And as for long term effects sometimes I feel scared and want to avoid going to school so I don’t have to face people that have bullied me in the past,” Rushton said.

If you see bullying, make sure to report it immediately to a administrator.

Click here to find out more information about anti-bullying week.