For children who are made fun of bullying is the worst thing for them. I was made fun of constantly in grade school and it let to much anxiety including an on set of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Bullying is the worst abuse to a kid second from beating or sexual abuse. It changes a kid’s mind. Teachers need to know this. In all the school’s I went to that were not Christian or Catholic School bullying was allowed. The teachers would say its normal or that I was causing it by my social problems. This is what wrecks children’s lives. There are programs for this like stopbullying.org. Please all, let teachers and parents know how serious bullying is.
Michael Fannon
Bulleying is wrong and painful.
I know how much pain bullying can cause, I was bullied and picked on growing up alot, (to me it seemed like I was constantly picked on or bullied) by other students. I had very few friends growing up do to my ADD and getting picked on so much. The bulleying wasn’t so bad, but getting picked on was horrible. My last 3 years of HS at a Private Lutheran were terrible, I didn’t have one single friend in HS then. I still don’t have alot of close friends even now. But I do know that because of all the bad stuff that happened to me that I’m a much nicer and better person, (I’m not recomending getting picked on and bullied to make people better, I’m not doing that) but I do know that I’m a much more friendly and easier to get along with because of that.
But I turned around and picked on and bullied my 2 younger brothers, who didn’t deserve it at all. Since my life was a living you-know-what, I made their life a living you-know-what. Thankfully they still love me and have forgiven me for what I did to them several years ago, but that still doesn’t make what I did right. I just didn’t know how to tell my parents about all the crap I was going through growing up. I was also in the Navy for almost 8 years after HS, then was when getting picked on was a blessing and not a curse. I was immune to peer pressure to go out and drink and do alot of bad things that some guys in the Navy enjoy doing. No amount of peer pressure or anything other pressure put on my was going to get me to something stupid (just like alot of guys I worked with did when they were in the Navy, I could tell some very funny stories about what guys I knew did, but that would take alot of space here). But I can look back at being picked on and bullied as a blessing in some ways. But having a totally crappy social life and dating life isn’t one of them.
I teach children who have some behavioral disorders at a public high school. I felt offended by your remark that bullying seemed to be allowed “only” at public schools. I do not tolerate bullying and if a child engages in it then they are sent out of the room. I even call parents and have one-on-one talks with the students in order to try to get them to stop this behavior. Catholic schools also do not have a lot of Learning and Behavior disorder programs in them so a lot of these problem behaviors do not exsist. My best friend grew up in a Catholic school and she said that she was bullied all the time. Everyone always gives Public Schools a bad rap. Students who are bad rarely even get accepted or are able to stay long at Catholic schools regardless of behavior disorders or not. It sure would be nice to be able to pick what students you want in public schools and to be able to throw them out on the first or second violation of a rule, but unfortunalty that is not an option.