In grade school my younger brother and I had to walk to school a mile there and back. As a matter of fact our family didn’t have a car s we walked everywhere we needed to go. On a few occasions walking home from school my brother and I would run into a few older teenage boys that wanted to bully us around a bit. Even worse, occasionally one of us would get caught alone by a group of boy’s who love to strike fear in the heart of a boy defenseless against such numbers. I remember distinctly one day Terry and I got caught in an alley by a group of black kids a year or two older and larger. We happened to be next to an open alley garage when they started circling around us shoving and pushing us when I spotted what I thought was a garden hoe, but now I know it was a sling blade on a long wooden handle. I grabbed the tool and charged the closest boy swinging the sling blade. At first they taunted just out of reach when I charged them again as fast as I could, swinging wildly when suddenly they realized I meant business and they ran away down the alley. Little did they know I would have cut them to shreds if I had got close enough to do it. I had already had a terrible temper besides being frightful of my brother or myself getting beat down for nothing. We were no different than any other kids in the neighborhood. Black or white, all the kids knew it was best not to get caught alone or outnumbered. Our neighborhood had its share of bullies. We dodged them the best we could or suffered the consequences. What was worse is that my oldest brother was five years older and was one of the bullies we had to avoid at home or elsewhere. I couldn’t count the times I have been shot with a pellet gun or used as a practice dummy by my brother John and his friends to rehearse the latest professional wrestling hold or slam they saw on TV last. But haven’t we all been abused at one time or other by these bullies? Today, in our society our own children are subjected to the same treatment at one level or another. Sometimes they inform us of such grievances and sometimes they choose to handle it themselves quietly for fear of bothering their parents or maybe their parent’s reaction to the problem may embarrass them. It isn’t enough stress for our children go to school every morning during a time and age that mass murder in school shootings are not only a real possibility anywhere, but actually occur frequently. Also, most of our children have to have a police officer on duty at their school to keep them safe not only from criminals and nut job’s but for protection of student’s and teachers from the student’s themselves who act out of control. To say that schools these days are potential hotbeds of violence would be an understatement. Now we have a new style of bullying which has developed over the past few years in the form of psychological abuse or torture which comes by way of verbal assaults upon one individual by another or even a group of offenders. As with physical violence, this type of abusive bullying at the school and at home via social networking sites on the internet is woefully under addressed or simply ignored by school teacher’s and school administration. It seems that not only the schools but also the parents seem to shrug this off as flippant “Children will be Children” excuses for this type of destructive behavior leaving the victim children to suffer alone without obligatory protection from both parents and school administration. Recently we have seen the results of inaction from this type of bullying through teenagers choosing suicide as a final escape from their misery and suffering of fear. On January 14th, 2010 a recent Irish immigrant Phoebe Prince 15, committed suicide by hanging herself from a stairwell in her home t o escape the threats of physical harm and constant verbal and text abuse from other students who she attended school with. There was no one in her school’s administration willing to stand up for Phoebe and take actions against those who constantly abused her despite the school’s knowledge that this crime was occurring. Instead, Phoebe chose death because no one had the backbone to do what was right to ensure help and protection from these lowlife offenders. Only now, after Phoebe’s death will these six students be indicted on charges of their crimes against her and incredibly those school officials who had knowledge of this abuse will not be charged. This is most disturbing and an injustice to all children who attend school. I hope that every parent will remind their children that physical bullying and cyber bullying will not be tolerated and that their child should immediately inform them if their child experiences this type of abuse. I also hope that each parent and teacher will hold the school accountable to prevent bullying and address any problem of such incidents when they arise. Also, check into your child’s social networks to ensure of their personal safety. In my opinion if you pay for internet access you should have the right to review your child’s activities on such sites.
