Bullying is a hot topic nowadays, but bullying has been around for a long time. The methods may have changed a bit — from threatening to take someone’s lunch money to sabotaging someone’s social media profile — but it still exists. In fact, a 2019 study from the National Center of Education Statistics shared that one out of every five students reports being bullied. And of those students, 13 percent were made fun of, called names or insulted; 13 percent were the subject of rumors; and 5 percent were pushed, shoved, tripped or spit on. In addition, data collected in 2019 from a nationally representative sample of 4,972 middle and high school students between the ages of 12 and 17 showed that percentages of individuals who have experienced cyberbullying have more than doubled (18 percent to 37 percent) in the last decade.
Thank you guys for doing an article on this. The school system needs to address bullying a lot more seriously now especially with everything that is going on these days. Kids can be very cruel and they will make fun of the most trivial of things. I got made fun of when I was in school but back then we didn’t have to worry about getting shot at when we went. Our generation was taught morals, ethics, values and respect. That isn’t stuff that is taught in the classroom. It begins at home with the parents creating a structured caring environment for the kids, listening to them, and being there for them when they need the parents most. I don’t believe in holding their hand through everything they do but you gotta let kids have accountability for their actions. That starts first with teaching corrective discipline in a loving healthy environment so they learn self respect and responsibility. If kids are expected to be held to a higher standard for their own behavior by their parents half of the problems in the world wouldn’t even exist today.
I was bullied as a young teen in the late sixties. The bullying I experienced was a bit different than today, but probably no less traumatic than what I experienced.
Two of the most memorable events for me was being waterboarded as well as hanging. I didn’t hear the term “waterboarding” until much later, but I was ambushed from behind by half a dozen kids that put a burlap bag over my head, pulled it down as far as it would go, and then wrapped a rope around my arms and legs so I could not move them. They drug me into a shower, laid me on my back, and turned the water on my face off and on for about 30 minutes.
The hanging incident was similar. I was taken out into the woods, a hangman noose put around my neck, and the rope thrown over a tree branch and secured. I was picked up and forced to stand on a chair prior to a breathable bag was put over my head. Unbeknownst to me, because I could not see thru the bag, they unsecured the rope so it theoretically would let loose if I fell off the chair. I was left this way for an extended length of time.
Both of these incidents were at a church summer camp I went to for a week every summer. In the end, I think I came out a lot tougher than I would have otherwise - it gave me the attitude that has gotten me thru some scary encounters as an adult.
Thank you @Lakerfan34, bullying can be brutal, but I am one of the fortunate ones that decided to have it make me stronger.
" the least we can do as responsible parents is talk to our children about bullying and prepare them to avoid it, escape it and even defend themselves against it."
To Beth’s point, I have another bully story to share. There was a kid in our neighborhood my oldest son had to deal with. He lifted my son’s bike over his head and threw it off a 4’ retention wall into the street. It got scratched and the handlebars rotated around, so the bike was still serviceable, but no excuse for that. I went to the bully’s door and found out he was being raised by his grandparents. I will nicely paraphrase the grandfather’s response “Go pound sand where the sun don’t shine”.
I went home and taught my son how to make an effective fist he could use without breaking his thumb. I told him next time don’t hold back and hit him square in the nose, his eyes will water up and he won’t be able to fight back for a while. Use that time to come home and get away. Sure enough, within a couple of days the kid came up behind him and knocked him down on the sidewalk. He then preceded to stand over my son kicking him. My son caught him not only by surprise, but square in the nose! He never had another problem with the bully again.
Oh I’ve been in a couple fights in school before because of it. But do I believe violence is unacceptable behavior? Absolutely. I just felt at that time like I didn’t have any other options. The school wasn’t doing anything they never listened or took action. I feel terrible that I had to stoop that low to solve my problems. However it got the bullying behavior too stop. They all had more respect for me and started to back off. But I would not wish violence on anybody. Ever. If I could have handled the situations back then differently I would have. Using violence should never be an answer for solving problems for anybody. When you fight, nobody wins.