Trump, the Holocaust, the Criminal Justice System, and so many more problems our world faces or has faced are all centered around one thing; bullying. It all has to do with power dynamics. 160,000 kids stay home from school everyday because of fear of bullying. A key step to finding the solution is figuring out why do people bully? Although there are many reasons, they usually center around jealousy, comparison, and/or they have suffered from abuse or neglect.
Throughout my 4th grade year, I was bullied. I pushed through, but I can’t deny that I felt alone. Even after telling my teacher and parents, nothing much was done. The teachers talked to the bully, and my parents gave me advice, but the bully still found her way around it. Some days, after recess I would climb up the stairs to class, and literally act like an angry cat, hissing and clawing at everything–I felt like a volcano exploding. People looked at me–probably confused about why I was being so weird–but I was just so angry! Every time I would find new friends to hang out with, she quote on quote stole them. They took her side because they were too scared to get on her bad side. She said to me, “how does it feel to not have any friends left?” Luckily, I found my hope. My mom had arranged for me to hang out with a girl whose parents my mom had known for a long time. I had known their family too, but I wasn’t as close with them. I soon found she and I had a ton in common, and we quickly became the best of friends. She taught me, to stay determined, for there is always hope.
My story has a happy ending, but this isn’t always the case. 64% of children who were bullied did not report it; this means only 36% reported the bullying. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year according to the CDC. Bully victims are between 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims. A study in Britain found that at least half of suicides among young people are related to bullying. 10 to 14 year old girls may be at even higher risk for suicide. We need to take action because more than half of bullying situations, (57%), stop when a peer intervenes on behalf of the student being bullied.
In the words of Vashti Quiroz-Vega,
Don’t turn your face away.
Once you’ve seen, you can no longer act like you don’t know.
Open your eyes to the truth. It’s all around you.
Don’t deny what the eyes to your soul have revealed to you.
Now that you know, you cannot feign ignorance.
Now that you’re aware of the problem, you cannot pretend you don’t care.
To be concerned is to be human.
To act is to care.