Assertion Journal

Mother Blames Verbal Bullying for Death of Her Son, Inquest Hears

Almost every year we get called down to the auditorium to sit and listen to a speaker about bullying. As this speaker is talking there are snickers and flat out shouts from the crowd, people saying “bullying doesn’t happen here!” Well, it does. Our preferred bullying style isn’t necessarily the fist-to-face type of bullying we are used to hearing about. I’m talking about the emotional and verbal beat downs some kids face every day. This article made me realize that a lot of us are actually in denial about bullying and what it actually is.

This article, written by Matthew Taylor, is a powerful article about bullying. A young kid actually committed suicide because he was being verbally bullied by others. I'm sad to say that this isn’t the only bully-related suicide case I’ve heard of. This article made me think about how powerful other people’s words can be, whether they are said jokingly or not. Whenever I hear stories like this I feel like everyone should just sit down and watch Bambi and think about Thumpers words when he says “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/apr/20/pupilbehaviour.schools