Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Bullying
I am upset about the reaction to today's presentation on bullying. The most articulate response I heard surrounding it was that it was pointless because bullying is not an issue at UHS and that the administration is shoving this down our throats. I disagree with all parts of that statement. The administration is actually doing the opposite of shoving this down our throats: they aren't talking about it enough. In my three years at UHS I have heard school-wide discussions about the issue of bullying twice. Twice. Hardly shoving it down our throats. And bullying is definitely an issue at UHS. Maybe physically beating other kids up doesn't happen here, but we all know about incidents where peoples clothing was forcefully removed, and so the physical side is still there. Worse, though, is the verbal side, because for all the accepting atmosphere of UHS and for the community days and the sense of unity we all enjoy, gossiping about and mocking other students is still something I hear daily, and unfortunately occasionally find myself participating in. I'm not pointing the finger because everyone does it, but we should all be made more aware of what bullying is and what it means so that we can at least slow it down.
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9 comments:
Whatever freak boy, i actively attempt to talk about people behind their back and you never join in and tell me to stop. :p But i agree that these kinds of things happen, but realistically i find that there are two natural solutions. Our school has developed, generally, a safe way to bully and be a jerk to others. A part from the rare, or even unknown, physical actions, the transgressions typically exist in circumstances where the person being talked about will never find out or that they also have a group to turn to and flip it right back at the person. Even in the latter case, the people could become friends a week later. Other than rare exceptions the wheel goes round and no one is the wiser...
I did not hear most of the complaining about the bullying morning meeting because i was studying for something. I would say that as long as we are doing something in morning meeting it is a positive change form the past, though the past few months have been a refreshing change from first semester where it seemed like nothing happened. On bullying, do you really think that the incident of people's clothes being removed was bullying? Boys will be Boys and i seriously doubt that it was actually malicious. And while i myself have never had the urge to publicly de-pants someone, i can imagine a circumstance where that could occur. While the intent of bullying dosn't have to be malicious all the time, i seriously doubt that is a good example of bullying at our school.
JP, my dear, get off your high horse. You are not one to be preaching about gossiping/bullying. At all. And yes, thank you for qualifying and saying that you do participate in bullying. It would be much more effective, rhetorically, if you shared an anecdote from your own high school career where you were bullied or were a bully, perhaps where you called me a derogatory term behind my back. Simply scolding everyone for not taking something seriously does not appeal to pathos in the way you would like.
I agree, but I also think that bullying at our school isn't nearly as big of a problem as it is at other schools. I haven't witnessed any bullying myself, yet I am constantly oblivious to these things. I'm curious to see what you think the school should do about it, because I'm not sure what they can really do that would be effective.
JP, you make good points. You said the truth about there not being much physically but verbally it existing. It's something that happens though. I think it's good that the school did a presentation and I think you're right about them not forcing down our throats. I don't think anything more needs to be done than what's being done though. I think, as you said, that it's going to happen because everyone does it, but that we just need to be more aware of it.
Thank you for bringing this up JP. The problem is that this is a taboo topic at our school.
And Elise, you criticize JP for bringing up this subject when you don't contest his argument that all of us have engaged in it at some point in time. Providing that this is true, who exactly is to bring it up? By your logic, none of us are qualified. And that's the problem. Complacency. Everyone just doesn't want to talk about it.
I also find it ironic that you instruct JP to get off his high horse when no amount of revision could remove the pomposity inherent in your comment.
Well everyone has an opinion on this blog so I thought I might as well chime in for extra credit. I, for the most part, felt the same way about the morning meeting as your did JP. I could tell most people didn't really care, me included, because of how we left Andrew's Hall loud and quickly like we always do. But I think that is a slight indicator of the reality of bullying at UHS. We all leave quite and shocked when we have morning meetings about the word "gay" and the alleged drug talk happening in the hall way because we have all witnessed it. It was easy for us to shrug off the bullying morning meeting because most of us, regardless of bullying at UHS or not, feel safe to be ourselves. So, bullying,although it is an issue, does not impact us the way it does it other schools.
I tend to agree with you JP, because I noticed how people just considered it another stupid presentation and disregarded it as soon as morning meeting was over. Even though bullying isn't as obvious here, it's definitely still here, especially verbally, and I don't think anyone can deny that. But I have to agree, even if people don't know about the rumors, it is still hurtful.
I never heard complaining actually? It is a given that there is going to be gossip and verbal assault amongst a group of teenagers. In no way will that ever stop. I thought that the matter by which they approached this "problem" was perfectly reasonable. The school is by no means forcing this down our throats. If anything, that powerpoint was a smack on the head for people that continuously mock each other. For example, I make fun of Evan Teague a lot. Of course, I'm only joking around with him. Is that necessary? Of course not. Will I continue to? Of course I will.
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