My Opinions Story

Bullying is a big deal and is extremely common. 1 in every 4 U.S. students claim to have been bullied. There are many different types of bullying but they all have the same effect. Even something as small as laughing at someone or starting a rumor is pulled into that category. This mainly happens at school, especially throughout middle school. Schools are not handling this effectively because the numbers haven’t changed.

I don’t think that anyone should have to go through weeks or even months of mental abuse. Schools really need to stop trying to get people to make the counselors office seem like somewhere that you need to go to if you're being bullied. Kids these days would rather be bullied than called a tattletale for telling on them. Instead, they should pay more attention to what goes on within their walls and realize whenever someone is being bullied.

In 13 Reasons Why, Hannah was hurting and went to the counselor and explained that someone abused her and he told her that she should just try to forget about it if she wasn't comfortable with telling an adult about who did it to her. This goes to show that the school teachers and adults are not taking the right precautions and actions in order to stop bullying or in some cases, a life.

In Mean Girls, all of the students had their own cliques and were very judgy towards the people that weren't a part of it. Cady was a new girl and joined a very exclusive clique. She was pushed around and made fun of for weeks and no teachers even noticed that any of this was happening under their roof. This is an accurate representation of what occurs in real life.

A freshman named Kenneth Weishuhn took his life after coming out as gay and being bullied at school, in classes, at lunch and then going home and being texted hateful messages and told multiple times to take his own life. These actions weren't noticed and prevented by the teachers and adults at his school. If they had paid more attention to what is going on under this roof, they could have prevented the bullying and this young 9th grader would still be living his best life.

Schools can try and make the point that they have counselors and people that the kids can confidentially go and talk to about the things that are happening in their lives. They sit there and listen and try and understand what the situation is in order to help you feel better. They advertise “No Place For Hate” and have a whole week to remind everybody what kind of environment they strive to be. There are hundreds of “Stop Bullying” posters strewn across the school and plastered on walls to be a friendly reminder.

Although these tactics are considerate and polite, kids don’t react to them. Bullying isn’t going to be fixed by friendly reminders and encouraging kids to stand up for themselves. The first thing teachers tell kids when talking about bullying is that you shouldn’t be a bystander and you should stand up for your classmates. The teachers and adults at schools aren’t doing much better. Right underneath their noses, kids are being bullied so bad that they feel useless. Just the action of paying closer attention could help kids and even save lives.

Bullying is a big deal, at all ages, at all times. Bullying isn’t going to go away right away or even completely but it can be minimized by small acts of kindness, focus on what is happening in students or peers friends and standing up for what you think is right.