Michelle Holmes

Block 3

4-20-2011

Grade 10

English

Bullying

There are many different types of bullying. Three examples are violence, harassment, and cyber

bullying. All of these are ways of discriminating against people who are different. I believe that bullying

is destructive and shouldn’t be taken lightly. The Criminal Justice System should help schools deal with

bullying.

The physical effects of bullying always impact people negatively. Whether they are beat up or

pushed, violence usually leads to more violence. We watched a video at school that was about a boy

who was bullied because he was gay. It was so bad that he wanted to commit suicide. The violence of

bullying almost caused the most horrible form of violence. People who have been harassed or feel bad

about themselves often bully others. I know a kid from my old school that was teased a lot, and I was

the only one nice to him. Now he’s mean to me because of all the times he has been teased. In this case

bullying led to bullying.

The emotional scars affect people more than physical harm because the emotional scars last

longer. Being bullied feels horrible; it diminishes people and makes them feel worthless and unloved,

which can lead to depression. I have a few examples from my own life. Recently, a kid threw something

at me during class. I felt like I was hated and unliked. I also felt like screaming at them. Then I went to

the office to talk to Cruz who is the Student Support Coach. I told him that bullying makes me feel

depressed and hated. Now the kid is not really bothering anymore at the moment but that’s because I

don’t talk to him. But it did remind me of getting teased when I was younger. When I was in fourth and

fifth grade I had a resource teacher named Mrs. Crabb who wasn’t very nice. Sometimes if you got

something wrong she would yell at you until you started to cry, and it made me scared to go to her class.

During that same time, I was teased by my whole class. As a result, I used to cry after school because I

was teased so much by most of my class. That’s when I started to get depression.

Fortunately, schools can resolve this problem. Right now consequences are not adequate. In

my case, after I told my mom that Mrs. Crabb was being mean to me and other kids she told the

principal and they didn’t do anything about it. When I told the teacher the kids in my class were teasing

me she told them to stop and that’s all she did. No one did anything about these problems so I ended up

leaving the school. In the case of the boy in the video, the boys who teased him got sent to the

principal’s office, but the principal didn’t do much about it. She just talked to them and no one was

suspended. Talking is never enough. When the boy got older his family took his principal and some

students to court. The outcome was that he had lasting memories of the bullying. People are cruel

that’s why the police should get involved.

Major cases should end up going to court. Bullies would serve community service; go to special

classes, or counseling. People might say that it’s a small problem, and dealing with being teased is part

of being a kid. However the physical and emotional effects make it a big deal.

The courts could guide schools into stopping harassment. This would be hard to do but not

impossible. It is extremely important because bullying could cause emotional and physical harm.