COMMENTARY | There was a point in my life when very few things were worse than having to go into the locker room before and after P.E. class. It was seventh grade and the girls were angry. Were mean. I learned that year to dress quickly and get out of there. And I learned to hate P.E.
The recent news reports of the suicides of bullied teens and, more recently still, the Associated Press report of a young girl being beat unconscious on a Florida school bus have me asking the question. Are school bullying incidents worse than they used to be?
Before you read any further, perhaps I should confess. I don't know the answer to my question for sure. All I can do is assume, based on what I read, see and hear that it is, in fact, a worse problem than before. I can tell how it was "back then": bullying wasn't called bullying. It was called a fact of life. It was called establishing a pecking order. It was called girls being girls and boys being boys and everyone went through it.
I don't remember anyone being beat unconscious on a school bus, such as what happened in Florida. I don't recall groups of 75 children, the reported number riding the bus that day, sitting back and letting 7 people punch and kick a child until she "appeared to have a seizure and pass out." I don't recall a school bus driver ever deciding that he couldn't control a fight so he was going to, instead, drive to a nearby school and call for reinforcement. It seems, from my recollection, that if the bus driver stopped the bus for anything, someone was going to be in big trouble and it was going to be a quiet trip from there on out.
According to the website Family First Aid, 30 percent - over 5.7 million - teens are estimated to be involved in school bullying, either as a bully or the target of one. Bullying occurs more frequently with boys than girls, the website states, and boy-bullying is more frequently physical, while girls are commonly targeted with rumors or sexual comments, and are more likely to be excluded by others. These statistics would indicate that the Florida situation, which involved a girl as the target and at least one girl as the aggressor, is the exception to the rule. But is it an isolated incident? If not, what can be done to prevent this from happening?
I don't know. What I know is that this isn't an issue that we can continue to couch in terms of being part of growing up. Being beat unconscious while 75 people bear witness is not a part of growing up. Being a witness to someone being beat unconscious and not trying to stop it shouldn't be part of growing up. I wish we had the answers.
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