Take on Topics

By TRACI BARNES
Bullying can be physical, emotional, or verbal.  Many times in school this happens in PE, hallways, recess, bathrooms, waiting for school buses, on school buses, in classes where group work is required, or at after school activities. Today it is also very common on social media.  

Many times other students that see bullying don’t react.  They do this out of the fear that they might be the next victim. The American Psychological Association states that 40 to 80 percent of all school children experience bullying in some point in their school careers.  

Only 20 to 40 percent actually report the abuse. Seventy percent of middle school students  and  high school students experience bullying in school. While 7 to 12 percent of the bullies are habitual and pose a threat, there are five to 15 percent that are constantly bullied. 

Unfortunately bullying doesn’t stop after the school years.  It exists in the workplace and in some homes.  Most people have dealt with it in one form or another in their lifetime.   The bullies are the ones that have issues they are trying to project out in order to make themselves feel better.

I am so glad there are programs to educate children in school about the harm that bullying can cause. This is harm that can stay with someone a lifetime.

I want to encourage everyone when you see someone being bullied to stand up and help the victim. Then we need to try to get help for the bully. There is something going on with them that is causing them to inflict pain on others.

So if you see someone different, let us all just respect their differences.  Just remember that one thing that might make someone an easy target might just be the one thing that makes them wonderful. Twenty-five percent of all school children not only think about suicide, but they have a plan of how to do it. Our children must learn to say “I am somebody”.

The LeFlore County Coalition for Healthy Living is presenting Kirk Smalley. The event will be at the auditorium at Carl Albert State College tonight at 7. Smalley founded Stand for the Silent.  www.standforthesilent.com.  See story HERE.

You and your children are  invited to attend this free event.  Please join me so we can all make a difference.  Let’s help stop bullying so no one else is a victim.

For any kids who might by chance read this please remember:  The one thing people will remember the most about you is how you treat others.  I recently heard someone many years older than me tell another he went to school with how he appreciated the fact that he never made fun of him. That he always appreciated that and remembered it to this day. What we think are small kindnesses can actually be huge to someone else.

I hope to see you tonight.

Until next week…