Bullying...

[MikeW]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_bullying_one_town

Im sure everyone's been hearing about it in the lnews lately. Pretty sad really. The link above is to a case of 4 kids, at the same school, commiting suicide over a period of 2 years; all stemming from bullying.

Now, i do believe, somewhat, in survival of the fittest. If high school has taught me one thing it's that you gotta be tough. You gotta have a backbone and you gotta grow a pair. You gotta learn to either stand up for yourself or be able to deal with the shit you may or may not get.

Now, I, in now way, condone bullying. IMO, it cant be stopped completely because kids are gonna do behind backs or outside of school, where educators have no reach.

It sucks and no one wants it to happen to them, but it's part of life. Even once high school is over, bullies still exist. There are people in this world who just cannot exist unless theyre making other people's lives hell.

It's a sad and unfortunate trend that i hope either ends, slows, or comes to some sort of resolution.

The one thing, though, that just really got me. That just really made me see red was this...

Sladjana Vidovic's body lay in an open casket, dressed in the sparkly pink dress she had planned to wear to the prom. Days earlier, she had tied one end of a rope around her neck and the other around a bed post before jumping out her bedroom window...Suzana Vidovic found her sister's body hanging over the front lawn.

The family watched, she said, as the girls who had tormented Sladjana for months walked up to the casket — and laughed.

"They were laughing at the way she looked," Suzana says, crying. "Even though she died."

Even reading it a second time, still enrages me. Just the sheer lack of respect that these kids have is SO emense that it makes me wanna bully them until they themselves commit suicide. I just cant believe the nerve of kids these days. Someone dies--someone kills themselves--and in a horrific way, because of YOU, and you STILL laugh at them?!? Disgusting.

[Djmoua]

damn! That's terrible. Aren't there any cb7tuners there? Go and teach them ***got kids a lesson dammit!

[deevergote]

Yeah, that's just horrible.

Honestly, it all comes down to the parenting. Some people are damaged, and will just be wrong... but usually, it's the parents that teach their kids to be selfish and apathetic.

The parents of the bullied need to wake up as well. People aren't fine one day and then commit suicide the next. It's a long spiral to reach that point, and any attentive parent should be aware of it. Sure, there are some kids that are REALLY good at hiding their troubles. There are some that just snap. Many may have issues with depression or impulse control (again, those things should already be on a good parent's radar.) Sometimes they can't stop it, even if they're aware of it... but so many parents of suicide victims say "I had no idea!"
Wake the fuck up, mom and dad. This is your child. A person that you created, you raised, and you know better than anyone.

I do agree that bullying is a problem, but I also agree that it's something kids need to deal with. Again, that falls on the parents.




I was bullied as a kid. Terribly. I was quiet, nonconfrontational, kept to myself. Sat reading Nintendo Power while the other kids played football. Kids can be cruel. VERY cruel. However, I didn't attempt suicide. Didn't even think about it. I didn't get into trouble, do drugs, lash out at my parents... I didn't start fights (but when someone started with me, I did what I had to do... be it running or winning, or getting beat down while trying to do one of those.) I had attentive parents (and grandparents.) My mom and dad divorced when I was 14, just starting high school, and they STILL managed to put me first. I never once felt caught in the middle, or that I had to choose between them. When something bothered me, they knew, and they paid attention. Even when they were working 2-3 jobs at a time (both had 2 jobs for most of my life.) Were they perfect parents? No. Absolutely not. They screwed up like crazy. I was an only child... they had no practice. I was it. Even so, I pulled through pretty well, I'd say.

Parents are less attentive to their children than they were in years past. The economy makes it hard for a single-earner family to exist. Many parents are single parents. There are countless excuses and rationalizations for why parents aren't as attentive as they should be... but honestly, if you can't be a proper parent, you SHOULDN'T be a parent.
To add to that, kids are exposed to things that kids years ago weren't exposed to. Television and movies show much more realistic violence, and it is socially acceptable to subject kids to such things. Video games are no different... worse, in some cases, because the kids are taking an active part in the violence. They may know that it's not real rationally... but that feeling of "I'll just start over" still exists at some level (I've raced down the highway and forgot I wasn't playing Need for Speed... I wasn't thinking clearly, and when the realization hit me that I wasn't going to flip over, flash a bit, and start driving again... it was scary.)
Today's media promotes selfish, apathetic behavior. I don't blame the media, though. It's the job of the parents to 1) monitor what their children are exposed to, and 2) teach them right from wrong...




If we want to protect our kids, we don't need to harp on "ending bullying" or "promoting homosexual awareness"... we need to focus on proper, attentive parenting.

[buckysaccord93]

At the high school i attended bullying even done outside of school was grounds for expulsion. we had problems with it over facebook and such. So the school made it that if theres a case of it and they find out the students involved can be expelled from school for good. Plus they could face charges of harassment if the student chooses to push that.

And i feel that is a great way to stop it. It worked very well, from when they started it to when i graduated there was only one kid kicked out.

And if you think about it. you might think ooh it probable is still happening jsut not getting caught. but its high school. Everyone knows everything. kids talk.

[HenRoc]

I was bullied allot when I first came back stateside in 94. It was hard, being that even though I was born here..I came back a totally different person.

I was used to a place where I had grown up for part of my childhood just getting along with everyone and making friends every where I was.

Back then when I first started school here it was definitely different..culture shock in a way and I had to take speech class since I could speak english but sorta broken up.

And I got into fights..every other week. I would go into a mode of just pure fucking rage pick up anything that was close and start swinging..and Id go home only to be told not to fight but go to the teachers...and you know what fuck that..they never looked out for my well being..but these two twin brothers were pretty much on me allot..and then in highschool one of them took a bat to the face after running his mouth of to another jock.

Karma got the best of him and I laughed.

There was another kid that tried to pick a fight with me when I was in the sixth grade..I beat the crap out of him and in highschool we became good friends.

In my terms..you have to fight the fight..no matter what. You beat that bully up so hard that he or she will never forget it and make them look like a bitch.

I just read that article and I feel for that poor girl Sladjana and the other 3.

[GhostAccord]

So a bully gets the boot from school. How does that help the rest of society? That student will probably go on to do worse things with no education. Give power back to the teachers and people of authority. Beating the little f#@Ker's into submission isn't always the answer. I say the bullies parents should be held accountable. Make the parents and the bully do community services as punishment for the their actions. Have the parents and child attend a counseling session. Sure it's going to coast money, but what cost do you put on saving a childs life?

[nine_deuce]

I've been discussing this with some friends here lately. It pisses me off that this shit happens, more times than not the bullied students end up committing suicide, the people doing the bullying rarely get into any sort of trouble over it. But, if the person being bullied decides they've had enough and come back and start shooting up the school, they get in trouble, even then the bullies are looked at as "innocent victims" I think the ones doing the bullying should be held accountable for their actions. Mental abuse is far worse than physical abuse.

[JoshM]

People need to stick up for themselves.

Hell, I was bullied in middle school by a rather large kid. I was in 6th grade, and he was in 8th grade. Only reason he was pissed at me was because his linebacker position on the varsity team was taken away by me, a 6th grader.

I was decent sized, but he was about a foot taller than me and had about 50 pounds on my relatively scrawny frame.

I eventually got tired of him shoving me around, starting rumors, etc. One day he pushed me against a locker and I swung at him.
About 2 mins later, I was bloody as hell and my face looked like Will Smith's in "Hitch" after he ate some seafood.

I lost the fight, but I earned respect from him and the other varsity team members simply because I stood up for myself.

[MikeW]

ALL parents need to be more attentive. Not only to signs of their child being bullied but perhaps that maybe their child IS the bully. However, in most cases, it's harder to tell if your kid is the bully. And in some cases, the kid's a bully cuz the parent's a bully and the parents are only going to encourage it.

My main thing here was that the girl died. SHE KILLED HERSELF. Because these people pushed her too far and yet they STILL continue to laugh at her?!? People like that, children or not, should be euthanized[sp?]. On the spot. No bullshit. Tie 'em up, put 'em in the van and take them to a hospital or someplace and they should die of lethal injection.

I know that goes against "Survival of the fittest" but our society isnt exactly following evolution's path, is it? Anyone seen the movie "Idiocracy"..? Watch it. Society today is becoming more and more like that and in 500 or 1000 years i see our world being in 2 parts; the dumb, who are staying here sucking up every resource they can, destroying this planet and every system keeping it together and then the smart, who are figuring out space travel to get away from the dumb.

Middlegrounds dont exist anymore. It's either one extreme or the other. People either care TOO much about their kids, at which they become the bullied or they dont care ENOUGH about their kids and they become the bullies.

I was raised in a single parent home so i know what it is to struggle. Not only from watching my own family struggle, but form lessons my parent instilled in me at an early age, that life sucks. It's not easy and there are people out there who are mean, angry, ignorant, disrespectful and just all around trash. Best thing you can do is grown a pair and prepare to fight back.

I know it's not a lesson we should be instilling in our children, but if we dont give them reality checks sooner, theyre going to be going head-first into the world very naive to the ways of the world. We teach our kids at an early age about "Stranger Danger" and not to play with fire and not to steal, etc etc. Why can't we teach our kids that there are people out there who suck and to be prepared to either take it, dish it out or put up with it..?

[deevergote]

Girls are actually worse than boys in many respects. When boys bully, it's physical. There are certainly mental effects, but the kids that are bullied at least have SOME chance of redeemig themselves in their own eyes. When I was in school, I would either talk my way out of a fight (feeling smarter than the bully, and making him stop picking on you by doing so... thats a great feeling!), fight back and at least show that I wasn't going to just sit there and take it, or... one of my favorite "fights" was on the playground at recess. I knew I'd be in deep shit if I got caught fighting, so I didn't fight back. I took all the punches from this weird kid on the back. He didn't hit hard, so I just turtled up and worked my way into sight of a teacher. The kid got suspended for a week, and I was regarded as a hero... by the kids that were cheering him on! I didn't "run and tell"... I just arranged for him to get in trouble without getting in any myself

I was picked on, but I didn't let it degrade my self esteem. Sure, it had an impact, but what kid ISN'T confused and self-conscious as hell at that age anyway?


Girls are worse. Sometimes they fight, but usually they'll just gang up on someone. Tear them apart... mentally, socially, etc... Just break them down. That does more damage than a punch to the face. Especially in today's society, which puts such value on appearance and status for girls!

[Gemini]

People need to stick up for themselves.

Hell, I was bullied in middle school by a rather large kid. I was in 6th grade, and he was in 8th grade. Only reason he was pissed at me was because his linebacker position on the varsity team was taken away by me, a 6th grader.

I was decent sized, but he was about a foot taller than me and had about 50 pounds on my relatively scrawny frame.

I eventually got tired of him shoving me around, starting rumors, etc. One day he pushed me against a locker and I swung at him.
About 2 mins later, I was bloody as hell and my face looked like Will Smith's in "Hitch" after he ate some seafood.

I lost the fight, but I earned respect from him and the other varsity team members simply because I stood up for myself.

x2.....I was bullied when i was about in 7th grade by older kids(can you believe that?) but I fought back every time, even got my ass kicked sometimes but I never backed down or run and cry.

I just couldnt deal with being beat up and robbed on a regular basis and they stopped eventually.

I vowed when i got bigger I would beat their asses and thats exactly what i did

[deevergote]

Dean, I'm really glad I'm not one of those guys that picked on you when you were little!

[Gemini]

Dean, I'm really glad I'm not one of those guys that picked on you when you were little!

its funny, ive been told that many time It would really suck if u were Mike because i really like you :smooches:

[deevergote]

I'd just punch you in the bicep and kick you in the knees... I know your weaknesses!



I was never a bully. Came close once... some kid down the block "hired" me to be his bodyguard. He was like, 10, and I was maybe 12... at that age, it was a big difference!
Anyway, there was a group of 3 kids that was hassling this one little guy. We went out looking for them. I whomped the biggest one, and scared the other two off. Then I asked for the payment that he promised. He said he'd get it for me. I waited. For 2 weeks. Then I grew impatient, and I let him know. I didn't hurt the kid, but I scared him pretty good. He ran home to his grandmother, who got pissed and came after me. I calmly explained the situation, and she understood...
I never touched the kid, but he got his well-deserved whuppin'. I never did get my money, though!

[Gemini]

I'd just punch you in the bicep and kick you in the knees... I know your weaknesses!



I was never a bully. Came close once... some kid down the block "hired" me to be his bodyguard. He was like, 10, and I was maybe 12... at that age, it was a big difference!
Anyway, there was a group of 3 kids that was hassling this one little guy. We went out looking for them. I whomped the biggest one, and scared the other two off. Then I asked for the payment that he promised. He said he'd get it for me. I waited. For 2 weeks. Then I grew impatient, and I let him know. I didn't hurt the kid, but I scared him pretty good. He ran home to his grandmother, who got pissed and came after me. I calmly explained the situation, and she understood...
I never touched the kid, but he got his well-deserved whuppin'. I never did get my money, though!

the knee might work but my biceps are back in tip top sape.

You were not a bully, you were a preteen hitman for hire (ive done it too )