Bullying

After watching the two films and talking about the bullying situations, I have gained a new prospective on bullying and the extreme toll it can take on people. In Bullied, the story of Jamie Nabozny and the extreme discrimination that he faced was displayed. Being gay, Jamie was the target of a lot of bullying, physically and verbally. In one instance, Jamie was beat so hard that he had to receive surgery. This is something that I never realized because in our community, it is rare to see someone physically being hurt while being bullied. Jamie constantly talked to the school administration and told them about the bullying that was occurring, but nothing was ever handled with and solved. After running away multiple times, Jamie finally decided that he was going to file a lawsuit against certain individuals, as well as the school district, for neglecting to protect him from the violence. In the case Nabozny v. Podlesny, a landmark decision was made that schools have the right to protect students from physical harm and verbal abuse of comments regarding being gay. Nabozny was able to summon the courage to relive his bullying experiences and face the people who bullied him as well as the administrators, such as Vice Principle Podlesny, who neglected to do anything when he would report the bullying to them. Thankfully, I don't think that there is a big bullying problem here at DHS. Personally, I think that there is probably verbal bullying that occurs for different reasons, but I would be very surprised if someone told me that there was a problem with people being physically bullied. Of course, any form of bullying is unacceptable and should not be tolerated, but I think that we are very fortunate to not have a problem with people being physically harmed due to being bullied. I think that the reason for this lack of physical bullying is being people generally know that they will be punished if it were to occur. DHS has a strict bullying policy, as well as rules that protect students from being harmed, so I can confidently say that if someone were to be physically bullied, I think that the situation would be handled with if it were reported to the proper administration. I definitely think that we are very fortunate to have this type of security and that DHS is different from many other schools. There are many other schools, such as Jamie Nabozny's, in which people are bullied and physically harmed for lifestyle choices or even religion, something that a student doesn't even choose to be associated with. I find this to be absolutely horrible because school is a place that children should be able to feel safe, but in these types of schools, life for people like Jamie Nabozny is hell because he had to live every single day wondering if he was going to be bullied again. In order to protect these students, rules need to be put into place forbidding any type of bullying and offering severe consequences if bullying occurs. I think that setting the bar very high and informing students that bullying is 100% not tolerated and that if it occurs there will be a severe punishment, it will ingrain into that minds of the potential bullies that bullying is unacceptable and if they choose to pick on someone else, they are going to have severe consequences. Also, I think it is up to each individual to have the courage to stand up for themselves. Being bullied can be something that is very embarrassing, especially when others see it happen. Having the courage to stand up, stop the bullying, and report it to the proper authority is not an easy job but is something that needs to be done in order to ensure that each student is receiving the safe haven that they need. In addition, programs such as "Challenge Day" are a good way to organize an entire student body and allow them to share their thoughts and feelings with one another. It is hard to predict what the outcome will be after such an event, but in the case of the episode of If You Really Knew Me, Challenge Day was something that really helped that high school because it allowed the students to reach out to each other and share their feelings about the bullying in their school. Thankfully, I think that the bullying at DHS is much less severe than the bullying that was occurring in that school, so I think that something like Challenge Day wouldn't be as affective at the less-bullied schools like DHS. It is important that people know that bullying is unacceptable and that if it is done, there will be consequences. Protecting every student and giving them a safe haven to learn should be the goal of every single school in the United States.