By Adam Kelly | Echo
Bullying isn't something new. It hasn't started recently, and it continues to make headlines across the U.S.
A couple weeks ago, two major headlines about bullying have popped up. In the first, teenagers beat up a man in Delaware with a neurodegenerative disease. The attackers filmed the beating and posted the video online. The man shouted, "Leave me alone" and "What I do?" before he was body-slammed, punched and kicked. The man's stepmother said he thought these boys were his friends.
Another incident involved a 15-year-old with autism who asked for help in performing the challenge. Instead, teens dumped urine, feces and spit on him instead of ice water. The boy's mother said she found a video of the occurrence on his phone. The incident garnered attention from celebrities like Drew Carey, who offered to donate $10,000 as a reward for finding the perpetrators.
The challenge to stop bullying has to start somewhere. I know you are thinking, "What can I do?" There are many options for us as students, faculty and staff at Taylor. We can encourage stronger participation in programs like ReaLife, where volunteers hang out with kids, enforce a no bullying policy and teach how bullying can hurt each person in a different way. Planning a national campaign to teach students more about bullying could be a great way to emphasize the importance.
The impact personal interaction between college students and elementary kids is powerful. Making kids sit through hours of lectures isn't the way to teach students about bullying. No kid has the attention span or cares enough to sit for hours listening to a presentation. We have to make the idea personal, show how it can affect each kid and each family. There needs to be an emphasis on what causes students to bully and why they prey on people who are weaker or have a disability. It may start with the bully, whether he was bullied by family or not shown the love all people deserve.
Bullying must be stopped. More needs to be done to show Christ's love to all kids. Let's take the message of Christ to all and teach everyone to love their neighbors as themselves.
