Mrs. Melanie Jeffirs is showing students how to prevent bullying. Photo by: Mr. Kenneth Olson
At Plymouth High School, students consider the aspects of bullying.
Students at PHS have different perspectives on bullying. Freshman Jewel Brown said the definition of bullying is “the mental or physical action of putting somebody down.” Along the same lines, Senior Nadia Baca thinks of bullying as “verbally, physically, and emotionally harming someone.” As an example, Baca said, “When I say verbally and emotionally, that includes talking behind their back, spreading rumors, or calling them names.”
Bullying online is a form as bullying known as cyber-bullying. Freshman Yohoni Torres thinks cyber- bullying is easier for some “because they know it’s hard for people to stop them, others because they know how to leave no trace behind, or just because they know they can hurt people really bad.” Similar to Torres’ perspective, Freshman Kayla Laffoon said, “I think people do it for attention, to make themselves look better than everyone else, or just for something to do.”
Cyber-bullying may be more common than it should be. Senior Hope Fisher said, “I think it happens all the time. Even though we can’t see what is going on. Their is someone getting hurt by someone else.” Sophomore Bayli Czarnecki said, “Cyber-bullying happens much more often than just seeing somebody and bullying them in person. As teenagers, we have way too much availability to talk to people at any time.”
Students react to cyber-bullying in a variety of ways. Senior Hunter Stevens said, “I usually do not get involved because some people can get really mean, but I will stick up for someone if I feel it necessary.” Also similar to what Stevens said, Freshman Hope Gandara said, “I have never been bullied, but when I see others getting bullied I would stand up for them. I know that if I got bullied I would just ignore it because I don’t care what others think.”
There are many stereotypes associated with bullying, but students have their own ideas of how bullies feel after bullying. Freshman Samantha Payne said, “I’m sure some do [feel bad], especially those whose bullying leads to people doing drastic things like committing/attempting suicide.” Sophomore Jasmine Baird said, “I don’t really know how other people feel, but I know that I would feel very bad afterwards, if I bullied someone. I assume that they do because I know for a fact that everyone knows how harmful it is to bully.” Stevens also said, “I am not so sure. I think some people definitely thrive off of bullying others. With our electronic generation I think it easier to give someone a piece of your mind since it does not have to be in person.” Freshman Samuel Tanner said, “No I think they think that they feel cool.” Fisher has also added, “I don’t think so if they feel bad about what they did. Do you think they wouldn’t do it?”
Stopping bullying is difficult, especially when people aren’t aware of it. Payne said, “From what I’ve heard some people ignore it, move, or take the drastic measure to commit suicide to escape the torment.” Brown said, “I think some of the time the bully doesn’t even realize that what they say hurts. They don’t know that the person doesn’t know that they’re joking. I don’t think that the bully will feel bad right after but give it a few months or if they get bullied they will understand and feel bad.”
Society may be able to reduce bullying. PHS students, however, are not optimistic about society’s chances. Freshman Josie Koontz said, “There is no way to reduce bullying at the moment. Society is so sick with it’s twisted rules and making everyone think they aren’t good enough there is no way for bullying to stop. In my opinion its getting worse.”
One way that students can contribute to stopping bullying, according to Officer Ted Brown, is that “students need to report when incidents happen. Often they wait and report later, this makes investigations harder.”