Like I always do, this morning I was watching the news while I was getting ready for work. Today was different though. Today there was a story about an older lady who is a bus aide for a middle school bus in New York. There is a video of her getting bullied for 14 minutes. It was AWFUL! My heart just broke for her. In one part is starts crying, and the kids just make fun of her for crying. I was literally crying. How ruthless can little kids be??
There seems to be a lot of stories lately about bullying and trying to raise awareness about it. Bullying is a really sensitive subject for me, because as a child I was bullied. I, however, am a success story of what can happen when people stand up and say NO! I was lucky enough to have an AMAZING best friend who stood up for me (even threatening to beat kids up if they didn't stop). She was amazing. I never realized just how special that was until you see literally HUNDREDS of kids who don't stand up and say no. I am really grateful to her for being my "body guard" as we use to say and protecting me. I can only imagine the additional amounts of pain I would have been forced to endure had she not been there for me. I am enternally grateful for her courage to protect me.
My heart goes out to this women, and the countless others that go unnoticed that suffer from bullying every day. I hope that there are conversations happening all over tonight between parents and children about bullying. I hope that kids realize just how damaging their words can be, and I hope bystanders realize just how powerful their words can be to stop it.
One thing that really struck me in the broadcast of that story was something that anchor man said. I just loved it. He said to the parents of those boys how disappointed he was in them and how he hopes that there are many teaching moments and A LOT of focus in their homes on how to treat others. In the broadcast they mentioned that the boys could be charged criminally for the incident- I hope they are charged. I think that would be a great way to show just how seriously bullying is, and would send a message to all bullies out there that what they are doing is not only wrong- but illegal. I think that people need consequences and these boys choose to act this way and commit an crime- so they should be charged with a crime. I am sure that going through the criminal process would be a great lesson to those boys - and hopefully one that they would never forget. I am sure that poor old woman will never forget the incident- just like I have never forgotten mine.
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