How has bullying affected you? Not many people take the time to sit down and think what effect it has on kids or even if it is happening to their own children. Throughout elementary school, we heard the same phrases, “bullying is bad” and “think about how others feel,” but how many of us have watched as someone who was made fun of? As teens, most think we are just bound to act as we do around one another. I believe so strongly in this because I have been the one put down by negative comments. The name calling and the nicknames that feel like they would never go away, and I’ve watched my friends be torn down all over something they weren’t even involved in.

Some students think no one will care enough to do anything, and you start to notice the little signs like attendance dropping, not talking as much and not doing the things they used to enjoy doing.

As students, we already carry so much stress on our shoulders trying to keep up to the “standards” the administration and teachers want us to uphold. When you walk into a school and look around the halls how many students are walking alone?

This is something that you may not think about much but because we choose to be in our own worlds, we have avoided what’s happening around us and even a simple five minutes can make such a big difference in how we could change things.