Some alarming news:
Did you know 1 in 7 Students in Grades K-12 is either a bully or a victim of bullying?
I'm sorry but ONE IN SEVEN. And it starts in KINDERGARTEN. Not only is it starting crazy young, but the consequences have also become more terrible by the second. Forget the days of being stuffed into lockers and hung on the flagpole by your underwear. Some kids are mean. Really mean. Other kids are committing suicide. Shooting up schools. Cutting, drinking, drugging, numbing the pain. Dropping out of school. They're having their self-esteem ripped from their chests and buried in the dirt.
Kids. My God. KIDS.
I have a kid. Two, actually, though only one is old enough to wipe her own butt. It's only been lately she, too, has had problems with a certain clique that makes her cry, pushes her down, makes her feel less than beautiful. On some days, that is. Other days, they're all best friends. However harmless, I see the pain in those big eyes and I know what I have to do: Protect her. Always. Until the Day I die.
And I know I'm not alone.
Whether it's your child or not, you hear these stories and your heart breaks. If it doesn't, you're made of stone or jaded by all the violence. It's not okay, though.
IT'S NOT OKAY.
Monday I'll be revealing what you can do to make it stop. Because instead of division, we need unity. Instead of hate, we need love, or at the very least, tolerance and acceptance. It may start with the bullies, but it ends with us.
You can read more about bullying from my friends:
Talli Roland
LM Preston
Donna Martin
Sheri Larsen
Jonathon Arntson
Nicole Zoltack
Jessica Bell
Dawn Ius
PK Hrezo
Until Monday, read, listen, watch, think.
"Never forget the fragility of adolescence..."
-Bullying drove 8th-grader to suicide
-10-year-old girl commits suicide because of bullying
-Jarod's Story
-Ryan's Story
Candyland. OUT.
