Imagine the hallways you walk through everyday, which at times tend to get more and more gloomier. The hallways feel more musky and dark and you can’t breathe because you feel so alone. Many students often feel a lot of drama and sadness in their life due to bullying. Bullying makes you feel angry but there is nothing you can do, so you let the bullies do it to you; it feels like a never ending cycle. You come home and ignore your school work because you’re trying to do something to make you happy, like video games. That’s a cycle too. You’re failing, you’re hurt, and your parents/guardians are angry at you.
Bullying and self esteem is a topic that many teenagers struggle with. Norwin High School is no exception. Lots of teens throughout the school struggle with self esteem often caused by bullying.
Bullying is very hard on a student’s self esteem and can be very health concerning. Bullying can affect all parties involved: the bully, the victim, and the bystander.
Bullying can affect those who are unsupported by most, like the LGBTQ+ community, different ethnic backgrounds, or just because they are little bit different from most.
According to StopBullying.Gov: “bullying can make an unsupported situation worse.” The victim’s mental health can decline really fast and half of the time the victim doesn’t even realized it!
“Dealing with bullying and being bullied is a traumatic experience for students,” said Ms. Kristin Sweeney, adviser of the OLWEUS Bullying Program that Norwin faculty are trained in. “Talking to someone and using coping strategies can help!”
With a bystander, it affects them too. They might not feel safe or they don’t care at first but witnessing something like that can affect the brain traumatically. Therefore causing an increase in health problems or depression and anxiety in the near future.
Although they might not care or laugh about it now, but hopkinsmedicine.org organization said that “your ‘fight or flight,’ or stress response [is too] switched on, even when you have nothing to flee or battle.”
Why does bullying affect students so much? According to nces.ed.gov, “In 2019, about 22 percent of students ages 12–18 reported being bullied at school during the school year.” That is around 1-5 students in one school and Norwin High school is no exception to this fact.
This poll shows that most people think our school has a 40 percent in bullying, while others think it’s much higher, up to 100 percent! No one has said lower then 40 percent.
“I feel that [it’s] just so people can fit in with the other people,” said an anonymous Norwin student in the poll. “So they bully people to try to be funny and show off to the new friends they’re trying to make.”
Bullying is just another way to make someone else feel worse. The bully is someone people view as the “bad guy” in which some cases yes, but the bully is harsh on themselves too. The bully is very much a stereotype and that shouldn’t have as much of a punishment. They are humans too, they usually just need somebody to talk to or they’ve been in pain most of their lives and thinks it’s unfair. The bullies often feel like life is unfair but it’s also not fair to make fun of someone either.
Bulling is something that is a part of life and that’s the hard truth. It’s hard but there are people who are willing to listen to anyone and help too. In the end, bullying is like rain. Rain is a river of words and that water can hurt if it’s hail, so keep your hands on your own rail. Let’s not bawl and watch our towers fall, because in the end the rain is a downfall.
