Witnessing, but Not Doing Anything

  I'm pretty sure that all of us has witnessed bullying, been part of a group of bullies, but never did much about it. We may have just been afraid of being bullied by the bully, or your afraid that if you didn't bully that person, you wouldn't be someone's friend. A lot of people know that bullying others is wrong, but most of them never do anything, never stand up for that person. They just watch or join in.

  At my old school, bullying was very rare, but on certain occasions, it happened. Sometimes it was because the person acted a bit strange or looked weird.We were split into 3 groups: Popular, the Weird people, and the Average. I was in the Average group. The group that usually got bullied would be the weird group. So, there was this girl who sucked her thumb, even though we were already in 3rd grade (Let's call her Mary). Everyone avoided her because her fingers were always wet with saliva, and it grossed a lot of people out, including me. We were friends though, but whenever someone called her "Thumb-Sucker" I would always watch and not do anything. When someone had to do a partner project with her, they would always say, " Go use the hand sanitizer first!" in a very mean way. When Mary was sucking her thumb and touched someone or something, they would go running, screaming at the top of their lungs, "Don't touch Gabby, she's got Mary Germs!"  or, "OMG, it's the Thumb-Sucker!"

  Every time someone said that it looked as though she would burst into tears any second. I felt horrible, yet I did nothing. Once, I asked my friends, "Why are other people keep calling her names?" They shrugged and would reply, "I honestly don't know". Like me, they didn't call her names, was friends with Mary, but never did anything to help. Sometimes, during class, people would say the exact same thing about "germs" when Mary touched something. Sometimes the teacher stopped them, but most of the time, teachers weren't paying attention. Once, the teacher even had a chat about Mary sucking her thumb in front of the whole class, and Mary looked totally embarrassed at the end. Many people would go to great lengths to not touch whatever had "Mary germs". After a while, thankfully, they got tired of it and moved on. When they stopped, Mary stopped sucking her thumb as well(I think stress was why she sucked her thumb)! I know that she isn't being teased anymore, but I still regret not standing up for her when she really needed it. I didn't have the courage to. If that happened today, though, I would have been able to help!

 Two goals I would have to make ISKL be a better place for everyone would be:

 -I will stand up for the person being bullied
 -I will never bully someone
  Being bullied isn't fun. If you see someone being bullied, don't just stand and watch. If you've been bullied before, you know how they feel. Stand up for them! By doing that, we will be making ISKL a better place to learn and play.

Graphic Image From: http://bbmspta.org/ESW/Images/BullyFreeTR.gif