Bullying

The movie we watched in class, Bullied, showed a more personal level of how bullying affects people. Before watching the film I thought that the school should do little to prevent bullying. I thought that physical violence should be either handled by the student or by the authorities. At first I agreed with the Middle School Principle. She said that "boys will be boys", and at first I agreed. However, after seeing the physical and emotional affect on Jamie Nabozny I completely changed my opinion. The school did not do anything to protect him or punish the bullies at all. Some sort of punishment should have been enforced. When it came to the point that Jamie Nabozny had to go to the hospital, it was time for the school to step in. Jamie's security was seriously threatened every time that he went to school. This is a serious problem that the school had to handle. Verbal harassment should have different consequences than physical harassment. I do not think it is right that the verbal harassment wasn't handled immediately. Growing up in and around Deerfield, I have always witnessed people getting in trouble for something they said. I would say that verbal harassment is the most common type of offense that students at Deerfield High School commit.

In the case of Nabozny vs. Podlesny , the court ruled in Nabozny's favor. Jamie won a total of close to one million dollars. This was the first case in the United States that had to address anti- gay violence in public schools. Also, this case led to more programs to accepting gay people. This case was truly a breakthrough case.

In our own high school, I do not feel as though bullying is a problem. Physical bullying is not present in the school; this may be because of past cases similar to Nabozny vs. Podlesny. Our school is defiantly "clicky". People have their friends and only associate with them. This leaves little room for bullying because no one is forcing people to hang out with other people that they don't like. Deerfield High School is not different from other schools. Other schools may have some more problems with physical bullying but I feel as thought the level of verbal harassment is the same. I also think that it is difficult to stop verbal harassment. Cyber bullying is too easy and as long as students have Facebook or text messaging, it is possible.

Potential solutions to stop bullying involve taking one step at a time. It is easy to say that bullying is bad. Everybody knows that. However, it is more difficult to talk about different ways to accept LGBT students. I do think, however, that more lectures and accepting values should be incorporated into the school environment. This may be through activities such as challenge day. What really influenced me my freshman year were the SAGA and Minority Report panels. It made me realize that in high school it is important to understand that there are those different from you in our own school. You never know when a joke may affect someone or whom it may affect. I think it is important to continue freshman panels just to increase awareness. Obviously our school has a very strict policy and discrimination. If one student makes a bad decision and discriminates they are very likely to get in trouble. This sends the right message to everyone else in the school. It is important that everyone knows that there will be consequences.

-Igor