Bullying

Bullying in America has been becoming more and more of a problem in today's society. It has been affecting more and more kids, and it is becoming much more serious. The Dean of Students,Mr. Miller, is quoted to have said "Bullying has now changed; it is no longer the 'Christmas Story' type bullying. it has now evolved to the media, in texting and social sites." It is now much easier for kids to bully and harass these days because of their easy access to the social networking sites, and texting. There was a piece in the Democrat and Chronicle about a girl who attends Victor Highschool. Over the summer she had a party, where she forgot to invite a group of girls. When the school year started, she started receiving hateful texts and voicemails all the time; it became so bad that she planned her schedule for school around so that she could avoid them; she even started to have very graphic nightmares because of the texts that she was getting. It got so bad that she eventually went to see the school psychiatrist, who would help dramatically. After reporting what was happening twice, they eventually started to leave her alone. Texting can be a very emotional form of bullying.

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The conventional style of bullying with the name calling and the physical confrontations. There was another story in the papers of how a sixth grader was tormented so badly on the bus by an older boy and his friends, that she came home with bruises so frequently that her mother took her out of school for the last few days, and had to have her escorated to and from her final exams. A fellow student, Erin G., is quoted to have said "Bullying is disappointing, especially when it is done to get attention," which was exactly what was going on in this situation. 

There was another story of a young boy who was constantly being bullied at school, even when he switched to Webster Schooling. It was getting so bad that the student counselor suggested they take him to his doctor, and within five minutes, he is diagnosed with Aspergers. This explains why he couldn't go to his teachers about his problems. 

Recently, there was a terrible incident that occurred in Buffalo, where the young teen Jamey Rodemeyer killed himself because of the excessive bullying that he recieved. He was 14 years old, and homosexual. Jamey had been bullied for hanging out with girls since elementary school. While he was telling his parents that everything was getting better since highschool started, his blog was telling a different story of suicidalness, and the bullying that he was going through. He killed himself a few days later. Millions of people have been mourning his loss, the many bullies who put him in this position are having criminal charges brought on them. The fact that he was bullied for so long, by so many people is just sickening.

Brandon F. describes it by saying "bullying, in my opinion is the worst thing a group of people can do. It is hurtful, and in no means does it make anyone feel better about themselves, not even the bully." 

Luckily, at our school bullying is a rarity, not being much of a significant issue. This is most likely because of our strict no bullying policy. Bullying is taken very seriously at Kearney, and conversely so is the punishment. If caught bullying, the punishment can range anywhere from admonishment to expulsion. Many students at Kearney are also very ant-bullying. Kathryn P. says "Bullying has been a huge problem across America for a long time and society should do everything they can to stop it." 

On the fence...

There has always been the major discussion of if animal experimentation should be permitted, and there are plus and minus's on both sides. Animal experimentation can provide wonderful advances into the field of medicine, and it provides us with ways to ensure that the medicines we create will not do more harm than we are trying to fix. But on the other hand, the cruelty in these experiments is sickening. Animals are cut open, poisoned, all kinds awful things, things that one would imagine in a concentration camp. In no way should one life be worth more than another, and very rarely would there ever be a cause to destroy life. That is why I am undecided on this topic.

There is never a cheating that is more or less dishonest than another

Many people like to believe that certain types of cheating are not as dishonest as others, and this disgusts me. In no way can a cheating be not as "bad" as any other form of cheating, because it is still cheating. Cheating is always going to be wrong, and cheating on a quiz is always going to be just as bad as cheating on a test, because in both instances you are lying to the teacher, saying that you had knowledge you did not possess, and you are always cheating the students next to you, and throughout the class. This is because you could be cheating off the person beside you, and when you do this, you make the class look bad because you are getting grades much higher than the average grade of the class, making them look ill-prepared. Cheating is cheating; there is no better or worse.