Final Exam Speech
As 2014 comes to a close we
look back on the year at both our accomplishments and our failures. On December
31st, 2013 at 11:59 pm we promised ourselves that in the year to
come we would be more organized, we would procrastinate less, lose weight, get
all A’s, and overall just be a better version of ourselves. But how many kid’s
New Year resolution is it to just get through another year? How many just want
to go to school without getting beat up? Or teased to the point of no return? How
many kid’s New Year resolution is to draw less attention to themselves in hope
that they don’t get harassed? No one should have to wish for that.
“According
to statistics reported by ABC News, nearly 30 percent of students are either
bullies or victims of bullying and 160,000 kids stay home every day because of
fear of bullying” (bullyingstatistics.org). Can you imagine that? Coming to
school every day and instead of focusing on learning you are constantly
terrified to step into the hallway where you may come face to face with your
tormentor. Always looking over your shoulder, running from safe place to safe
place hoping with everything in you to avoid being physically or emotionally
attacked. Bullying is a pandemic that is discussed but never dealt with. So
much so that a documentary titled Bully was made. The documentary follows
several kids who are victims of bullying. Tragically some were so severely
bullied that they took their own lives to escape what they felt was a
never-ending nightmare. Why is a problem that is so widely known still
existing? Is it because some kids will always be mean? Partially. The other
part would be that no one is doing anything about it. Even in the documentary,
teachers and principles admitted that nothing was being done. They claimed that
there is no cure for bullying; that it can’t be stopped. Will we settle for
that answer?
My purpose is not to point fingers or
accuse anyone of being a bully. I think of myself as incredibly lucky to be
surrounded by my fellow academy students who are some of the kindest people I
have ever met. I don’t believe that any of my peers are bullies. I do have a
problem though, both with myself and with my fellow students. We do nothing.
Last year during the first week of school, I came through the front doors
excited for a new year, ready to see my friends, and thankful I wasn’t a
freshman anymore. It wasn’t long before I started to see other students mess
with the incoming freshmen who had enough problems as it was. I saw a boy with
a backpack bigger than he was carrying books and papers and as if I was in a
Disney Channel movie some guy smacks everything out of the kids hands. Everyone
including me looked, but that is all I did. Looked. This kid had “bully me,”
written all over him and instead of helping him I did nothing. Now I said I
wasn’t going to point fingers but I am sure everyone has had one of those
moments. I strongly believe we are all good people but when the discussion of
bullying comes up we have a tendency to check out because we aren’t bullies.
Here’s the issue. You’re right. You don’t beat anyone up for fun, and you don’t
knock books out of their hands, or tease them for something they can’t help so
yes, you are not a bully. You are something else entirely. You are the kid that
watches another kid get bullied and does absolutely nothing about it. You don’t
defend the kid, or shame the bully, or even tell a teacher, you simply keep
walking. We are bystanders. So just remember, doing nothing at all is doing
something.
So here is what I am asking you to do.
I am not asking you to go out and be Robin Hood or your friendly Henry Clay
Spider Man, I just want to challenge you and myself to do something. Anything.
To pick up the kids books, to tell the bully how ignorant they are being, to
tell a teacher. It is our job to protect one another. We like to pretend that
bullying isn’t that prevalent and it’s not a problem at our school, just at
other schools, but that is how bullying has become such a destructive act, by
pretending its everywhere but where you are. In 2015 and every year after make
it a priority to stop bullying. One less kid afraid to come to school, one less
family torn apart by a child who commits suicide to relieve their pain, one
less kid to become a statistic.
Works Cited
Bully.
Dir. Lee Hirsch. 2012. Documentary.
"The
BULLY Project." The BULLY Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2014.
"Bullying and Suicide." - Bullying Statistics.
N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.
"CNN
Official Interview: Dr. Phil Talks about Bullying." Interview by Anderson
Cooper. CNN. Atlanta, Georgia, 06 Oct. 2010. Television.
Vanderberg,
Hope. Vicious: True Stories by Teens about Bullying. Minneapolis, MN:
Free Spirit Pub., 2012. Print.
"What Are the Effects of
Bullying?" Pathstone Mental Health. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 July 2014.
So good
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