Quote:
Originally Posted by Ch2tf
While times are new, and harassment and bullying come from all angles with the internet, facebook, etc., I also feel like teen fragility and angst are out of control. Coming from someone who was bullied as a kid (albeit in middle school and pre-internet), manning up was the only option you had. I know some of my teachers knew what was going on, but they definitely never addressed me about it, and to my knowledge they never let school administration or my parents know. Looking back, I should have told my parents and made it explicit to school officials, but the choice was either to "break down" or man up and do what I had to do.
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I prefer "womaning up."
My siblings and I were both bullied and were the bullies at times from elementary school to middle school. It was very cyclical and often reflected what was going on in terms of our self-esteems. But, we also knew when we, as the bullies, went too far and were (as far as we could tell) seriously hurting someone (like when the person bursts out crying). We would stop because we didn't want to be responsible for really harming someone--we didn't care about our parents finding out.
With that said, it's a void morality on the part of the bullies (you can know when to stop doing something without being afraid of getting in trouble for doing it) and perhaps some fragility on the part of some of the kids being picked on. Much of the latter has to do with having an appropriate support system to buffer the effects of the bullying. If the school and/or parental unit didn't know or didn't act on this, they are DEFINITELY partly responsible for what happened. Children aren't even fully developed mentally and emotionally. Some of them can handle negative stimuli on their own but most can't. This is why they legally have to have school and parental supervision. The school and parental supervision failed on all levels.
***Disclaimer: This texting and Internet generation were born when people were doing less face-to-face interactions and more text and web-based interactions. When we were little, we left our bullies at school or on the bus. My bullies never even called my home phone--we didn't have cellphones. It ups the ante when bullies can get to you over the Internet and distribute information about you via text and the Internet.
***Disclaimer2: These bullies were chicken shit. I don't condone, but I understand if they randomly get their asses whooped over this. Also, the articles said they were attractive, cool kids who played sports--eh, maybe they photo poorly because their photos don't reflect that.
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