bullying
Bullying Cannot Be Ignored Most people see bullying as “kids being kids”, but for Jamie Nabozny that was not the case. Students harassed, taunted, and teased Nabozny for being gay. The harassment started out verbally, but rapidly progressed into traumatizing physical and sexual abuse. The physical abuse was so severe that Nabozny couldn’t even use the school restrooms. One day while Nabozny was using the school restroom, several of his class mates came in and started harassing him. At one point Nabozny was pushed to the floor by one of the students, while kicked and urinated on by the others. The abuse did not stop there, it eventually became sexual. Male students would touch Nabozny inappropriately while whispering in his ear asking him if he liked it. When these situations were taken to the school administration they simply said “boys will be boys” and no one was held accountable (Documentary). School administration must enforce the Code of Conduct to ensure that all students feel safe. In Mark Brown’s article, “Life After Bullying”, he states that bullying is a serious problem. It is known that bullying has become a worldwide problem. “Bullying is a type of aggression in which the behavior is intended to harm or disturb, occurs repeatedly over time, and where an imbalance of power occurs, with a more powerful person or group attacking a less powerful one” (Nansel et al). “Younger children have a different definition of what bullying is, which changes as they get older” (Smith et al).Meanwhile, students say that they are “just kidding” when they say something offensive to another student. Even if the students are “just kidding”, that offensive comment may have hurt that other student. Bullying is dealt with in many elementary schools and high schools all over the world. When interviewing a student from a local elementary school he was asked if bullying happened at his school, and the response to that question was shocking. He responded “Yes”, and began to
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