Thursday, March 06, 2008

Folks, bullying IS abuse! Did you know that??

Hey there! Its another week and more bullying and peer abuse occurring out there. Here is the latest…..

Well, we have second graders who are writing their own books about bullying. One even stated that this helps her get her own bad feelings out.

A recent study was conducted where cyber bullying has gone up to 9% from 6% five years ago. One thing that may help is to keep an eye on pages such as MySpace as this is a hotbed for bullying. If parents have access to their childs account, this could well decrease any bullying occurring.

Also, a woman who has a daughter who was ill went last year to purchase cigarettes and wrote a check for $26.61 and the check bounced. She is on a fixed income and was threatened by a company who stated that she needed to pay a certain amount to them or would be facing jail and $1,000 in fines. This was a simple mistake on her part yet the company was relentless. She has fallen victim to a company who contracts with the court system that demands excessive fines from those who have written checks for very little money. They bully others to pay these excessive fines and threaten jail time. Many times, writing a bad check is just a simple mistake on the part of the victim and can usually be cleared up with the bank. Plus, this was the first time this woman ever did this and was bad check book balancing on her part. It happens and we all make mistakes. What is more disturbing is that the victim never received a letter from the merchant letting her know that the check had bounced in the first place.

There was a young man who had written a list of those who had bullied him in school and church. This list was found by another party who took it to her mother. So, with everyone jumping the gun as they do before getting the facts first, took it and the young man was charged and authorities were contacted. However, through actual talking things through to get to the truth, it turned out that the bullies were the ones who pushed him to this point. Really?? Someone is actually getting this?? What took them so long??

Folks, I lived this for 27 years. I KNOW what this can do to a person and it is not some stupid rite of passage. Please, PLEASE know that bullying is actual abuse: Peer Abuse! Why should anyone have to put up with it? Why do people have to do it?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are so right. Bullying is abuse.
In my new book, "Straight Talk for Success" I list the five things that I think are important for career and life success.
Self Confidence heads the list. Self confident people have three things in common. 1) They are optimistic. 2) They face their fears and deal with them. 3) They surrond themselve with positive people.
Standing up to a bully is a good way to face your fears. I have found that most bullies back down when you stand up to them. It can be scary, but backing down a bully is a very empowering experience. It will do wonders for your self confidence.
Bud Bilanich
The Common Sense Guy
www.SuccessCommonSense.com