Perhaps many of you educators have seen this already– a video made by 14 year-old Jonah who was bullied, suicidal, and struggled with cutting himself. It is a powerful cry for help, and a brave one, at that.
{Subscribers, you’ll want to click through to see this one.}
And we talk about the theories of education and our new plans for higher end-of-year test scores, but we so often we miss the suffering ones, seated right in the second row of our classrooms, every. single. day.
The following is a chilling true account of the effects of classroom bullying, as recorded by Dan Pearce at Single Dad Laughing. It’s another powerful reminder that the worlds of our students can be far more complicated, and oftentimes, far darker, than we would ever assume.
Besides the bigger bullies’ ongoing determination to make sure the “fat names” grew harsher and wider-spread, they started in on new bullying tactics like sneaking up and cramming food from the floor into my mouth, knocking my lunch tray to the ground, throwing dangerous objects at me, tripping me with the intent to seriously hurt me, shoving me with the intent to seriously hurt me, and pushing me with the intent to seriously hurt me.
In eighth grade, I stopped crying at night. . .
The school bus driver didn’t help me. In fact, never once did a single person ever help me. Never once did a single kind soul put their arm around me and show me love. Never once did a teacher comfort me when they witnessed it. Never once did a classmate speak up when they heard it. Never once did anybody do anything.
Because that day, the only thing that happened after that was a phone call to my mom to tell her I missed the bus. I’m sure she asked me how my day was. I’m sure I told her “fine”.
And the people who actually did love me, never knew that any of this was going on. Besides that one day in fifth grade when I came home bawling to my mother, I nevertold my parents. My siblings never knew. My best friend (and only real friend) didn’t even know because when he was around, the bullies left me alone. I wish he could have been around all the time.
Nobody knew that I wanted to die. Nobody knew that I had horrible and constant fantasies of death aimed at others. Nobody knew that I hated every teacher that never did anything. Nobody knew that I hated every classmate who refused to say a kind word to me for fear of becoming targets themselves. Nobody knew any of it.
What people did know was that I was “shy”. What people did know was that I was easily angered. What people did know was that I was constantly mean to my siblings. What people did know was that I was “fine”, and that that was going to be my answer any time they asked. People knew (because I constantly told them) that “I just wanted to be left alone”. And so they left me alone, the way anybody would leave a huffing porcupine alone.” -Dan, Memoirs of a Bullied Kid. {To see Dan’s response to the above video you can visit his blog, Single Dad Laughing, Jonah: Normal Once Again. }
* And for more tips on fighting bullying in the classroom, check out this article: The Bully-Free Classroom from Scholastic.
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Thoughts on seeing this video? How do you fight bullying in your classroom?
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