Dear Incoming Freshman:

Bullying is a huge issue and it affects many kids today including our school. There are always stories on the news about how kids end up committing suicide from either getting bullied at school or cyber bulling. But I’m here to tell you that you shouldn’t bully at all because of the cost that can occur.

You are going to have four years of high school and in one of the main places where bullying occurs. Every day in the hallway I see kids get bullied and I’m just a bystander.

I need to work on helping these kids that get bullied. So I’m going to start stepping up and defending these kids or tell the person to stop. Don’t be a bystander like me or the person bullying someone else because in the long run karma is going to come back and haunt you.
Another main place that bullying occurs is over the internet. Many kids can’t stand the pain that they have to deal with over cyber bullying. I read about Ryan Halligan on ryanpatrickhalligan.org. He started getting bullied by other kids starting in 5th grade because he wasn’t as smart as them so they would taunt him. His parents one Christmas bought him a Billy Blank’s Taebo Kick Boxing program, some boxing gloves and a punching bag. Ryan’s dad helped him with the program and reminded him never to start the fight but if the bully ever lays a hand on him, he had his permission to ‘whale on him’. Ryan’s dad got a call after school one day and Ryan had got in a fight with the bully. Ryan said ‘I got a few good punches in before Mr. Emory got there”. The bully never messed with him again and they ended up being friends. In the summer going into 8th grade Ryan got an AOL Instant Messenger and was talking to the former bully one day. Ryan told the bully about something embarrassing and funny that had happened to him when he was younger. The bully took the new information and presumed that Ryan must be “gay”. He spread the new information and Ryan got the title of “gay”. To squash this title Ryan started talking to pretty “popular” girl from his school and worked on establishing a relationship with the girl.

When eighth grade had started back up again Ryan had approached his new girlfriend in person. In front of her friends she called him a loser and that she didn’t want anything to do with him. She said she was only joking on-line. He found out that her friends and her had thought it would be funny to make him think that she liked him when she actually didn’t. The girl then copied the messages and pasted them in a private exchange into one with her friends. They all had a good laugh at Ryan’s expense.

No one is blaming one single person for Ryan’s death but this is what could happen if you keep pushing around and bullying someone. They may be weak on the inside and not know what to do and think that suicide is the best way out. It’s not. If you see someone getting bullied don’t just be a by stander and help them out. Also don’t think about bullying someone because you think it’s funny, unexpected things can happen just like what happened with Ryan.