LouisF


 * I. General Bullying**

I completely understand how the person in this story feels. In middle school I was the target of many bullies. However, unlike the person in this story, whenever I reported incidents of bullying to the administration of the school they did take action. The action was to give me equal or sometimes more punishment than those who bullied me because they assumed that I must have done something terrible to provoke the bullies into doing something so cruel. In one case, my Mom came to the school to talk to the administration about what was happening. While she was speaking to the principal of the school outside the door of the classroom that I was in, I was attacked by one of the bullies. My mother witnessed what happened, but when she tried to tell the principal about it, we were both accused of being liars and I was kicked out of school for a week.

This article brings to light a problem that is prevalent in many areas. This problem is ignorance. I find it very disturbing the amount of people that I come into contact with on a daily basis who are all too ready to judge someone based upon a glance, rather than getting to know a person and understand their situation without being judgmental. These ignorants assume that because a person is gay, they must have a totally different way of life and culture that those of us who are straight. This is where the problem lies; until people realize that the belief that homosexuals are normal people. Just think; when was the last time you talked to your closest friend about their sexuality? What causes anyone to think that if they were polite, and carried on a friendly conversation with a gay person that all of the sudden they are going to end up having a conversation about their sexuality? As aforementioned, the problem popular society faces is ignorance, not realizing that homosexuals are normal human beings who are just like you and I. At any rate, what they do with their genitals is their own business, who are we to judge?
 * II. Homophobic Bullying**
 * III. Religious Bullying**

Rashida’s story that is truly angering. I wonder what it is in human nature that causes us to address labels so quickly, and to stereotype so freely. Simply because a few __extremist__ Muslims, (who violated several Islamic beliefs) committed acts of terrorism, popular society puts up a wall of hate and believes that anyone of the Muslim faith is without a doubt a terrorist. Just a thought: if anything we ought to admire the Muslims for their forgiving attitudes toward those of us who are Christians. After all, the Christians killed far more Muslims than they have killed Christians. We have given them nothing but hate, dating back to the days of the crusades. If I were a Muslim I am sure that I would hate all Christians because of the way society treats them, but instead Muslims (the vast majority) are peaceful towards us, and treat us just as we would want people to treat us. The only question remaining is this; why did the event in this article take place? When will we treat them with the same forgiveness and peaceful spirit that they treat us with?

Cyber bullying continues to be a steadily growing trend, not only among youths, but also in older age brackets. The problem with internet chatting is that there are often no consequences for the harsh words that take place online. Personally, I try to avoid talking to people who I know very well online. This is because I do not want to fall into the trap of disposable relationships where you may speak with the intent to make someone feel crumby, bully someone to vent your own anger and then block and delete that person to leave them with no method to defend themselves, and no way of causing the cyber bully to meet the consequences of their actions. Personally, I think that although this is becoming a terrible problem, it is a very easy to avoid pandemic. Simply do not talk to people that you do not know well online, and if by chance you do encounter a cyber bully, just block them so that you cannot receive messages from that person. However, I am glad that the girls in this article were brought to justice and had to deal with the consequences of their actions.
 * IV. Cyber Bullying**

I have a vague understanding of how this person might feel. I was also bullied in my early teenage years. I also responded to the bullying by bullying both those who bullied me and those who did not, as a way to try to gain respect amongst my classmates. However, I did not go to the same extremes that Clare did. I also feel quite a bit of guilt for the acts that I committed. In my case however, I have met up with the victims of my bullying and apologized, and in most cases have built strong friendships with them.
 * VI. Bullying from the perpetrators point of view**