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The student news site of Atlantic High School

AHSneedle

The student news site of Atlantic High School

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Wear Purple

Wear+Purple

By Taylor Berns

October is National Bullying Prevention Month. On Thursday, Oct. 17, AHS students will join people across the country and wear purple to take a stand against bullying.

Students at AHS shared their opinions on the bullying problem within the school. Some may say that bullying is a problem and others may say that it is not.

Sophomore Darien Mills said “Yes, there is a lot of bullying in the high school. I think that more people are getting bullied now than we know.” Although she did admit to being a bully at one time or another, she also commented “I didn’t mean to be a bully. If I see a bully I try to stick up for the other person and tell them to knock it off.”

When asked how the way AHS handles bullying could be improved, junior Brecklyn Carey voiced her opinion by stating, “There are some great teachers in this school have been able to offer a ‘safe haven’ to their students, however, some high schoolers may not have a teacher they feel comfortable with.” Carey also believes that by simply being a good friend to your friends is a good way to reduce bullying.

Freshman Bailey Schildberg said, “I think the bullying problem is that we judge and make fun of people way too much. We don’t accept people for the way they are.” Schildberg said that 90% of the time it is cyberbullying that she sees because people hide behind the keyboard.

More than one kind of bullying can take place and may not just your typical physical abuse that people think of. There are four different categories including physical, verbal, social, and cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is generally the most harmful to a person because it’s harder to get away from the behavior. This type of bullying can take place on social media cites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. If you see any kind of bullying anywhere, the best thing to do is try to get the harasser to stop and report the incident to any trusted adult. Schildberg commented, “It is much easier to bully online rather than face to face, because you don’t feel as much guilt.”

According to www.stopbullying.gov, the definition of bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among peers that involves real or perceived power imbalance. It also include threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose. Bullying can happen during or after school hours. Although most bullying that is reported happens in the schools building but it also happens in places like on the bus of playground.

To recognize National Bullying Prevention Month, AMS Principal Josh Rasmussen said that four students joined together this year with one goal – to help reduce bullying at AMS. During the week of Oct. 7-11, AMS students had special dress days to draw attention to different aspects of bullying. The week started off with Motivational Monday, Targeting Tuesday, Wacky Wednesday, Empathetic Thursday, and Fix It Friday. If students met specific requirements, their names were put into a raffle with the prize of a food voucher for Friday night’s football game. When asked why some students don’t get involved, Rasmussen commented, “Sometimes it’s hard to step out on a limb and separate yourself from your peers.”

Teacher JoAnn Sandage helped facilitate the anti-bullying activities at AMS. Eighth-graders in one of Marnie Leiferman’s classes organized activities for the week, including the making of anti-bullying videos. One of their videos is now posted on the Department of Education’s website.

 

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