By Steph Freund

High school is said to be the time of your life.  But for many students, that cannot be said.  A group of Atlantic students have taken the first steps to eliminate this problem.  On Nov. 2, 18 students and two teachers from Atlantic High School joined over 1000 people gathered at the Hy-vee Hall to listen to the Governor’s Bullying Prevention Summit in Des Moines, Iowa. Speakers talked about how bullies act and the consequences of their actions.  The students  met Wednesday morning in response to make a change at AHS on the recurring bullying issue that often gets passed by.

According to the Des Moines Register, Atlantic has had only 1 reported bullying incident to the state.  This number reflects Atlantic’s attitude towards the bullying issue.  According the Des Moines Register, most bullying is done in school in the hallways and classrooms.  The bullying is a majority of verbal and emotional abuse.

It was a belief to many before the conference that bullying wasn’t a dominant issue at AHS. Bullying is often thought of as another person simply being mean to another one day, but what it is, is a campaign against another person.  To be considered so, this bullying has to effect the victim physically or emotionally.  Bullying in AHS is often passed by and not noticed.  Many do not recognize bullying as simply calling another person a rude name repetitiously.  When reflecting, it was realized so much of this happens around us or has in the past.

The kids in Atlantic, are starting to take notice of bullying.  Lexi Allen commented on bullying in Atlantic: “I think bullying is present in our school but nobody notices or pays attention to it.”

Zach Ross said, “I think theres really no problem with guys and bullying, only the girls.”

Bailey Steffens said, “There’s a problem and it happens daily, we could fix it by being aware and cracking down on it.”

This first step in eliminating the bullying is for the bullies and the victims to recognize it as so.  Other than that, Atlantic could have an easy solution to improving awareness of behaviors that might spiral into bullying.  Students should simply consider this quote, “If it’s mean, intervene.”  Don’t be a bystander and become an up-stander, even if it’s only with your friends. Even the simplest changes can have an impact.  If each student would stand up once a day, a huge difference would be seen in AHS.

Another belief in how to fix the bullying problem is to change the negative discipline to positive discipline.   According to speakers at the conference, getting an in-school suspension may not be the appropriate way to fix a bully.  Making them do community service, or sit down with elders at a nursing home would be a more productive response to bullying.  Negative discipline makes kids mad.  Positive discipline shows them a better way to spend their time rather than bullying.

Another way bullying has been brought up at AHS was in the National Honor Society application in the past weeks.  Applicants were asked to write an essay with the following Elie Wiesel quote:  “I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”  The applicants were to expand on how silence encourages the bully.  This essay topic opened many eyes on bullying really does happen in Atlantic.