President Obama, speaking at the ‘White House Conference on Bullying Prevention’ this week, said that as a child he was bullied for his ‘big ears’ and his unusual name. He states that he ‘didn’t emerge unscathed’ from the torment, and stressed that ‘bullying is not a rite of passage for youth, but a practice that can have destructive consequences’.
The am New York reports that, the White House conference has shockingly found that over one third of school aged children have experienced bullying, and an estimated 160,000 students stayed home from school yesterday, for fear of being bullied. These alarming statistics highlight just how important proactive change about bulling, both in school and online, is. Hopefully, at the conclusion of this conference, we will have some more definite practices in place to stop the trend.
Growing up, everyone is always told that school doesn’t last forever, and no one should take notice of the bullies, because when you leave school they don’t matter anymore. But school is a long time, and a crucial time for development, so addressing the bullying problem is paramount, for as First Lady Michelle Obama said, no child should feel ‘afraid everyday in the classroom, or on the playground, or even online’. If president Obama, clearly a self assured, confident human being, as he is the leader of this nation, and is known throughout the whole world, can still feel the sting of bullying, how is a 10 year old child supposed to just brush it off?
What do you think? How can we ourselves address the bullying epidemic?
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Saturday, March 12th 2011 at 5:43PM
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