You walk into school and you’re greeted with taunts and stares. You go to your first period and you’re met with whispers and insults that your classmates pretend you can’t hear. You want to crawl into your skin and never come to school again.
This is what a typical day of school can be like for a victim of bullying. Nothing improves once the victim goes home either because of the prevalence of cyber bullying that spreads quickly through social media like Facebook and Twitter. There is no refuge for the bullied: they’re not even safe within their own homes.
Unreported, incessant bullying in schools can lead to a number of outcomes: lifelong emotional damage, self-harm, and/or suicide. None of which create a healthy, happy, functioning young adult in society, which is the purpose of going to school.
However, the Langley Guidance Department and the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) are trying to change that at Langley with Blackout Bullying week from Dec. 10 to 14.
Each day of the week has a school-wide theme, culminating with a blackout on Friday. On Thursday and Friday, there will be a Blackout Bullying pledge in the cafeteria for students and teachers to sign and blackout wristbands will be handed out. A particularly moving anti-bullying video will be shown in the Saxon Time sessions that are required for all sophomores on Monday and Tuesday and juniors on Thursday and Friday as well.
Ms. Jessica Omasta, one of the leaders of Blackout Bullying week, went for a more interesting approach than simply lecturing students about why bullying is wrong because she “really wanted to do something Langley would enjoy, and make a serious impact” simultaneously.
Though bullying at Langley may not seem overt, it is important to remember that the victims of bullying want to draw as little attention to themselves as possible. Some of your best friends could be bullied and you likely would have no idea.
Senior Kate Fraser, a member of the Langley GSA, said bullying is often behind-the-scenes because “most people don’t recognize when their friends are getting bullied, and most people don’t recognize when they are being bullied themselves.”
Fraser said that despite it being “pounded into our brains that bullying is this awful thing, it still happens. There are still people that will go out of their way to feel vindicated by cruelty, and the GSA wants to put an end to this.”
So the next time you see someone being bullied or even if you’re taking part in bullying someone yourself, remember that we all carry more baggage to school than just our backpacks. What you say and do to people can change their entire perception of themselves.
What to Wear:
Monday – Black and Green
Tuesday – Black and Blue
Wednesday – Black and Yellow
Thursday – Black and Red
Friday – Blackout
Saxon Time Schedules
Click here for the Sophomore Schedule
Click here for the Junior Schedule
Schedules courtesy of the Langley Guidance Department