Spirit Day and bullying.

[cupcake_goth]

Today is Spirit Day. I honestly don't know if I have anything purple to wear, but I'm going to try, because I do support this and want to increase the visibility of it. (EDIT: Just as I suspected, I don't own any purple clothing. Huh.)

About bullying, everyone go read Cleolinda's post on this.(clicky-link!) What she says is SPOT ON, and I think everyone should follow it.

If someone is being bullied and I'm around, I will do what I can to help stop it.

Personal experience time: I was one of the incredibly lucky ones. Even though I was a Weird Kid, I wasn't really ever bullied. Part of this, I know, is because word went out pretty quickly that "Holy crap, Jilli's dad is CRAZY, don't piss him off". (Hi Dad! I love you and you're the best dad in the world!) But I know that wasn't the entire reason. I don't know WHY I wasn't bullied, but I thank my lucky stars that I wasn't.

But I've seen the effects of bullying. It's horrible and demoralizing, and I just don't understand how anyone can think that treating another person like that is okay. So. I will speak up and step in if I see bullying. I hope that you folks will do the same.

Comments

[mumminator2008.livejournal.com]

Yup, bullied all through school. It miraculously stopped in grade 9. My worst experience was when I was walking home in the winter (grade 7 or 8, cant remember) and this boy that ALWAYS stalked & harassed me on the way home - threw a snowball at me. Nothing unusual there...but it was made of solid ice and had a rock inside. He hit me square in the side of the head and knocked me out cold. I woke up on the sidewalk and it was almost dark I had been there for so long. We are talking a residential neighbourhood people!!!! and NO ONE came to help me.
I walked home with blood all over me, soaked right through all my clothes from laying in the snow.
Parents - no help. "Fight your own battles" was their rallying cry.
Now the ending for this story is interesting...a couple of days later my bully showed up at school sporting 2 black eyes and some interesting bruises. It was passed on to me through a friend of a friend of a friend that he would NOT be bullying me in the future.
Karma...it's a bitch.