this is coming from someone going into their sophmore year of college, but honestly im so fucking tired of people brushing off bullying of ANY KIND. let me ive hated the way bullying tropes are handled in 90% of PSAs because its never fucking accurate and it puts more effort on telling the victim to be the bigger person than it does telling people not to be the fucking perpretrators.
wanna know a secret?? the reason schools can never seem to actually stand on their claims of being a no-bullying zone is because bullying is a great way to teach kids to conform, and almost every goddamn form of bullying is just bigotry-lite. they fall back on the idea that the perpetrator is "just a kid who doesnt know any better :)" knowing damn fucking well that the VICTIM who's the same age knows better and knows exactly what every last one of the words being said to them means. im so tired of the whole "kids dont know any better :)" excuse, because if the victims are smart enough to tell an adult whats going on, then the perpetrators are definitely smart enough to know better, and that isnt counting the way so many young teens have begun idolizing the idea of being "problematic." another reason as to why schools dont care about bullying is that they find every way to sweep it under the fucking rug, and as long as theres no damage to the school's reputation, they really wont fucking care.
wanna know the solution? DAMAGE THEIR REPUTATION.
yes, phones/apple watches/any non-medical device that connects to the internet is basically banned on school premises. but you do not need an internet connection to get evidence. MP3 players come with a recorder, and tape recorders can record audio too. get your evidence, and upload it to a file whenever you can. if youre looking for video stuff, a digital camera works fine. every student's parents signed a photographic consent form at the start of the year, so as long as all photographic evidence is recorded on school youll be good. modern digital cameras tend to come with adapters to send photos to your phone.
when you have your evidence, you need to make copies. send the first to school authorities and give them a chance to act accordingly. if they dont, take that shit public. post it on social media. im honestly so sick and tired of the demonization of vigilante justice, because it wouldnt exist if the people in charge were capable of doing their jobs. when the school confronts you, point out that the reason you did it was because of their lack of effort in dealing with the bullying outright. at least, it scares the bully into fixing their behavior because they only care about their reputation and their parent's response, and if its gone on this long you know the parents either dont care or somehow dont know, and at best the school finally steps in and does something.
anyways... rant over, drop your own tips in the comments below :)
