Bullys walk among us and Your kid could be the one!

Vonda’s Views
August 23, 2010

Bullys are among us and I am not talking about MSU Bulldogs. I am talking about kids that bully. Last week I watched two very disturbing videos on Youtube that were made by kids in the Tupelo municipal school district. The kids that videoed them were using the new Macbooks provided by the school system there. How ironic and convenient that the very tool given to these kids to enhance their educational experience is also what is exposing the problems among our youth. Their moral compass is busted!

In the first video, a young male student was waiting at the bus stop for the bus to carry him to school. He was sitting on the corner using his Macbook, minding his own business. Several other male students came up and started making verbal jabs at him and calling his daddy crazy. Then one of the male students kicked the young man in the head. Not once did that child say or do anything to defend himself. He was out numbered about 6 to 1. Another student, a girl, had her Macbook on and the camera was turned in his direction and she captured the whole incident. She was even laughing about it and telling the others that she was going to put it up on Facebook.

The second video was at Ballard park and two highschool boys had called out another boy to fight. Again, the spectators were ready with Macbooks and Iphones in hand to video the fight. While that one was a ‘planned’ fight, what happened was atrocious. One of the pair of fighters had a mini bat in his hand and he beat the third boys’ face into a pulp. The blood was real the open gashes were real. And everyone was laughing about it!

Those of us old people that are on Facebook happened to see these horrifying images when they popped up on our pages and we reacted in a big way. It wasn’t long before the television stations and the newspapers and the TPSD were receiving the videos and emails protesting these actions.

I was a victim of bullying from 1965 to 1970. I hated going to school and nothing was ever done to the gang of girls that bullied me. I was just told to look the other way and not to get involved. Well, that was a little hard to do. I became the proverbial ‘loner geek’. When I was home schooling my daughters I also homeschooled some other kids and the one thing they all had in common was being bullied at school.

In today’s schools, it’s the lone wolf kids and geeks that teachers are told to look out for. Well maybe they should start looking out for the packs of kids and that pack mentality. In the wild, wolves travel and hunt in packs. The lone wolf is the one that has had to learn to survive alone because the others bullied and shunned it out of the pack.


Here are some alarming stats for you to mull over this week.

•Thirty percent (30%) of U.S. students in grades six through ten are involved in moderate or frequent bullying — as bullies, as victims, or as both — according to the results of the first national survey on this subject.

•Bullying is increasingly viewed as an important contributor to youth violence, including homicide and suicide

•1 out of 4 kids is Bullied. The American Justice Department says that this month 1 out of every 4 kids will be abused by another youth.

•Surveys Show That 77% of students are bullied mentally, verbally, & physically.

•In a recent study, 77% of the students said they had been bullied. And 14% of those who were bullied said they experienced severe (bad) reactions to the abuse.

•1 out of 5 kids admits to being a bully, or doing some "Bullying."

•8% of students miss 1 day of class per month for fear of Bullies.

•43% fear harassment in the bathroom at school.

•282,000 students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month.

•More youth violence occurs on school grounds as opposed to on the way to school.

•Playground statistics - Every 7 minutes a child is bullied. Adult intervention - 4%. Peer intervention - 11%. No intervention - 85%.

•46% of males, and 26% of females reported they had been in physical fights.

Bully’s are among us and they have no place in our schools.