“It ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun.”

My great grandmother used to say this to me almost every day of the summers I spent with her. It was a reminder that karma is real and that the thing I did to others, in secret or on display for the world to see, would come back to me. We would talk about simply doing good and allowing our kindness to man to be an example to people who were not nice. I often say that same phrase to my students as a reminder to myself that what I do they will do in some way or another.

This week has been a particularly difficult week as an educator. Several of my students were the target of bullying; both cyber bullying and physical bullying. I found myself in a struggle with the actions being made by the students and the lack of action being taken by the administrative staff. There was a lot of coddling and hand holding, and the direct discipline was simply not there.

The students were barbaric in the way they were handling one another and it brought tears to my eyes. On Friday when it was time for our weekly talk, I barely held it together. I was not ashamed of my emotions and in some ways, I thought it allowed my students to see that I am real and I have real concern for them, their behaviors, and their well-being outside of the classroom. I shared the video on Ryan and the write up on Kylie. I also showed them the Top Ten Tips to Prevent Bullying and Cyber bullying article from Hinduja & Patchin and emphasized the importance of speaking up. One of my male students saying “telling would make him soft and he couldn’t afford that”. That statement made my stomach drop. I thought of hundreds of proper responses to him and nothing came that seemed remotely appropriate. After a moment I came back to the table with a response and we were able to break though that thought processing.

You can never be fully prepared for what may come but you can always do something. Even if the start is opening the discussion on self-esteem. Students do not have to take the harsh actions of others for the sake of popularity or pseudo acceptance. If students are helped with boosting their self-esteem at an early age the potential for less external validation and need for acceptance can be astronomical. That is not to say that the struggle will not exist because it will. The reality though is that if students are given more than reading and math, they have a better chance of combating everything else that gets thrown at them.

“It ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun.”

It keeps ringing in my ears. The world could be a better place if more people were concerned more with what they do with their freedoms than having the freedoms. Some things could be that simple. I have decided that I want to look into what can be done with the social media accounts of students on my campus. Even if its regulating access to the school wifi as a start. We have to do more. I can do more.

Resources: Willard, N. (2007). Educator’s guide to cyberbullying and cyberthreats. Retrieved from http://www.cyberbully.org/ cyberbully/docs/cbcteducator.pdf

StopBullying.gov. (n.d.) Working in the Community. Retrieved from https://www.stopbullying.gov/prevention/in-the-community/index.html#

TED. (2013). “To this day”… for the bullied and beautiful | shane koyczan. [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/sa1iS1MqUy4

TED. (2015). The price of shame | monica lewinsky. [Video File]. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/H_8y0WLm78U

Brewer, G. and Kerslake, J.. Cyberbullying, self-esteem, empathy and loneliness. Retrieved from: https://luonline.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-3525451-dt-content-rid-55268704_1/courses/13240.201890/Brewer_Cyberbullying_Self-esteem_Empathy_Loneliness.pdf