If you think bullying is something new, then think again.  This form of meanness has been going on in one form or the other for years.  Perhaps the reason so many believe this is something that is happening only in this generation is because we hear about it 24/7 on the spot news casting by journalist in every medium.  We can’t turn on our TV or pick up the daily newspaper without something being reported about this horrendous act.

All it takes is one little innuendo to start a rumor.  This rumor builds and builds and suddenly becomes ugly gossip.  Remember the game Gossip?  You start with the first person, tell them a story, (could possibly be a true story) she or he tells the next person, etc. and when the game ends the story has now become a pack of lies with not even a thread of truth.

In the Sunday newspaper I came across a letter from a worried mother.  It seems her daughter’s friends without reason or provocation turned on her and froze her out of the “so–called,” circle of friends. She says this is a form of bullying, but the school passes it off as girls will be girls. Can you for one minute believe the cavalier attitude of this school? “Girls will be Girls!” These few girls were not just out to tease. They set out to destroy.

This mother is convinced and so am I that bullying begins when one girl considers herself top-dog and assembles her entourage. What is the criteria, how and why does she pick her prey?  Jealously maybe, or simply just wanting to call the shots. Maybe she doesn’t want competition from someone prettier, smarter, or more likable, so she sets out to destroy the one she deems as the enemy.  Petty, pathetic, hateful, horrendous,-Yes, it is all of those adjectives and many, many more.

The article took me back to the ‘50’s.  Bullying in its meanest form happened to a girl I knew personally. This girl was sixteen and about to be a junior in high school. What should have been a great “Sweet Sixteen” turned out to anything but sweet.  She had a circle of friends who had been her buddies since grade school through junior high and high school until her junior year. Without provocation, a wild and untrue rumor set out to ruin her reputation and cost her all her friends. It did just that.  Is it possible? YES! Without a doubt what these few mean girls set out to do worked, on the turn of a dime the girl’s whole world changed

Just like the girl in the newspaper article, this gal from the fifties survived. BUT,what about the gals who don’t?   For some, their world has ended. They not only cry themselves to sleep every night, they can’t sleep at all. These gals can’t eat, they physically become sick. They feel unworthy to the point of becoming mentally ill.  No-one understands the rumor is untrue.  WHAT ABOUUT THESE GIRLS?

If you read the paper or listen to the TV you know some of these kids don’t survive, they can’t stand the stares, the name calling or the nasty looks. Want to know what they do? Can you stand the hard cold facts? Statistics show that many jump off balconies or hang themselves, some take an overdose and just go to sleep.  It all boils down to this: THEY KILL THEMSELVES.

The name caller, the rumor monger, you are guilty. You are an accessory to the death as if you pulled the trigger on a gun or plunged a knife into the innocent person’s heart.

If you, any of the above, are reading this today please stop. Make this right before it’s too late. Please, don’t be the cause of a loss of life.