Con Philippe Vallerard… Bullying “Too Scared For School”

Provengo dal  Québec, la regione francofona del  Canada. Originario di Québec City, vivo a Montreal dove ho conseguito la laurea di primo livello in storia. Attualmente, presso l’università di Montreal, frequento il master in studi classici, con  indirizzo storia romana. Il focus della mia ricerca si concentra sull’organizzazione delle legioni romane ai tempi della costruzione del Vallo di Adriano. Da bambino leggevo anche di notte! Nonostante i rimproveri ricevuti per questo, amo molto leggere. Sono rimasto un nottambulo in tutto e per tutto… a mezzanotte l’olio della mia lampada brucia ancora ad illuminare le mie letture accademiche.  Nonostante ciò, la letteratura rimane una delle passioni della mia vita.  Condividerò molto volentieri  con voi i suggerimenti di lettura sulle tematiche proposte nei prossimi mesi… Crede che l’apertura mentale e la giovinezza del cuore siano fondamentali per  ogni vera comprensione e apprezzamento letterario. Click here…

Bullying is a controversial subject. Its omnipresence throughout kids and young adults’ lives can have tremendous impact on their growth and most schools seem to be ill equipped to provide help to those who are victims of it. Bullying is particularly horrible because it starts to occur at an age when you don’t have the maturity to handle it. It can then scar you for a long time and even throughout adulthood. What pushes kids to make another kid life miserable? I would say it is a total lack of empathy from the bullies, an emotional immaturity so problematic that they can’t see or understand the effect of their actions. Good education and sensibilization to the lives of the victims of bullying seem to me like a path towards progress. The documentary Too Scared For School is a good example that we can show to illustrate the adverse effects of bullying.

It follows over the course of many months four English children victims of bullying. Amber Hall, Rebecca Willers, James Best and Abbigael Fawcett. They all have experienced hell be it physical or mental in their daily school lives and it is devastating to see the effects it had on them. They became depressed, thought they were worthless and contemplated suicide. A strong feeling that they wouldn’t be able to cope with or endure what is to come is what put them in this terrible position. But worst, is that no one seemed to do anything about it. Schools like to pretend its not happening or to reject the blame on the victim.

They can even punish you for defending yourself, such was the case of James. In addition, even social service and police don’t seem concerned by this enough to take action. Rebecca was beaten so badly at one point that she had to spend 3 days in the hospital. Her aggressor only got a warning from the police. So basically, a light slap on the wrist is the consequence a bully has to face for sending someone to the hospital.

This is my personal take on the matter of bullying. I believe that institutions such as schools don’t care about individuals. Only individuals can care about individuals.

Institutions like to cross their checklist and look good but when it comes to putting time and money to fix actual problems instead of doing the bare minimum, they refuse to act on it. This is why teachers and schools ignore bullying until something that makes them look bad comes out. No institutions want to act or prevent because it takes effort to do so.

Hence, you the people must act if you want bullying to stop. You have to step up and help others or even yourself if you want to make it stop. Or if you are a parent putting the time and effort to make your kid change school and get a fresh start is worthwhile. Such was the case for Abbi and Rebecca by the end of the documentary.

But I must say Amber point of view on the whole thing is what touched me the most. She said that she admired the show Buffy and the namesake Heroine. She viewed her bullies as her demons and that if she wanted to defeat them, she had to get stronger inside. I believe that this is the true cure to bullying, to know that you are a strong and powerful individual and that no matter what happens to you no one but yourself can make that change.