By T.M. Luker
FORT COLLINS, Colo-- Everyone has seen the actions and effects of bullying. Even this reporter, who was 6 feet tall in eighth grade, saw her fair share of teasing. The reality is that 88 people die by suicide each day in the U.S. Based on numbers from 2001, those who are victims of bullying are between 2 and 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, showing just how extreme the effects of bullying can be.
High school has always been the stereotype of teenage awkwardness and raging hormones. This also makes it one of the worst times for a child to be different, and has high numbers of sports hazing and a seniority mind set. Chuck Zulanas IV, a senior at Cheyenne Mountain High School recently wrote his own article about the hard times of pre-adulthood. When I interviewed him about the bullying at Cheyenne, he seemed very optimistic about the future.
“I feel as though the bullying situation has gotten better as the years progressed.”
He also mentioned the new ways that Cheyenne has used extracurricular activities to instill unity in the school and help tackle bullying and discrimination.
As far as how college might go for him, Zulanas was not as hopeful.
“More people will have their guard up in the new surroundings.” “I believe bullying may be more of an issue in college than at my school with fraternities and sororities with their brutal initiations and such.”
There is no doubt that discrimination can be seen in every age, race, and gender group. Maturity is definitely a factor when looking at the small decline in bullying as teens leave high school, but according to Chris Lee, ROTC Army, there is more that causes people to stop the bullying.
“It’s easier to bully in high school. You mature and you have more things to do in college.”
In regards to whether or not there are cases of bullying still in college, however, Lee still believes that it is a problem, even if it is just behind closed doors.
“You just don’t really ‘see’ it in college. In high school, it is more out in the open with kids being shoved into lockers.”
The headliner Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, which discriminates against openly homosexual people into the military because of the ‘interruption of discipline and morale in military capability’ implies that the marginalizing of one group is always a factor in society.
The DADT policy also led to some questions to Lee’s about his opinion on what would happen if a member of ROTC came out to their peers.
“I’d accept them, but our friendship would change. This is a common thought for guys. You don’t want to be associated with someone who’s gay because then people might also think that you’re gay.”
Obviously, this is one of those situations that can not only be eliminated by time.
The ‘It Gets Better’ project that has recently caused governmental interference, has been started to help give hope to those being bullied and discriminated against. This project promises that things will change in young peoples lives who are struggling against oppression from peers because of their sexuality. The ‘It Gets Better’ website has set up a pledge forum that allows kids to promise to treat others equally and ignore their differences. There are also many celebrities joining the pledge and popularizing the movement. The website also takes videos of personal stories, and donations to go toward helping people rise above prejudice.
In present day truth, there are still issues with people discriminating others. Some argue that this has become a psychological norm, while others are trying to defy that claim. The fact on if bullying does get better is different with individual cases. Although an uncertainty, it is the numbers of pledges and people talking about the situation that is providing the hope for those who struggle with bullying.
This is by far the worst article I have EVER read. Just kidding, this is a really great piece. It was a very strong piece right from the lead. I really enjoyed the sentimental value to the article. I also really enjoyed how you firmly chose a side instead of just reporting on the statistics of bullying, you helped show in what ways it's happening and how it is evolving. You could have used more content on cyber bullying which is a huge problem now, but other than that it was supercalifragilisticexpealidocious.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your article. I found it very interesting and sad about how people feel about bullying. In the opening paragraph, I saw that you said "based on numbers from 2001", were there not any numbers from around right now? Also, where did this information come from? You had some great quotes and I found them very informative. This is an important topic for right now around the country and also in Fort Collins. Bullying has been a problem in this country for a long time, there have been many tragedies because of this. I think you covered the topic very well. Overall, great job!
ReplyDeleteI thought that your story was very thorough and had a lot of good sources. You also incorporated a lot of good quotes into the text as well. I thought, though, that the one quote from the ROTC member was too low in the story. It was a very honest and forward quote that really incorporated the issue and probably should have been more forefront in the story. In the lead, you probably should not include yourself. While I thought that the inclusion of your own experience allows the reader to relate more, I also thought that it made the story more bias.
ReplyDeleteI thought that your story was interesting. I liked statistics that you had in the first paragraph, because it really gives the reader a feeling of how serious bullying can be. I thought that using the transition from high school bullying was interesting, though I think a little more detail about your first source's experiences with bullying would give the reader a better idea of what it actually is. The quote from the ROTC guy was really good in incorporating the Dont Ask Dont Tell policy and then connecting the story to the It Gets Better project. It was a great transistion.
ReplyDeleteAwesome story! With all of the suicides recently regarding homosexuality and discrimination, I think this piece has a particular impact to anyone who reads it. The personal example you used in the first paragraph was really cool, I thought, and gave the story voice. You had a lot of sources that were all different from each other yet all related in some way which was cool. I thought the organization was a little off in your story; the national impact that you drew from didn’t come until a little ways down into the story. If you brought that up to maybe the second or third graph it would make a little more sense.
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