By: Lauren Guidotti, Marketing and Events Manager at NUVO
Recently, there was a story in the local news about a middle school girl who committed suicide by hanging herself outside of the school on the bleachers. Without opening the article, I immediately assumed bullying was involved. Once I read the article, I saw the school district had stated, “There has been speculation about a connection to bullying, but at this early point in the investigation, there has been no indication of such a connection.”
After following up to see what had come from the case of the 14-year-old girl, I found an article confirming that bullying was absolutely involved. A friend of the young girl told the local TV station, “She was bullied and she didn’t deserve what she got. She didn’t deserve to have to go through that pain. The fact that she had to commit suicide to feel release…” And when I scrolled down to read comments, people were blaming the teachers, people the school, and others were saying the students who bullied her should be punished. But, once again, no one was talking about the learned behavior we get from our surroundings. No one wants to be held accountable.
A while back I found an interesting article from the Huffington Post. The article talked about how the media is “fat-shaming” Kim Kardashian during her pregnancy. I was thrilled to see someone tackling this subject, because I think about it all the time.
We spend time talking and developing anti-bullying campaigns. New laws and school rules are being passed trying to punish those who bully. But does anyone ever stop and look at how we as a society behave? Or how the media treats people?
We are surrounded by bullying. We now live in a digital age where we can publicly shame anyone and hide anonymously behind the curtain of the Internet. We do it with celebrities. We do it with politicians. We do it with media personalities. It’s in music lyrics. It’s everywhere.
Why aren’t we having the conversation about civility – how we speak to and about one another? Whether it be in person, on social media, in the comment section of a news article, etc. Why aren’t we thinking about how our words can impact someone? Go through a devastating article and see how many people start being negative and “bullying” either the person in the story, or the news station providing the coverage. It happens all the time.
What happened to the saying, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” or “Treat people the way you wanted to be treated? Most of us were taught these mantras growing up. If bullying is to end, then we, as a society, must change.
The most important things you can do is stop bullying on the spot is to immediately intervene, stay calm, and model respectful behavior. Resources to learn more about prevention and awareness of risk factors and warning signs can be found at stopbullying.gov
http://www.stopbullying.gov/respond/be-more-than-a-bystander
To mediate reputable reporting, the Ethical Journalism Network is an excellent news media resource to help journalists and media manage messages and standards in the online age when stories are often rushed for publication and inevitable criticism.
Ethical Journalism Network:
Maverick PR Maven 