As mentioned in my post last month, Bullying – Life Threating,
Life Ending, throughout 2024, I will be posting monthly posts from an amazing
young man whose life was almost destroyed to the point of coming to an end by
unbelievable bullying.
This month, Samuel talks about the word bullying and its interpretation.
"I'm sure I've mentioned at some point before, I think
bullying is a very nebulous term; it can be used quite accurately to describe
anything from light teasing to physical assault. Everyone will have had an
experience with bullying at one point or another, none of which was deserved,
but the range of experiences the word can cover I think makes it difficult for
us to communicate exactly how bad any given instance of bullying is and what
the appropriate response, or help, is.
The same goes for the word "bully". Children who
make jokes at someone else's expense because of the colour of their lunchbox,
or something equally as trivial, are bullies. But so too are the children who
wait until a teacher steps out of the classroom to walk down the line of desks
and strike other children on the backside of the head with a bundle of
textbooks, those who wait until their victims are in changing rooms (Where it
wouldn't be appropriate for a teacher to be) and undressed before attacking them.
It's difficult as responsible adults to know exactly how to
respond to an accusation of bullying. Especially considering that a lot of it
will happen very deliberately out of our sight, and the victims may not be
inclined to fully divulge their experiences for any number of understandable
reasons (Embarrassment, fear of retribution etc.). I think in any case, the
more aware we are of bullying and how bad it can be the better prepared we are
to address it when it appears in our lives, or in the lives of our loved ones.
And regrettably should the worse come to pass, we have Red
Balloon to help 🙂"
Red
Balloon
“… bullying, abuse, mental
health problems or life-long conditions are among the most common causes that
lead young people to hide in their bedrooms. There, they isolate themselves
from the company of others, from school and from society.
This causes a downward spiral
of social isolation, marginalisation, missed education and deteriorating mental
ill-health. They become ‘hidden’ at home and their voices are ignored. They
risk not finding their place in the adult world.
What we do
Red Balloon is an alternative
to school which enables young people to re-engage with education. We have both
‘physical’ and virtual Centres to best meet students’ needs…”
You can find out all about Red Balloon, Norwich, UK by visiting their web
site. Click HERE to learn about this
amazing charity.
Click HERE to read last month's post, Life Threating, Life Ending.
Click HERE to listen to Samuel talking to me on my podcast.
Over the next twelve months I will be adding posts about
Samuel’s journey and the wonderful work of Red Balloon, please come back and join
us on our journey. The more we all understand the more we can all help and
stop this evil behaviour.
As always, thank you
for visiting. I hope the sun is shining in your heart and on your face.
Take care and see you soon.
Pauline
And regrettably should the worse come to pass, we have Red
Balloon to help 🙂"
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