Tuesday, May 10, 2016

High School Bullying

By Nick O'Connor-- (Oneonta, New York)

In Delaware, a teenage high school student was killed in the bathroom of her high school. The reasoning behind what had happened is thought to be the handy work of bullying. With SUNY Oneonta being right down the road from Oneonta High School, one can only wonder if anything is going on next door.

Oneonta High School's faculty is well aware of what has happened in Delaware. They do know that a terrible event has occurred and each one of them try their best to prevent any bullying from happening in their school, which is an almost impossible feat. Katie Miller is a teacher at the high school. She has been teaching at this school for two years, the very same school that she attended when she was in high school. She is responsible for some programs that the school offers including the Rainbow Club. This club was created with great intentions, those of which are to create a safe space, and comfortable feel around their high school. Originally this group was intended to be specifically aimed at the LGBT community, because they felt they were the ones being targeted. 

We asked Katie about bullying and if she was ever bullied. "I was absolutely bullied in school, they used to call me a fat man, my mom told me it was because they had a crush on me, but I knew it was just boys being mean." Katie believes that students in her old high school today do not bully very much, and if they do it is certainly not to the magnitude other students may face in other school districts. One of her students,s who was asked to be unnamed, just moved to Oneonta from Arkansas. One of her friends committed suicide because of bullies due to the fact that she was gay, which shows the severity of bullying and the impact it can have on people. She said "it's nice coming to a school where everybody is mostly nice to one another."

The severity of bullying in this high school is nowhere near like it is in other schools. Another student who was asked not to be named said that her high school is a very safe environment. "The most we deal with are some cat fights between girls about boys. We rarely see people picking on others for things they can't control and for that we are very lucky." It seems as if the high school really strives to keep everybody involved safe with the programs they have in place. From MCOM 256, I'm Nick O'Connor

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