Bullying

Rolando Garcia

The Words That Haunt Us

Before we get started we need to know the definition of civic engagement; according to The New York Times which states “Civic engagement is working to make a difference in the civic life of our communities and developing the combination of knowledge, skills, values and motivation to make that difference. It means promoting the quality of life in a community, through both political and non-political processes”. The second definition I found online was from Wikipedia and it asserts "individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern”. Upon reading the definitions for civic engagement my definition would be the progression of the human race by any means necessary. The problem my community has is bullying.

Bullying was ignored till the early 2000’s till this day some kids are still brought up with the notion if you’re getting bullied is because you’re doing something wrong. Sure we can ignore it and say they’re just kids and that’s how they tease but in reality that bullying affect a person in an external and emotional level. According to the 2014 CSR excellence award winner nobullying.com 83 percent of women get bullied when they are at young age while 79 percent of men get bullied. 40 percent of those kids will get physically this trend tend to continue till there 30s. Since no one wants to help these kids or they don’t feel comfortable talking to anyone about their issues their only result is to skip class according to do something.org Approximately 160,000 teens skip school every day because of bullying. When I was younger I wish I knew these were the numbers when a attended Griffith Middle school it was three years of non-stop bullying my teachers didn’t care about it neither did my counselors my issues were none of their concern and my grades quickly started slipping. There was a lot of running and trying to blend in those years but the worse part was feeling alone isolated that no one was there for me and it was me against the world. That’s why I chose this topic I want people to know that they are not alone and there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.

When I was talking to people about my thesis I would get like a sign of relief. When I asked them to write the word the bullies would associate with them they would gladly tell me the story being the word half of the time I did not have to ask.

The first person I asked was a complete stranger named Lama Samnat she wrote the word terrorist because without no one knowing her they judge not even on her physical appearance the call her a terrorist over her hijab which is supposed to promote positivity and sanctuary she stated she has been told this word over and over again and the image of her assailants have been sketched in her head 

The next person I had the privilege to talk to was a girl named Angelina Sanchez she wrote down big nose in middle school she would get teased so much that she isolated herself and made herself hate her own appearance she stated it took quite some time to be able to develop some confidence.

The last colleague is someone I met recently and his name is Thomas Poole looks Caucasian but is the complete opposite he is more Mexican than most of the people that I know. He was telling me about his story when he was a kid and he would go to the park and play with the other kids in the neighborhood would call him a punal when he would not do things they wanted to do and outskirt him they would use that word thinking Tom could not understand them but he understood every single word they told him.

References :

Dosomething. "11 Facts About Bullying." DoSomething.org. Dosomehing .org, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.

Ehrlich, T. (2000). The Definition of Civic Engagement. Retrieved October 16, 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/ref/college/collegespecial2/coll_aascu_defi.html

Michael, D. (n.d.). Civic engagement. Retrieved October 16, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civic_engagement

No Bullying. "Bullying Statistics." The World's Authority on Bullying. Nobullying.com, 19 Oct. 2016. Web. 10 Nov. 2016.