Ferris Bueller once said in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Life Moves Pretty Fast. If You Don’t Stop And Look Around Once In A While, You Could Miss It.” That saying could not be truer for a high school student. The problem is what is the IT that you could miss? Could it be something as simple as a classwork assignment or test corrections? Could you be missing a club meeting or something as simple as leaving your phone charger at home? Or it could be worse like not noticing a fellow student being bullied or made fun of. It’s that simple.
Though school cell phone policies can vary significantly, 97% of 11- to 17-year-olds use their phones during the school day, according to a Common Sense Media study analyzing the smartphone data of 200 students. The amount of daily in-school screen time ranged from less than a minute to 6 1/2 hours with a median time of 43 minutes. Overall, Common Sense Media found teens use their phones on a daily basis, with a median use time of over four hours. Students picked up their phones a median of 51 times per day, though pickup amounts ranged from two to 498 times per day.
Now imagine how much you miss by not stopping and looking around? The school bell rings how many times a day and it causes students to peek up for perhaps a minute at best. After all, we have to get from one block to another. For some, it is a quick transition. For others, it is a horrific walk down a hallway that might resemble a Stephen King movie. It’s filled with looks, under-the-breath chuckles, and name-calling. Pure negativity. Some might say how could you tell, let alone miss it? The snickers, the height jokes, the fat jokes. It is hard not to hear them.
The National Center for Educational Statistics ran a report and of those students who reported being bullied, 13% were made fun of, called names, or insulted; 13% were the subject of rumors; 5% were pushed, shoved, tripped, or spit on; and 5% were excluded from activities on purpose. Bullied students reported that bullying occurred in the following places: the hallway or stairwell at school (43%), inside the classroom (42%), in the cafeteria (27%), outside on school grounds (22%), online or by text (15%), in the bathroom or locker room (12%), and on the school bus (8%).
Organizations can run reports and check their statistics, but the reality is that bullying happens more than we know or care to recognize. One out of every five students is bullied with male students being more bullied than female students. Bottom line is that bullying does not discriminate. I should know as I was bullied in my freshman year here at Freehold Boro. I know firsthand what it’s like to not feel my own worth. I know what it’s like to be on the outside looking in. It is not fun, and it is not how someone should go through life. There are others who have or are going through similar situations, being bullied for just being themselves. Calling someone else an insensitive word/name or smacking them for no reason is not funny.
We are all very different, there are no two people alike whether looks or behavior-wise. This makes us all unique. There is no reason that someone should be targeted for being different. A little over 14% of students in high school consider suicide and approximately 7% of them attempt suicide. Students who are bullied are around 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims. The saying goes that if you do not have anything nice to say don’t say anything. In the world we live in today we all need to do a better job of being nice to one another. For if we continue down the path where the negative overpowers the positivity, then we will walk through the hallways of our lives with our heads down and defeated by the bullies of your story. The impact that you will have for standing up for someone, is immeasurable. So let us STAND UP!!
