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Students at Fossil Ridge High School are involved in many different aspects of high school life: marching band, sports, spending times with friends, school work. As different social groups come into contact with each other friction seems almost inevitable, this friction causes the ebbs and flows of high school life. Although friction is natural and most always will occur, bullying is taking the friction to a whole new extent. Bullying should not be tolerated by schools and schools should be striving towards reducing the amount of students affected by acts of bullying. Bullying is not something that should be taken lightly, because over 25 percent of adolescents and teens have been bullied repeatedly through their cellphones or over the internet. The difference at FRHS is that there are many different aspects of school-life which attempt to decrease the amount of bullying, but that doesn’t mean that bullying doesn’t exist.

At FRHS, there are many clubs and activities dedicated towards reducing bullying in the school. Assemblies such as Friends of Rachel—a dedication to the life of Rachel Joy Scott, a 17-year-old girl who was killed in the Columbine High School tragedy—encourage students to not judge their peers on what they look like or what activities they participate in. Other activities, such as Diversity Day, also attempt to help break down the prejudices and stereotypes that are the labels students place on each other. These two activities, partner with multiple others to attempt to help create an unbiased, open minded community. Eleven of the 13 students surveyed about bullying stated that FRHS programs such as Friends of Rachel and Diversity Day were successful in prohibiting bullying. The two students who said that they felt that these campaigns were unsuccessful did say that these campaigns were having momentary effects on the problem, but the changes weren’t lasting and that FRHS students could do better at accepting everyone.“We really need to put more work in place and get more people out there to get [these programs] going,” sophomore Megan Nibbelink said.

Nibbelink’s story is one of many at FRHS; they were bullied when they were younger or at other schools, but here at FRHS they feel that bullying is not as prominent. Although Nibbelink may not be getting bullied by her peers, she does see her classmates who are being harassed and bullied by other students. One of the students in her advisory class, a class dedicated towards building life skills, is bullied consistently. “I try to stop it when I can, but I can’t always be there for her,” Nibbelink said about the situation.

“At old schools I’ve been to I know students who have been bullied,” said junior Patrick Boddicker, “But there is much less bullying here.”

Boddicker and Nibbelink are not the only students who have seen or experienced the effects of bullying at other schools; there are numerous students who feel much like both of these individuals. The difference is the FRHS programs which attempt to limit bullying. “I think that these programs really help people see other people differently,” freshman Amrita Nag said.

Sabra Charpentier transferred to FRHS as a sophomore, and even though she has only been exposed to these FRHS programs for a year, she believes that the programs such as Friends of Rachel and Diversity Day really help students see each other differently. “At first I thought it was kind of dumb,” Charpentier admits, “but after going through all of the campaigns, I realized how much bullying affects other people.”

Students at FRHS may not always be game to partake in these activities (in fact, some students mock them before, during and after they take place), but this attitude is beginning to become overshadowed by a mindset of setting out to heartily attempt to see other students in a positive manner. Although a lot of people don’t see bullying at FRHS, Charpentier is a student who does see and wants to try to help eliminate that problem. “Kids need to take a stand against those people who are bullying.” Charpentier said,

Charpentier is not alone; many other students such as Nibbelink and freshmanLauren Creech think that bullying at FRHS needs to be addressed more directly to the students. “We could make people more aware of bullying; not everyone is aware of how bullying happens,” Creech said.

Sadly, 11 out of the 13 people surveyed said that they had been involved in bullying of some sort, whether it had been intentionally or not. Only one student said that they had intentionally bullied another person, but they later apologized to that person. Still, they said that did not make up for the pain which they had caused.

FRHS campaigns have begun to see the effect of their bullying, and many students have stopped participating in these harmful acts. More students are taking a stand against bullying and, in turn, are beginning to accept differences in their peers. It is not completely absent though, and FRHS still has students who are being bullied. It is these student advocates who are attempting to make this change, not only to accept people for who they are, but to create a positive atmosphere for students to be involved in. As Charpentier suggests, “By continuing to improve these campaigns we can take a stand against bullying.”

http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html