Bullying.

I'm going to talk about a time that I, myself, dealt with bullying in middle school. I would sit with one or two other girls at lunch everyday. There was this group of "popular" guys and girls that would sit at the long tables that were pushed together. They were so stuck up and just mean. Every day at lunch the guys would yell my friends name, do some weird hand gestures and then yell something goofy like "I like beef." Looking back, it's insanely immature and I still don't even understand what that means. Anyway, after she would stop looking at them, my other friends name would be called and they'd do that same stupid thing. After a few weeks, they both were ignoring them completely. Then they decided it would be a funny idea to put their trash on our table and tell us to throw it out. The first few times we did it because we didn't want to fight back. Then it got old. They put their entire trays of food on our table. It was piled up to the top with ketchup and unfinished pizzas and whatever else. (obviously I don't remember exactly what was on the tray) My friends were sick of it, and quite frankly so was I. We tried talking to a teacher before but that just made the bullying worse. We were known as tattle tales and the taunting continued. Then, I decided to step up. I picked up the tray, walked it over to the laughing boys, dumped it on them, and walked away without saying anything. The teachers laughed and didn't discipline me because they witnessed it for over a month. The bullying stopped short after and I felt awesome. I know this type of situation doesn't happen all that often. However, I do wish more kids would stand up to bullies. If you just have one friend stand up for you, it can give them the courage to do so too. Like stated in the text, if a peer approves and laughs with the bully, it gives them a sense of accomplishment. If a peer doesn't approve of the bullying, the bully starts to feel defeated. That is what I did and it sure did work.