Bully On The Rampage!

Deutsche Version dieses Blogs hier.

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This is a fresh case of bullying
that found it's way to the news and on YouTube today.

A 15 year old gay boy is being beat up at Union-Scotio Highschool in Chillicothe, Ohio. Two days before this attack, the bully had left a comment on the Facebook of the victim, saying that the boy was "the definition of a faggot".

One of the many comments on the video (that turned up by the second while I watched it!) reads:

"As someone who lived in this town and this school district when I was young, this does not surprise me at all. Chillicothe is a very cute southern Ohio town, but there is a strong streak of homophobia and racism among a portion of the population there. I'm glad my parents moved away before I grew up and came out."

So, can this really be all that potential bully victims can do? Move away, before the situation gets dangerous?

No. Certainly not.

There are laws that allow us to deal with what this bully does here, and there are also laws that call in the responsibility of the bully's parents. One of the things necessary, when things go wrong and bullies go on their rampage, is to do what the mother of the victim in this case here does:

Speak up, report the incident to the school and to the authorities, press charges if necessary, and insist on their kid being allowed to feel safe at school, just as any other student.

But the things that are necessary to happen reach out further still,

and they start very much earlier.

In the video, we see one victim and one perpetrator. And there is also the chronicler with the cell phone camera, who caught the bully already while he was waiting for his prey to arrive.

But the videos shows those who are at the scene of this brutal incident, too - at least ten students who know just as early and clearly as the student with the camera what's going on, what the bully is up to, and who then see happening right in front of them what was bound to happen, because the bully was loaded and ready to go off.

Yet, those ten students did nothing to prevent it, to end it, to stop the bully, and to support the victim.

I said it before, and I'll say it again:

It's just a matter of numbers!

ONE victim.

ONE bully.

But an estimated

TEN witnesses

present at the scene.

Allow me to be honest here: Back in school, I was always really good in English and German - but I sucked at math.

And yet: Even with my really poor skills in that wicked subject, I am able to see the facts of the simple mathematical calculation we have going on here:

Ten are more than one.

Ten times as much.

Anyone here who wants to say they don't get that?

Then ... What keeps you? What keeps you from doing what's right? Here's how it works:

Eight of you: Stand between the bully and his victim. Show him that his ways are not tolerated by you, and will not be accepted. Be in the way and say No. Stand as one - one, made of eight.

Two of you: Run to get a teacher. And don't dawdle - run like hell! Run as if a life would depend on what you do. Because might well be so ...

Don't be bystanders ...
be witnesses.

Don't turn the blind eye, but
look, see and register ... STARE, relentlessly!
And be in the way.

Become the ally of the victim.

As I said:

Simple math.

And if I can do that, you can do it, too ...

Do what's right.

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