I want to start off by saying that I didn't have the right last name. I was an outsider when I arrived in third grade, because I haven't been there since kindergarten, and my parents didn't work at the school. The elite all hung-out together since elementary school, and the same 'popular kids' still hangout today as sophomores in college. And this isn't the reality of just my grade, either. This is the reality of every grade in the small school I went to. Every grade had less than one hundred kids (think 50-80) and we had grades sixth-twelfth in the same building.

I'm not pointing fingers, but after the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida shooting, I think we should talk about bullying, and the effects it has on people. When I was in high school, I made an effort to talk to everyone, but sometimes when I would talk to one of the 'popular' kids, they would make me feel like I was being a burden. That's either my anxiety talking, or it was a real feeling, but the reality is that they were being fake-nice to me, because they felt like they had to. I was never invited to hangout with them, and they would never consider themselves bullies, but why is it that one time this kid told me I was an ugly-a**-b*tch and no one defended me in class? You see, being a by stander and not sticking up for someone is part of the problem with bullying, and those bystanders are just as much at fault. Or that when I got called down to the principles office, I was the one that got in trouble for throwing an empty water bottle on the floor, when they have a video of me picking it up? Or that I was called down because my twitter wasn't "appropriate" for someone wearing a cheer uniform. You see- the principles and teachers here played favorites, too, and I wasn't one of them because I didn't have the last name or the athletic talent.

Part of America's bullying problem is that the teachers turn a blind eye to it. The kids that commit suicide or shoot up a school are generally the bullied- the popular kids don't have a reason to. So instead of seeing a trouble maker kid, they should see a troubled kid that needs help of some kind. Initiating a quiet space or someone to talk to could make the world for these kids. But at my small school the troubled ones were the ones who, well, go in trouble. No one sat back to think about someone's history and why they were acting that way. They just thought about how to get them to stop, and not necessarily in the best way, either.

I'm not pointing fingers at small schools, either. I'm just saying that schools in general need to implement policies that help with the kids that need help. Bullying is the start to serious issues, whether it's just mental health issues, or if they move past that and commit suicide, or worse- shoot up a school. I want to bring attention to the fact that school shootings are very preventable. Just watch this video, below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qyD7vjVfLI