I recently watched a documentary that everyone should watch. Man, it got me.
It was about a high school girl bullying another girl. A little into the movie you see how upsetting the bully's home life is, but you also see how badly it's affecting the girl who was getting bullied. Eventually the girl has enough and takes fifty prescription pills, becoming unconscious for two hours before she's found and in treatment at the hospital...
People around the school begin telling about the bully and saying that she is what made the girl do what she did. Yet none of them had reported anything or stepped in and one of the teachers says that all kids get joked with... Another says that this happens to everyone... And another says that they don't have the means to handle every situation that goes on with everyone in the school. This enraged me. First of all, there is a difference between joking around and bullying; a difference that teachers should realize because kids surely do. Secondly, it shouldn't be happening to everyone, especially with your knowledge. And thirdly, you don't have the means to handle the situations? Then get the means. A human life is worth more than all of your attention and if you can't recognize that, you shouldn't be in the place that you are. It's not that damn hard to recognize someone is hurting and if it is, figure it out. Yeah a teacher's job is to teach, but teaching mental health, safety, and love is much more of an important lesson than your damn math problems that you're focusing on rather than helping to stop someone from hurting themselves or another.
A bully needs to be helped just as much as the person they're bullying. They need help redirecting the pain that they're in.
In the documentary, while the girl who was bullied is lying in a hospital bed in the ICU, in a coma, people help the bully to acknowledge how she was acting. When she finally comes to the realization of how she made her classmate feel, she completely breaks down and that breaks my heart too. Hearing her sob the words that it's too late to apologize is just sickening. She recognizes her wrongs but there's nothing she can do for the girl now. It's too late for her to say sorry and she feels completely to blame.
Change your poor behavior towards someone before it's too late. There are a ton of ways to redirect your pain. Redirecting your pain is what's best for everyone around you and most importantly yourself.
Example: When pain strikes, imagine that one of your hands is immersed in ice water. Concentrate on telling your hand to become totally numb. Then place your hand on the part of your body that hurts most. Imagine the numbness flowing into the part of your body that needs pain relief. If you can’t reach that place, such as your back, put your hand on your stomach and let the cold flow through your body to your back.
