Here's something you might be interested in.
About a month ago, I heard about a middle school in Florida that suspended a few kids. They were participating in something called “kick a Jew day”. I have to think, if there’s a day like that, Florida is where you get things done. I’m just not sure why it was in a middle school. You gotta take it to the retirement community of Florida.
A week ago, a few students got suspended at a different middle school. On their Facebook pages they were promoting something called “Kick a ginger”. And, seven red-heads were kicked at the school.
Some say this stems from a South Park episode.
This all get me to think about Lambert. No, not the American Idol singer. That soccer player for New Mexico who got thrown out after punching, kicking, and ripping the pony tail of a competitor. If she wants to garner some good PR, she should go speak at middle schools. She can call the campaign “Kick a soccer ball, not a kid.”
Kids can channel their anger and energy into sports, and not beating up and fellow students.
I started thinking about my junior high school. And I realized that’s when I saw the largest amount of bullies. In elementary school, there were a few. In 2nd and 3rd grade -- this Irish kid named Patrick. He had frizzy red hair, and he’d punch and pinch you on St. Patrick’s Day if you weren’t wearing green.
In 5th and 6th grade, it was Terry. He had the Napoleon thing going. He was short and wanted to bully everyone around. It was so strange that a 5th grade showed up at our school, and just started taking over. We all hated him immediately.
But in 7th and 8th great, this guy Mike (who I found out years later was arrested and doing five years in the joint). He had blonde hair, a big gut. He was a football player and would walk around giving people “titty twisters”. And they hurt. He would also make fun of anyone that didn’t play football. Oh, and if you “flinched” for any reason when he walked by, he’d punch you and declare “That’s for flinching.” Is it horrible of me to hope that bad things happened to him in prison?
There was a thin but muscular African-American kid that beat the tar out of me. He wasn’t really a bully. He was just hard to figure out. He was quiet and always walked around campus with a chip on his shoulder.
One day, we were all waiting to go into the showers after gym class. As the doors opened to the locker room, we all ran inside. He was in front of me and fell. I just ran by. We all did. He started screaming that I pushed him. I told him I didn’t. But that didn’t stop him from throwing a series of punches, knocking me into the lockers and over the benches that sat in front of them.
As I laid there crying, this short surfer named Kevin walked by. He looked down and said “Look at that guy, crying like a baby.” I wanted to get up and beat the crap out of him.
A few days later I saw Kevin in the shower. And I noticed he was…well…small in certain areas. My entire junior high days were waiting for me to have a run in with him. I wanted nothing more then to whip out (no pun intended) that information, for any classmates around to hear.
The reason I think junior high / middle school has more bullies – well, it’s a lot of reasons. In elementary school, you have friends and classmates you’ve known since kindergarten. They’re all the neighborhood kids that grew up together.
In high school, you’re older. And you may have classmates from all over the city, but you become friends with people you sit next to in class. You find people that have similar interests and gravitate towards hanging out with them. And sure, there may be cliques, but it’s not nearly as bad as the teen movies would make them out to be.
If a nerd walked by the jocks, they didn’t have to fear being stuffed into a locker or a trash can. If you walked by the drama room, they might be rehearsing some scene outside, but nobody made fun of them.
But in junior high, all this stuff is thrown at you. You have the scary element of walking from class to class, with six different teachers. Some are nice, some are mean. And the same with the students you sit around.
You have different areas you can go to during lunch. And, if you’re smart and don’t want to get kicked, you got rid of the lunch box you had in elementary school. My last one was a Superman; I don’t remember the thermos that came with it; maybe because I bought a milk at lunch. But I loved the red and blue colors that adorned the square tin. And the comfort of opening it up to find the delicious turkey sandwich and cookies my mom made for me the night before.
About a month ago, I heard about a middle school in Florida that suspended a few kids. They were participating in something called “kick a Jew day”. I have to think, if there’s a day like that, Florida is where you get things done. I’m just not sure why it was in a middle school. You gotta take it to the retirement community of Florida.
A week ago, a few students got suspended at a different middle school. On their Facebook pages they were promoting something called “Kick a ginger”. And, seven red-heads were kicked at the school.
Some say this stems from a South Park episode.
This all get me to think about Lambert. No, not the American Idol singer. That soccer player for New Mexico who got thrown out after punching, kicking, and ripping the pony tail of a competitor. If she wants to garner some good PR, she should go speak at middle schools. She can call the campaign “Kick a soccer ball, not a kid.”
Kids can channel their anger and energy into sports, and not beating up and fellow students.
I started thinking about my junior high school. And I realized that’s when I saw the largest amount of bullies. In elementary school, there were a few. In 2nd and 3rd grade -- this Irish kid named Patrick. He had frizzy red hair, and he’d punch and pinch you on St. Patrick’s Day if you weren’t wearing green.
In 5th and 6th grade, it was Terry. He had the Napoleon thing going. He was short and wanted to bully everyone around. It was so strange that a 5th grade showed up at our school, and just started taking over. We all hated him immediately.
But in 7th and 8th great, this guy Mike (who I found out years later was arrested and doing five years in the joint). He had blonde hair, a big gut. He was a football player and would walk around giving people “titty twisters”. And they hurt. He would also make fun of anyone that didn’t play football. Oh, and if you “flinched” for any reason when he walked by, he’d punch you and declare “That’s for flinching.” Is it horrible of me to hope that bad things happened to him in prison?
There was a thin but muscular African-American kid that beat the tar out of me. He wasn’t really a bully. He was just hard to figure out. He was quiet and always walked around campus with a chip on his shoulder.
One day, we were all waiting to go into the showers after gym class. As the doors opened to the locker room, we all ran inside. He was in front of me and fell. I just ran by. We all did. He started screaming that I pushed him. I told him I didn’t. But that didn’t stop him from throwing a series of punches, knocking me into the lockers and over the benches that sat in front of them.
As I laid there crying, this short surfer named Kevin walked by. He looked down and said “Look at that guy, crying like a baby.” I wanted to get up and beat the crap out of him.
A few days later I saw Kevin in the shower. And I noticed he was…well…small in certain areas. My entire junior high days were waiting for me to have a run in with him. I wanted nothing more then to whip out (no pun intended) that information, for any classmates around to hear.
The reason I think junior high / middle school has more bullies – well, it’s a lot of reasons. In elementary school, you have friends and classmates you’ve known since kindergarten. They’re all the neighborhood kids that grew up together.
In high school, you’re older. And you may have classmates from all over the city, but you become friends with people you sit next to in class. You find people that have similar interests and gravitate towards hanging out with them. And sure, there may be cliques, but it’s not nearly as bad as the teen movies would make them out to be.
If a nerd walked by the jocks, they didn’t have to fear being stuffed into a locker or a trash can. If you walked by the drama room, they might be rehearsing some scene outside, but nobody made fun of them.
But in junior high, all this stuff is thrown at you. You have the scary element of walking from class to class, with six different teachers. Some are nice, some are mean. And the same with the students you sit around.
You have different areas you can go to during lunch. And, if you’re smart and don’t want to get kicked, you got rid of the lunch box you had in elementary school. My last one was a Superman; I don’t remember the thermos that came with it; maybe because I bought a milk at lunch. But I loved the red and blue colors that adorned the square tin. And the comfort of opening it up to find the delicious turkey sandwich and cookies my mom made for me the night before.