For those that follow me on twitter, you will have seen me become quite incensed last Tuesday 9th November. Why was this you ask yourself. I shall get on my soapbox and tell you.
Some bright, obviously of superior intelligence, person decided that 9th November should be decreed as, wait for it, Slap a Ginger person day.
You may well gasp in shock.
One of my lovely Assistant Librarians has beautiful bright red hair. His day was spent being slapped by all and sundry. I even got asked by 2 people if they could slap him. My reaction: to have a complete meltdown, screaming about bullying and discrimination to people with different colour hair. While banning the offending 2 pupils from the library.
There are a number of famous people with 'ginger' hair. Would they have been slapped in the same way as these poor pupils were???
Thinking this would be the end to the idiocy. What do you think???
Upon arriving at the library Wednesday 10th November, I was informed that via Facebook and other social networking sites, the problem had increased.
This was immediately reported to the Head Teachers. But someone/anyone please please please tell me what the world is coming to that teens are encouraged to participate in these idiotic schemes.
Why hasn't facebook done anything to prevent this kind of thing from occurring??
Why is this considered acceptable behaviour??
Surely, it cannot just be due to my age that I question this type of mentality.
What do you think??
How can we work together to stop things like this happening in the future???
Upon arriving at the library Wednesday 10th November, I was informed that via Facebook and other social networking sites, the problem had increased.
10th - Beat Up a Blond Day
11th - Bash a Brunette Day
12th - Rough up a Red Head Day
This was immediately reported to the Head Teachers. But someone/anyone please please please tell me what the world is coming to that teens are encouraged to participate in these idiotic schemes.
Why hasn't facebook done anything to prevent this kind of thing from occurring??
Why is this considered acceptable behaviour??
Surely, it cannot just be due to my age that I question this type of mentality.
What do you think??
How can we work together to stop things like this happening in the future???
Seriously!?! What is wrong with people in thinking this is funny or even okay to do? I don't get it. Further more, I'm still baffled at why bullying has become such a huge problem. Bullying is something that's happened for ages, but it seems like in the last couple years it's become a HUGE problem. I don't understand why people think it's okay to be hateful or single people out. I think the more it's talked about, the more people are made aware of the problem and come up with solutions to stop it, the less of a problem it will be.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think that schools deal with this problem better nowadays, but I'm not so sure. Unfortunately the ways in which young people (and older people too come to that) can be bullied has increased. Cyber-bullying is a whole new arena, and the perps can feel immune from guilt or retribution in a way that they couldn't when it was just face to face bullying.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I'm not sure that Beat Up A Blonde and Bash Up A Brunette are really meant to be serious rallying cries to attack. More likely they're the product of somebody's warped and misguided sense of humour.
What makes someone a bully? I think a lot of it is an inability to empathise with the victim, a serious lack of imagination on the part of the bully. What do they get out of it? Many agree that bullies often have serious self-esteem issues of their own. Why is this an increasing problem? I wish I knew the answer. I'm fairly sure that the oft-maligned violent computer game is actually not to blame; most people, even the unimaginative ones, can tell the difference between the virtual world and the real one.
It's often said that Society in general has become more violent. If this is true, then I guess bullying is just a part of that bigger picture.
I think those groups are started as jokes and morons take it as an excuse to do what they do best - being stupid.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid that from the many teens I see in the street, I weep for the entire planet in 20 years. Where did we fail them? They have more than we did when we grew up... I think we need to inspire them!
I have to say that this Anti-bullying campaign on your blog is such a wonderful initiative Em! It's shocking when you see the lengths that kids and adults go through to bully someone else. And I'm inclined to agree that the society we live in has generally become far more violent and it just seems to keep on evolving - with technology making it so easy to attack others, what will come next? It's people like you that truly do make a difference - and I hope through this campaign, there won't just be change for those who have been bullied, but that there'll be a revelation for those who are bullying someone.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have anything to add to this discussion, but I just wanted to comment and say how fascinated I was with what everyone else said!
ReplyDeleteThank you all for the wonderful, insightful comments.
ReplyDeleteFurther developments have shown that teachers/parents attituteds are reflected by pupils/children; I havde personally witnessed some of these this week since writing the post.
I am further saddened and it is no wonder that things are getting out of control, a domino effect :(