No one knows what other people go through outside of school; some students are very good at covering up the bad things. Even though people show up to school with a smile on their face every day it doesn’t mean everything in their life is perfect. It just means they’re strong enough to not let their hardships show. Students should not feel threatened when they walk into school. They should be allowed to come to school for a sanctuary if his or her outside life isn’t a good one. Sometimes words hurt a lot more than physical bullying and the people doing it don’t even realize how much damage they’re actually causing.

Students with low self-esteem can be easily affected by a simple “bad word”. I am one of those people. If someone says one bad thing about me or to me, I let it get to me. I will constantly be thinking about it for the rest of the day. If someone says I’m ugly or I’m bad at sports, I instantly believe him or her because I don’t hear anyone contradicting it. A lot of people wouldn’t expect that from me because I tend to cover it up fairly well, like I explained before.

When name calling starts to alter someone’s personality or scare them to a point where they’re worried to come to school, that’s when it becomes bullying. People are continuously calling each other names. It never stops. I know how hard it is to live through people saying bad things about me and hate knowing other people have to live with it, too. If bullies knew what problems they were causing they would most likely stop, or at least be open to what they’re actually doing. If our school had a Challenge Day where everyone shared their ideas, stories, and personal conflicts about bullies, our school would be a better place. It would help everyone be aware of the severity of some bullying and hopefully encourage it to stop.

If bullies knew how hard they were making other people’s lives, maybe they would turn around and apologize for what they’ve been doing. Victims of bullies are typically afraid to stand up for themselves and just sit back waiting for another name to be called. A Challenge Day would help these people a lot and it would be extremely beneficial for everyone; the bullies, the victims, and the unaware peers.