Speech: Stop Bullying in the U.S.

Six months ago I choose about a cheerful, vivacious, ten-spot-year-old girl, Ashlynn Connor, an honor roll student and a cheerleader, who stargaze of becoming a veterinarian. However, one year ago, Ashlynns ambitions came to an abrupt end. hotshot year ago, Ashlynns sister found her dead, hanging from a wank in her bedroom closet. One year ago, Ashlynn Conner committed suicide. This ten-year-old girl felt up so desperate, so alone, so hopeless, that she took her own life. Ashlynn Conner killed herself beca practise she was bullied.Her classmates called her whore, slut, and pad ass every day. Every day she was rejected, humiliated, and harassed by her classmates. And sadly, no one enlistmentped it. Her friends didnt handicap it, her teacher didnt stop it, no one stopped it, so Ashlynn stopped it the only style she knew how. This is just one instance of a pervasive problem. Every year, ten million students in the United States ar bullied 2 million argon cyber bullied, 3. 5 million atomic number 18 physically bullied, and 4. 5 million atomic number 18 verbally bullied.Beyond the immediate effects of sadness and hurt, m both victims hurt themselves, drop away out of school, act violently, get involved with drugs, commit suicide, and develop depression. And this doesnt just affect a few of us it affects all of us. only of us have friends, or cousins, or nephews, or nieces, or brformer(a)s, or sisters, or kids who entrust one day come across, or who currently attend school. With the prevalence of strong-arm, there is a very high chance that psyche you conduct about will encounter a bully, that someone you care about will be bullied, and that someone you care about will get hurt.Take a moment to imagine what it would be like. Imagine what it would be like for someone you loved to be laughed at, pushed around, to have her head shoved into a locker, to be discountd by her peers, to find a note in her desk with the word loser written on it. Imagine how upset you would be. It is our responsibility, as students and as human worlds, to help these kids. When Ashlynn was bullied, zippo stood up for her. She went to her teachers for help they told her to stop tattling.She went to her friends for help they told her they were too scared to help. This is very common. Teachers often over formulation bullying, ignore bullying, or respond to bullying ineffectively, while students, on the other hand, book bullying to continue because they are afraid of becoming targets themselves, or because they theorize someone else will intervene, or because they dont know all better. Teachers and students rarely intervene when it comes to bullying. According to national anti-bullying organizations, only 15 % of bullying incidents are intervened in. 5%. In school, 15% is an F, a failure. And thats what this is this is a failure. Teachers and fellow students are weakness to cornerstone up for the bullied. Our society is failing to stand up for the bullied. Ten million kids are bullied every year, and nobody is standing up for them. It is evident that we postnot leave things as they are. Millions of kids are being bullied, and nobody is stopping it. We mustiness encourage teachers and students to step in and call up.We must educate them about the cost of bullying, and teach them how to stop it. We must take action. Fortunately, two organizations, Champions Against browbeat and Pacers National Bullying Prevention Center are taking action. Each organization has a unique approach. Champions Against Bullying offers in person workshops for students and schoolteachers where they learn what bullying is, what its costs are, how to prevent it, and how to stop it when it does occur. Pacers takes a different approach.It provides online resources such(prenominal) as toolkits, action plans, and learning games that teachers use to educate their students. YOU can ontogeny the influence of each of these organizations. You can tell your friends, tell your family, and tell your local anaesthetic schoolteachers. You can donate or volunteer by going to championsagainstbullying. com or www. pacer. org/bullying. If we do this, we will strengthen the anti-bullying movement. If we do this, we can look preliminary to a futurity where people do not tolerate any form of bullying, and kids are accepted for who they are.Once it was acceptable to use the word homo, to use the word fag, to use the word retard, to use the word Jap, to have segregate schools, segregated housing, to smoke at work, to not wear seat belts. These things are no longer acceptable because people, people like us, decided they are unacceptable. And if we work hard enough, we can make bullying unacceptable too. Ashlynn ideate of becoming a veterinarian. I think Ashlynns had another dream, a dream of a future in which she wasnt bullied, a dream of a m when bullying was no longer tolerated.We can help Ashlynns other dream come true. We can make bullying unacceptable. I look forward to a future whereEVERYONE will be treated graciously. I look forward to a future wherekids like Ashlynn will not have to die in order to stop being bullied. I look forward to a future wherepeople will stand up for those put down. I want a future in which my children are not at risk of being bullied, a future in which your children are not at risk of being bullied. We can make Ashlynns other dream come true. (pause) If we want to.