A few months ago, I almost got suspended from school for standing up to my bully. For months, basically since school started back in August, this girl had been going around the school and gossiping about me and other students but acting like my friend to my face. I didn’t think of it as anything too big, I just made sure not too be rude to her and not to tell her anything important, thinking about our school’s strict no bullying policy and that if anything got out of hand I could just go speak with a staff member. As time went on, the girl’s gossiping became more frequent and more elaborate, and it came to a point where it was offending me. But I still didn’t go to a staff member, in fear of starting something in our small, 200 student school where gossip spreads faster than answers to the homework.

When I did decide to do something, it wasn’t in the right way or the right time, but it was my breaking point for that day. I had overheard her spreading gossip about me and I had just had enough that day. I went up to her and told her to stop talking about me behind my back. Actually, it was more like I stormed up to her and used some profanity in between telling her to stop talking about me, and according to witnesses I screamed at her, but I don’t remember the screaming. I was taken down to the principal’s office and explained everything, including how she had been gossiping about me since the beginning of the school year. I thought back to the school’s no bullying policy, which is stressed by the teachers and on the school website, and I thought that everything would be okay. The end result was that I was the one who got in trouble because I went up and confronted her. I mentioned once again to the principal that she had been gossiping about me for months now; I was shocked that he wasn’t more concerned about the gossiping because of the so-called strict bullying policy. When the principal didn’t seem too concerned or that he didn’t do a follow up to see about the bullying, I was annoyed because the whole time I had been at the school I always thought of the no bullying policy in the back of my head incase of something like that.

Thinking back on what happened in the aftermath of the confrontation, meaning how no staff member seemed to enforce the no bullying policy, it made me think that the school was just saying that to lead people into a sense of false security. Talking and reading about other students who have gone through similar things, usually with bigger problems, I have come to the conclusion that school’s who say they have a strict no bullying policy, don’t always mean it. It’s the law to say that, as bullying falls under discrimination, but it seems to be up to the staff member themselves if they choose to enforce it on a daily basis. They seem to push aside the smaller incidents of bullying, like my case, but when someone mentions the law, school officials jump right on the case and hurry up to find a solution. Schools’ don’t want to be seen on the local news for cases of bullying, so they try to keep things on the down low, but they cannot control what the students pass on to each other. Word of mouth can be either a very helpful or very hurtful thing…

Not all schools are like that, and it’s a shame that some are, but because of my experience at my school when it came to telling the principal about the bullying and him doing nothing besides talking to the both of us, has given me a sour taste about the school officials we are supposed to trust in their school. Becoming older and starting high school has opened my eyes to how it’s supposed to be in the real world I suppose; hiding the truth to make you and what you represent seem flawless, even if it means putting other people down in the process.