English 101
Prof. Knadle
Essay 1
Recognize Bullying as Harmful
When I was nine years old, I had a hard time at school getting along with the other children. In fourth grade, I was teased by some of my classmates. They used to call me names, take my money, and eat my lunch. I was afraid to go to school, but I never said anything at home. Now, I do regret not haven’t said anything because my family could have helped me. Bullying is a serious matter that has a drastic impact on human dignity, but there are many ways to take a stand against it.
The first episode of bullying I went through began when a boy at school who called me buck teeth and everybody else started laughing at me. I could not say anything, but I did feel bad about myself. I was embarrassed in front of all of my classmates. At that moment, I did not know that that was the beginning of a school year full of bullying. Since that day, the boy did not stop calling me names and many others joined him. In the beginning, I did not take it that serious. I thought I could handle it, but the bullying was more serious that I could have imagined at that moment. The bullying started as verbal abuse with name calling or a joke (for everybody except me), but it scaled to physical harassment and stealing of my properties. According to Sacramento County Sheriff , “bullying is a serious form of aggressive and violent behavior. Statistics show that one in four children who bully will have a criminal record before the age of 30. Bullying also can lead to depression, anxiety, and low self esteem.” As a consequence of the bullying I was suffering at school, my grades were going down and my family relationship was also affected. All the anger and frustration I had were reflected onto my siblings. I did not want to go to school anymore. I felt like nobody liked me and I thought I was born to suffer. I would not look anybody in the eyes because I felt worthless. This affected my human dignity in such a way that I felt less than everyone else and did not feel good about myself at all. In my opinion, bullying can change a good person into evil, an outgoing child into a shy one, victims of bullying turn into bullies, and so on. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) report reveals that victims of bullying display a range of responses, even many years later, such as: low self-esteem,