Because...
1. I'm far from the only person who's ever been bullied, and it is
still happening. A friend of my daughter's described being knocked down and kicked on the ground by her bullies, in the school she transferred from. She said to my daughter, that first year of high school, "This place is great! Hardly anyone ever gets bullied here!"
2. I saw how hard the principal and teachers worked to teach the children both not to bully each other and how to intervene when they witnessed others being bullied. Any time you throw a bunch of young kids together, day after day, bullying IS inevitable. But it's also possible to create a culture in our schools that strongly discourages bullying.
3. My kids, particularly my eldest, are... um...
different.
My girl was born with a haemangioma on her face that deformed her upper lip and required several surgeries over the years. She was reading easily before she turned three. She brought a novel to her junior kindergarten intake interview. Oh, and she was a chatterbox who was prone to falling out of her seat. So she was both funny looking, klutzy and too clever by half. Bully-bait, in other words.
Here's why I loved our schools...
When my son got into a physical fight with another boy, the teacher pulled them apart, heard both sides, interviewed witnesses, determined the guilty party, and then sent one boy to the office and the other back to class. None of this "zero tolerance" nonsense here.
When my daughter was bickering with another girl, and that girl said, "Well, you're UGLY!" Several older girls within hearing turned right around and said, "Hey! You can't say that to her!" They didn't know either my daughter or the other girl, but, like I said above, the culture of the school does not tolerate meanness.
My daughter was very concerned during one grade seven talent show, because one of the singers was a tone-deaf, overweight, spotty child. She worried that people might mock her. But, I was there, and when that girl tried to sing her song and forgot her lines, all the girls in the front row began singing along with her. They swayed and held up their phones like lighters and gave her a standing ovation in the end. One of the teachers told me, "Our kids know that we applaud the courage it takes to get up on stage, because that's always more important than the performance." They know, because they were taught!
This is night and day different from the schools I attended, where teachers would berate you and make you cry in front of the other kids. Where teachers had "pets". When you couldn't walk down the hall without being harassed by your peers. Where cliques ruled. And no... I
wasn't the only one.
I'm glad you didn't experience it, but please believe me... bullying is widespread and still all too common in our schools. Parents need to be vigilant, so children don't suffer needlessly.