Odd Girl Out Comments

 This was something interesting that i found on Phuong's Blog:

My options in the situation in which I see someone getting bullied is that I can walk away, help the bullies, or help the bullied. To walk away would mean that I pretend not to see anything. This sounds cruel but I won’t be involved with it. I can help the bullies but that is an option no one would even want to choose. To help the bullied, I might also be bullied later on. This will cause me trouble because I might be another victim.

 I think that this is a very valid point. When most people see bullying, then don't try to stop it. They are too scared of being the next victim. They are so scared in fact, that they don't try to do anything to stop it, they just let it happen, or walk right by pretending that it did not happen. They will try not to get into trouble with the bullies because they are scared of being harassed. They are in fact, losing their rights. They are losing the right to study and learn in a safe environment where they do not have to be afraid of someone hurting or harassing them due to a belief that they have or because of an idea that they have.

This relates to the ASTI constitution mostly on the sixth rule or sixth line in the constitution. It tells you to speak up for yourself and for other people, but when you just see bullying and let it happen, that is not speaking up for others. To stop someone from being bullied by others is to stand up for that person, and it is standing up for yourself, because you are standing up for your own rights of not getting harassed by other people during school. You were protecting your rights to learn in an environment where you don't have to fear being harassed by other people.

Odd Girl Out Response

Jay Pan
July 30,2010
'Just Kidding' and “Ganging Up” from Odd Girl Out by Rachel Simmons
    It doesn't feel good when you are harassed by a big group of people that are all against you. You can feel like you have no support from anyone and you feel like everyone is against you.
    It made me angry because they thought that they could just do this to anyone they wanted since they did it to me and some other people that were nearby. It also made me angry because the only reason they tried to start an argument out of the blue with some one they didn't know was that they knew they couldn't do anything back. A group of 7th graders kept harassing all of the 8th graders because they knew that if the 8th graders did something back, they couldn't walk the stage.
    I think that people that harass others in a huge group are just idiots. They want to make themselves feel more powerful and appreciated but getting into arguments usually with people that can't argue and/or fight back.
    I think that people bully others because they have low self esteem and they want to raise it by getting into arguments, outnumbering the opponent, and then “winning” the argument. They want to feel like they have a lot of “power” and they want to feel like they can't be hurt by others,”invincible”. They might also want to do something to someone who they know cannot retaliate. Since they cannot retaliate, they feel like they can do whatever they want without any consequences.
    People that have repressed anger would probably bully others to try and relieve some stress. They have low self esteem and feel better about themselves when they get into arguments and/or fights “win”. They could also want to hurt their peers because that was the only way they know how to relate to people. They could have been raised in an abusive environment and only know how to relate to people that way, they don't know how to relate to them in a more positive manner. I think that those kind of people are kind of sad because they don't know that they're doing something wrong, it was just that they were raised that way.