Bullying IS a Crime

This morning, my mom told me about two girls in Florida who bullied a girl to suicide and are being faced with charges.  They apparently bullied her for over a year, bad enough that her mother moved her to a different school to escape it, but the bullying continued via texting and social media sites. They told her to kill herself. The bullying began over a boy and involved nearly a dozen other students. One of the girls posted on a social media site that she didn't care the the girl died. 

How can this be okay? I'll answer that for you: it's not. 

I'm sorry that these two girls' lives are ruined, but I'm even more sorry for the lives they've ruined. The girl who they bullied to kill herself and the girl's family, who is grieving. 

For those of you who want the full story, here is an article from Fox News and here is one from ABC News. 

The Seeing Leading

Hey Jessie, why'd you name this blog "The Blind Leading"? Why not something else?

Well, inner editor and corrector, have you ever been told, "You're blind if you can't see this or that"? Example: "You're blind if you can't see how fat you are."

Well, maybe we're all blind. Because I don't think anyone should be judged for what they look like. I respect blind people. They can't judge anyone based on what they look like: they have to judge someone on their personality and how they talk and everything that can't be seen.

So for all of us that have been bullied? The people who are blind to your imperfections are your friends. The blind leading the blind through the darkest of times. Like the tagline at the top of the page: The blind lead the blind through the darkest of times because they can't see how dark it really is.

The Help

As one of my favorite authors said in her book The Help, "Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else." That's what I've decided to do. So, not only am I now writing a novel about bullying and what it can do to people, but I'm starting this blog/website to try to help other people who, like me, have been bullied in their lives. Because I've noticed that even though people care about bullying and trying to stop it, not many people have actually done that: tried to stop it. So I want this to be a place where you can ask for help if you're being bullied, or share your story to show how awful bullying really is. And hopefully soon, I'll come up with something to get your help on: a petition against bullying and one way to stop it.

Most bullying happens in schools, especially in the junior high and high school years. So I'd like to try to do something to stop it. If kids knew that there would be a punishment for hurting someone, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, they might think twice about calling someone fat or dumb or ugly or shoving them into a row of lockers or a bench.

If you've never been bullied in your life, then you are lucky. If you have been bullied, I'm sorry. And I want you to know that you're not alone. Don't be afraid to step forward, because every step you take back makes your bullying take another step forward.