Kids’ contributions: I am an activist with bullying

When Xpress asked local educators for ideas about the focus of the annual Kids Issue, two distinct ideas rose to the top: activism and a kid’s view of the world. This week we focused on activism. We received a cornucopia of submissions, including the one you see below. 

Activism is finding something that is a problem, standing up for something that shouldn’t be happening, not being a bystander. For example, I am an activist with bullying.

I personally think that we will always have problems in our community that will call out for activism. One problem we have is bullying, and if we all work together we can start changing these problems.

Bullying is all around us and is usually happening every day at every school. Most people say that we can put a stop to bullying. If we work together, we can stop bullying. It won’t stop all the way, but partially. I see bullying at my school at least three times a week if not more than that.

I think we all know that bullying will never end; all of us bully at some point in our lives. I have been bullied before. I think if we actually did something when bullying is occurring, something as easy as saying, “That’s not nice,” or 
if it’s at a school or at your job, let a teacher or your boss know that someone is bullying you. It’s easy as that.

Whenever I see an act of bullying, I let someone know, or if I cannot let someone know, I may say, “That is not nice. How would you feel if that was being said to you?”

— William Akrivos, Franklin School of Innovation