West Elementary takes part in anti-bullying program

The sixth grade girls at West Elementary in Sidney participated in the Mean Stinks live stream of the "Biggest. Assembly. Ever." to spread the word of the anti-bullying campaign on Wednesday.

Bullying is defined as behaviors deliberately making another person feel inadequate, or with a purpose of belittling. These behaviors are generally recognized as harassment, physical harm, demeaning speech on a repeated basis. Bullying is an intentional act.

To prepare for the assembly, the sixth graders watched a short video entitled "Meanamorphosis" as well as discussed three different types of bullying-physical, relational and verbal.

"We talked a lot about how just with girls, it's so different," School Counselor, Carla Brauer said. "We talked a little bit more about the relational bullying. Basically what that is is when a girl, usually with her friends, is trying to have power. She's trying to put herself over the other girls and she can do that by getting other girls to alienate one girl and starting rumors about someone and it's harder because I think it lasts longer when it's like that."

The girls were all counting down excitedly before the assembly was to begin only to see a message saying "this video has been blocked." West Elementary has social media websites blocked and the assembly was streaming via YouTube. The video was only delayed for about five minutes, but Brauer was laughing about the situation as she admitted that she should have checked that out prior to time.

The anti-bullying assembly was broadcasted to over 1.7 million viewers. Alexis Jones hosted the event and interviewed Disney Channel and Dancing With the Stars' Zendaya. Both women shared experiences they have had with bullies, answered questions from viewers via social media sites and gave advice on how to handle different situations.

With social media sites and texting being such apparent parts of daily life, cyber bullying is currently a big issue. The effects of this method of bullying are damaging psychologically and can last well into the future. Victims of cyber bullying have been known to suffer from depression and anxiety as well as commit suicide in extreme cases.

The i-Safe Foundation conducted a study and found that over half of adolescents and teens have been the victims of cyber bullying and conversely, about the same number have engaged in the act. Of those being bullied online, well over half do not tell their parents/guardians.

When Zendaya was being interviewed, she explained how she still deals with cyber bullying. Being in the public eye, many people hide behind the wall of the Internet and post rude and indecent comments on her Instagram photos. When asked how she deals with this form of consistent meanness, she said, "For me, it's as easy as not looking at it." Zendaya went on to explain that she doubts those bullies would ever say anything if they got the opportunity in person and that they are most likely trying to put her down in order to feel better about themselves.

"Cyber bullies may not realize the consequences for themselves of cyber bullying. The things teens post online now may reflect badly on them later when they apply for college or a job. Cyber bullies can lose their cell phone or online accounts for cyber bullying. Also, cyber bullies and their parents may face legal charges for cyber bullying, and if the cyber bullying was sexual in nature or involved sexting, the results can include being registered as a sex offender. Teens may think that if they use a fake name they won't get caught, but there are many ways to track someone who is cyber bullying," Bullying Statistics reported.

"They don't understand," Brauer said. "Bullies just don't realize the effects they have on other people and statistics prove that both bullies and victims report having problems later in life."

To show their support for Mean Stinks and the anti-bullying campaign, the sixth grade girls of West Elementary painted their pinky fingers blue to 'pinky promise' to take a stand against bullying and to 'gang up for good.' All of the girls also signed pledges, which are hanging up outside of the main office.

"I hope it [the assembly] will make them stop and think," Brauer said. "I hope it will give them one more thing to file away in their brain to think, 'You know what? I don't want to do that because I know that has a bad result.' If all the kids decided it wasn't okay to do that, it really wouldn't be a problem because the bullies wouldn't get any mileage out of it."