Wednesday, March 23, 2011

A Bully Story in Three Acts

















Act One: A bullied kid in Australia finally snaps, teaches a bully a painful lesson, and becomes an internet sensation.

Act Two: Casey Heynes goes on TV and explains why he did what he did and why he isn't sorry.



Act Three: The bully, after being battered by a torrent of abuse and ridicule, goes on TV and says he's been bullied too.



My Conclusion:

Life is never as simple as it seems. I feel sorry for them all.  

When I was younger I though that the best way to fight bullying, was to beat up the bullies. Now I know there are better ways.

But one thing remains the same eh ? 

Bullying is bad.

And it hurts EVERYONE...

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4 comments:

prin said...

I dunno. I don't see how a man-sized 15 year old is the underdog to a scrawny 12 year old. And neither of them shows any remorse for any of it.

And really, the fact that they're both garnering fame for this? What kind of example is it to people who are bullied? Violence will set you free?

And then add to that the way everybody's bullying the crap out of Rebecca Black and the role we all play in bullying becomes clearly defined- everybody is a bully if given a socially acceptable context to be one.

Simon said...

hi prin...you're right...there are no good guys or bad guys in this one. Just victims. The little one was able to do what he did, because there was a bigger boy in his corner. Casey used far too much violence. And school officials should be more aware of what's going on.
As I said in my post I feel sorry for both of them, and the parents.
But the number of kids calling Casey a hero, as well as the Rebecca Black story, shows me that there is still a huge problem out there.
And as a society we need to do much more to combat it.
I was going to make the post more personal, but the clips were long enough. Just as well eh? :)

prin said...

What I noticed too in my one day stint as an elementary school teacher last week was that the students are taught one definition of bullying and are forced to stay far away from that one concept, when bullying has many different forms and is not encompassed in one big bully-little victim definition, as the Rebecca Black situation shows clearly.

If you were bullied, Simon, I feel for you and hope you acquired strength from it. A Farley Mowat quote struck me yesterday and I think it's fitting for the bully/victim situation:
"And this is what happened, and this is why the caribou and the wolf are one; for the caribou feeds the wolf, but it is the wolf that keeps the caribou strong."

Simon said...

hi prin...yeah I was bullied, and what happened to me affects me still. Not my personal story, but my aversion to bullying in all its forms. And yeah my story was complicated too. I started off being bullied but ended up bullying the bullies. The way I met my companion was when he pulled me off a bully I was beating with a pool cue...on the pool table. I've written about that before, but these days I'd rather forget it. It's not the most romantic story in the world... :)