Bullying’s Impact: Katelyn’s Fight for Change

Cyberbullying: A Dark Side of Social Media

Bullying has become a relevant and serious problem over the past decade, especially among children between the ages of 4 and 17. Katelyn lives at home with her single mother and brother, John. Her two best friends, Mary and Claire, always have her back through everything. Katelyn attends high school and feels as if a girl in her class, Morgan, is out to get her.

On Katelyn’s 17th birthday, she receives a computer as a gift. She then makes an account on a social media website. As a prank, her brother hacks into her account and puts a derogatory status on her webpage. She receives lots of ugly comments in return and is afraid to go to school and face her friends. Unaware that John was the one to attack her account, she immediately turns to Morgan to blame. Seeing the post, students at her school, of course, say mean things to her. She is extremely embarrassed.

After that, a cute teenage boy, Matthew, messages her and is comforted about the bullying. Things are still getting very mean at school, and they call her names that no girl wants to be called. She begins to have a crush on the boy until Matthew creates a rumor that Taylor steals from her friends. Her best friends begin to turn on her and hate her. She begins to feel that life isn’t worth living.

She posts a video on her social media account saying that she can’t live with herself and says goodbye to her friends. Seeing this, Mary rushes over to Katelyn’s house to find her trying to commit suicide. She was stuffing pills in her throat, but luckily, Mary came in time to stop Katelyn from killing herself. Katelyn was then hospitalized. Katelyn’s mom learns from the incident and goes to the school board to try to keep this bullying from happening to other students in the future.

Physical & Mental Toll: Youth’s Battle with Bullying

Katelyn begins to attend a support group and meets many other kids who are being bullied just like her. She finds that one of her classmates is in her group, Caleb, being bullied for being gay. The next day, Katelyn soon finds out that her best friend Mary was the one to create the profile of “James,” the online boy who started the rumor. Katelyn is infuriated at first, but over time, forgives her and begins to rekindle their relationship. Katelyn and her friends all help to pass a law that will help fight against bullying.

There are three types of cyberbullying: physical bullying and mental bullying. Bullies torment others because they themselves have insecurities, have been bullied themselves, or have a mental illness that brings out the worst in them. Nevertheless, bullying can physically and emotionally destroy the victim, whether it is physical abuse, cyberbullying, or verbal abuse. Nowadays, physical bullying is becoming a very serious and detrimental problem. Not only does physical bullying scar the person emotionally, but it can also scar them physically. There are different mediums of physical bullying, such as physical threats, pushing, shoving, and assaults that can cause serious injury.

References

1. Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2010). Cyberbullying: Identification, prevention, and response. Cyberbullying Research Center.