Speech - Julia Wilson

Ronin Shimizu was a 12 year old boy from Folsom, California. Ronin loved cheerleading and was the only boy on his school’s cheerleading team. On December 3rd, 2014, Ronin committed suicide because he was harassed intensely by kids at his school.

Cases like Ronin’s are clear-cut examples of extreme bullying. But not all cases are so apparent. On a larger scale bullying is much, much more subtle than teasing and harassment. More subtle than the stereotypical jock vs. nerd “give me your lunch money” type deal. Bullying is exclusion. Purposefully leaving someone out because they’re different from you. It’s seeing someone sitting alone in a room full of people and pretending they’re not there. Bullying is acting like someone is lesser than you because of the color of their skin, the clothes on their back, or the things that they love. Bullying is whispering about somebody and stopping the minute they walk in the room, making it oh so clear to them who you were just talking about.

I’m sure that everyone in this room is guilty of being hurtful to somebody else at least once. Everyone has been a bully at some time in their life. Because the problem is, as humans, being mean is inevitable. It’s in our blood to think about ourselves more than others. At times it’s so easy to lash out at other people; like when you’re in the middle of a mood swing and the idea of being pleasant is so unfathomable. Or when you’re going through a tough time and can’t help but project your sad, angry feelings onto other people. Or if you’re around somebody that you just simply don’t like. But despite all of these reasons that make being mean seem excusable, we need to start learning, as individuals, that’s it’s not. Because small hurtful comments that seem benign can build up to be something serious.

Adam Lanza. Eric Harris. Dylan Klebold. These are the names of people who have committed unspeakable acts of mass murder through school shootings. There is a common characteristic that can be seen in all three of these men, and it’s that they were bullied or socially ostracized by their peers. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that bullying causes people to shoot up schools. There are so many other factors that go into it, and they vary from case to case. However, 45 studies have shown that there is a correlation between bullying and acts of violence, and that victims of bullying are twice as likely to carry a weapon to school. Other studies have also shown that many people bullied as children develop long-term mental and emotional problems as adults.

But forget science for a moment and just think. Think about how much sense it makes that those who are treated poorly as youth would end up treating others poorly as adults. It’s a cycle. A public shooting is an extreme case, but it highlights the point that bullying can create unproductive, and sometimes detrimental members of society. Think of how much more pleasant our world would be if everyone were just a little nicer. Think of how Adam Lanza may have grown up differently if just a couple more people had been a friend to him.

Now, there are always going to be bad people in the world no matter what anybody does, that is an unfortunate truth. But if we as individuals worked just a little harder to be friendlier, we could improve the well being of our society as a whole. So how do we do that?

We do that through simple acts of kindness and making small changes in the way we relate to one another. By smiling at others instead of blindly walking past them. By including those who seem left out. By keeping our hurtful thoughts in our heads and not in the harmful hands of gossip. It’s easier said than done. And sometimes it may be uncomfortable. Sometimes it may seem impossible. But we have to try. Because our simple acts of kindness will make society kinder, and a kinder society means a decrease in problems like violence and bullying. If Ronin Shimizu had grown up in a kinder society who knows what amazing things he could have accomplished.

Works Cited

"12-year-old Folsom Boy Who Killed Himself Was Bullied for Being a Cheerleader." ABC7 Chicago. ABC7, 5 Dec. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.

Bully. Dir. Lee Hirsch. The Bully Project, 2011. Netflix.

Culp-Ressler, Tara. "If We Were Better At Preventing Bullying,

Could We Prevent More School Shootings?" ThinkProgress RSS. N.p., 11 June 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2014.

History.com Staff. "Columbine High School Shootings." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2009. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.

Stoller, Gary. "The Mystery of Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook School Gunman." USA Today. Gannett, 26 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.

Zielinski, Sarah. "Bullying's Long-Term Effects Seen in Both the Bullied and the Bully." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 12 May 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.