...but then I read about another child who has committed suicide due to bullying, and knew that this should be seen here.
So...
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I'm a middle school teacher.
I'm a middle school teacher who recently had a student confide in me that he is being bullied, severely.
I'm a middle school teacher who was afraid, who was unsure how to act. But who, unable to stomach the thought of allowing this amazing boy to become another tragedy, acted anyway with the help of others.
And now, I'm a middle school teacher who just this week began using an anti-bullying curriculum in our school, and who showed my students in our first session the most intense and inspiring video I have ever witnessed on bullying:
I can't tell you much more about Jonah – the boy who bravely told the world of his pain in the above video – than what you can read in articles about his YouTube cry for help now gone viral.
But what I can tell you about is the looks on my students faces – students who just moments before watching the video were laughing and joking about an exploratory they were prepared to take lightly.
But their faces froze. Their faces flattened, watching intently; faces impacted, faces that mirrored Jonah's pain back to the screen; faces wet with tears; faces of understanding, faces of incomprehension, faces of confusion, faces of anger.
When the video finished, and before we began processing, a boy – one I did not expect to offer comments on the matter – raised his hand and said, "Now I know what bullying can do."
Let us not let another story of suicide make us say, again, Now I know what bullying can do.
Follow me on Twitter @David_EHG
Author's Note:
Thanks to CTPatriot for passing along the following powerful response video from a student who bullied Jonah, now apologizing for his past actions. This is also brave, sincere and definitely worth viewing: