Stop It before It Starts: Bullying

The schoolyard is a site of struggle: a space where "the bully (the powerful) learns to subordinate and exclude "the other" (the powerless).  

Why has bullying become the norm? 

I had my first contact with bullying when I was in elementary school. I say, "contact with bullying" because it was common for my classmates to throw garbage at me and push me into bushes that were planted on school grounds. I was tossed about and picked on so often that even my teachers turned a blind-eye. No one spoke up for me and I was taught not to speak-up for myself. Don't rock the boat, so-to-speak. With more and more teen suicides due to bullying, it is time to speak-up against bullying. It is time to undo the silence.