Cyberbullying

We all know that cyberbullying sucks. It can get so severe that people even take their own lives because of the abuse. And usually, I try to stay away from all of it. I feel like whatever I try to say would never be enough. But today, I couldn't get away from it. I was actually the victim of it.

I have been getting bullied for a while at school by these annoying boys, let's call them the Dick Heads, for lack of a better name.

Anyway, so they would always say mean things to me, throw things at me, and basically try to ruin my school life. The funny thing is, no one said anything. Even though there were teachers and assistant principals all around us, no one saw the flying words or flying pencils? Really, I find that hard to believe.

But today I woke up to see new posts on our school Facebook page. Normally, I wouldn't mind it. because that page is mostly just used for kids to post spam and stuff. Today, an administrator of the page asked what we thought about the new rules at school, like having designated locker breaks and putting arrows on the ground to keep the hallways from being too overcrowded. I know that everyone has different opinions on the subject, but I think that saying "these rules suck" and "whoever thought of these are gay" are NOT the proper responses.

So I decided to share my opinion because, as all high schoolers should know, the Bill of Rights clearly states our right to free speech. So, in about 50 words or less, I got many hate replies.

"Ugh, Claire, no one cares about your opinion!"
"Like this comment if you DIDN'T read Claire's comment."
"Congrats, u can rite. No1 carez." (exact spelling)
"See everyone, THIS is why we didn't elect her as class prez! she'd be posting this shit 24/7."

And you know what? Each comment got at LEAST 5 likes, if not more. And my mere opinion got no likes.

At first, I started to fight back. Well, not really "fight back", it was more along the lines of "I understand your opinions, but I still think that my points are valid."

But after a while, I gave up. I realized that by being the stronger one, I would have the advantage. And even though it's only been a few hours, nothing has gotten that out of hand yet. I know that lots of cyberbullying can be worse, with nasty rumors and such. But I want all of you who are reading this to know that it doesn't take that much to be the stronger one. There are tons of people who care about you, and tons of people that you can trust if you need to report an incident. Even if it seems "embarrassing" to talk about being bullied to someone, bullying is not okay, and it needs to end now before more people our age take their lives because of the hurtful abuse.

And if they ask, I totally did NOT take screenshots of the conversation, and I'm totally NOT going to give them to the guidance counselor on Monday.