Youth Violence
By Devon Locke
7th Grade
Western Pines Middle School
Youth violence has affected my life as recent as October 2015. With that said, I will tell you a story of my own experience with youth violence, how it has affected my life and what I think can be done about it.
One of my closest aunts is thankfully now a breast cancer survivor. When she was first diagnosed, I worried that she might lose her fight against this deadly disease. Being that October is breast cancer awareness month, I decided to dye my hair pink to help spread awareness, in honor of her.
The first day of school after I dyed my hair, I got out of my mother’s car with my best friend, and an 8th grader rudely asked, “Is that your boyfriend?” Throughout the day, I was called “homo,” “gay” and “fag,” all because my hair was pink. I was literally tormented in the halls while people laughed and pointed at me. It made me feel awful about myself. Out of everyone in the school, only two people said something positive about what I had done and other than that, the replies were all negative. The next few days, the name-calling continued and I was called “strawberry shortcake” and “pinkie,” along with other derogatory comments that were thrown in my direction, some of which I cannot even write in this challenge because of the vulgarity. I found it interesting that one of the 8th graders that made fun of me, dyed his hair the next day and nobody had anything negative to say. This made no sense to me and actually made me enraged. Was it because I am quiet and shy? Does that make me an easy target?
Thankfully, my parents taught me that the cause of youth violence is because the bully doesn’t feel good about themselves and takes it out on other people. Maybe they, themselves, have been neglected, abused or bullied and now this is how they deal with others. A bully tends to target people that have something they want which I think can be something that is concrete or a certain behavioral trait that the bully wishes they had. I also believe that a bully will pick his or her “victim” by race, religion, physical features, disabilities and personality. In my case, maybe it was that I have the personality that doesn’t care if I stand out because I was doing something that means a lot to me.
I have tried to think of ways to stop youth violence and I think we should start with each school having a “Bully Drop Box” that a student would be able to put the name of a bully without having to approach a teacher or administrator.
Another idea is to bring peer counseling back into schools because sometimes it’s easier to talk to a peer instead of an adult. It may also help because if others know what is going on, and just one person sticks up for you, the bully may stop.
My last idea is to hold parents accountable along with their child. Make them take classes on anger management and how to treat others if their child is not treating others right. If my parents had to sit through a class because I was not treating a peer with respect, it would only happen once. It would also maybe help parents hold their own children accountable for their decisions and actions instead of the parents putting the responsibility on the teachers and schools when their own child has done something wrong.
In conclusion, I believe youth violence is not something that just happens. It is something that is learned and taught first at home. Ask yourself if parents teach their children to be kind and caring, would this continue to happen? However, as in a lot of cases, parents tend to be too busy to teach their children how to behave. So, it is up to us students to work together and change the youth of today to be more compassionate, and a more compassionate child will be a more successful adult.