Inspiring Victims of Bullying to Stay Strong
Sixteen-year-old Kathleen wanted to inspire those who had been bullied to not give up. She is a talented young woman who wrote and performed the song "Don't Let Them In" which won Seventeen Magazine's 2013 "Mean Stinks" contest.
"I wrote this song because I felt that most bullying prevention campaigns I witnessed at school were solely focused on getting the bullies to stop bullying. I thought there needed to be a message directly to victims to not let bullies get to them, because bullies are often empowered by the reaction they get from the victim. I had witnessed multiple times that if a victim would stand firm and confident and act like the bully's words didn't affect them, the bully would get discouraged and move on to a victim he/she could get a reaction from. I also found that some bullies simply could not be reached by the school programs – they were going to continue to be mean and bully others, no matter what. Some kids (and adults) are just mean, maybe because of problems in their personal lives. I don't mean to suggest that bullying prevention programs are not effective. Some definitely are. But some individuals cannot be reached for whatever reason (at least by the efforts of just the school) and I saw a need to empower victims to be true to themselves, not to let bullies into their hearts, and not to give the bullies the reaction they are looking for."
Check out Kathleen's song here (http://www.teachertube.com/video/dont-let-them-in-anti-bullying-psa-original-song-by-kathleen1-352934).
Hi - someone in the chat room that I frequent has been sending instant messages to my friends, telling them false things about me - for instance, I was told I called a friend from the chat room a "drunk" and a "dope head" - I smoothed that one over, but, this person has also taken to calling people at HOME and telling them to put me on "Iggy" and to not talk to me - she has also accused me of stalking HER, of reporting people to yahoo (which I have NOT done) - of paying for a search for her and her husband (again, NOT done, I DID do my research on a chat engine, to cover MY bases in this issue - but, it was all out there and available on the internet, public information). What recourse do I have to STOP her from doing this all the time? I mean, I spend HOURS in pm's explaining to people what I have not done, I have people mad at me, this is getting ridiculous, I have been coming IN this certain chat room for almost six years, she has been coming in there for 2. Please help! Don't tell me to just put her on ignore, she just pm's people with more lies, and I still hear about it, I want her to STOP.
17 year-old girl from USA