Barbed Wired Bully

"Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. Bully victims are 9 times more likely to consider suicide."

Please take your medicine,

       your darkness is devouring my sight

what were you expecting, 

             i tried to break your fall

long silences and outbursts of pure rancid evil

bones splintered to the core

                           of lunatic's withdrawal

loose cannons of barbed wire wrap around my mind

i woke up yesterday with a tombstone in my eyes

             crushed up glass in my coffee instead of creamer

rolled over to pretend I was still asleep in your head

               no time to waste on being devoured on a thread

staring down the barrel of an intentional plinker 

              sleeping with my own Baretta on lock & load

balancing this bird on a razor wire of slick crystal write

             it's slipping away, was a little too late for cake

power of the darkness is terse & tensely overwhelming

               drowning in the murky waters of past wastelands

there are no wildflower posy's left to be sowed

 still holding on to that final letter of reality to conquer insanity

Recent School Bullying and Cyberbullying Statistics Show That:

• 1 out of 4 kids are Bullied.
• 77% of students are bullied mentally, verbally, & physically. Cyberbullying statistics are rapidly approaching similar numbers, with 43% experiencing cyberbullying.
• Of the 77% of students that said they had been bullied, 14% of those who were bullied said they experienced severe (bad) reactions to the abuse.
• 1 in 5 students admit to being a bully, or doing some "Bullying."
• Each day 160,000 students miss school for fear of being bullied.
• 43% of kids fear harassment in the bathroom at school.
• 100,000 students carry a gun to school.
• 28% of youths who carry weapons have witnessed violence at home.
• 282,000 students are physically attacked in secondary schools each month.
• More youth violence occurs on school grounds as opposed to on the way to school.
• Playground school bullying statistics - Every 7 minutes a child is bullied. Adult intervention - 4%. Peer intervention - 11%. No intervention - 85%.

http://www.a4kclub.org/get-the-facts/bullying-statistics

Author's Note

Reviews

[Gypsy Warrior Queen]

My Oldest child was bullied and I will probably say that I was bullied by her father and that is why she found it acceptable. she, with a much quieter nature than my own quivered in fear each day and took on the twisted mental state of her boyfriend..the bully-er. She thought if she acted out she could get him help but it consumed her and she got so dark in her own depression I thought I might lose her. She stole, lied, became a cutter..ect ect. she is better now, but never fully recovered from those two years. Thank you Freida for posting this! For letting the statistics be heard! It is SO scary! You did an AMAZING job!

[Frieda P]

I hear you, my father was a bully also, he used to push us around and my mother was scared to death of him, but she's still with the b*****d, go figure....thanks for your thoughts here Queenie, glad she made it through that horror....

[Cool Handless Luke]

Not enough can be written on the subject - especially when kids are involved. It just makes no sense to me. Why treat people any other way than how you would want them to treat you?!?!?!

balancing this bird on a razor wire of slick crystal write
it's slipping away, was a little too late for cake

i like the edginess and imagery you have on this one. and the stats just hammer the importance of the message home. nice job frieda.

[Frieda P]

I agree Luke, especially when it comes to the kids, but there are adult bullies too...a friend of mine I met on a survivor site, his boyfriend was beaten to death by haters/bullies, he ultimately committed suicide, it's a real problem...thanks so much for your insight.

[Rebecca Buller]

"...loose cannons of barbed wire wrap around my mind
i woke up yesterday with a tombstone in my eyes..."

Wow, Frieda. That's all I can say. The truth is I've never really experienced bullying of any kind firsthand. I was teased occasionally, but to actually fear going to school? No, I can't imagine what that would've been like. Very powerful and eye-opening. Thank you for sharing this.

[Frieda P]

Consider yourself lucky Rebecca, it's a terrible experience and so many young kids are affected, thanks so much for your kind review.

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

A crafted piece that slaps one about the face and wakes us up to the reality happening around us, well done, good read.

[Frieda P]

Grazie mille love...

[InsanityWriter]

Powerful. Thank you for sharing...

[Frieda P]

Thanks for reading Skittles.

[Annabelle Lee]

As much as this is appreciated. Bullying isn't going to stop. All the seminars and awareness wil only touch so many people.

[Frieda P]

True, and someone else told me that even when she's reported them, nothing was done, it's sad to say the least, thanks Annabelle, like the pic!

[Dana Alsamsam]

the imagery in this is stellar- tomb stone in your eyes, splintering bones, and broken glass in your coffee- all so lovely!

experiencing this first hand i can say you've portrayed it rather accurately. your sentiments are noble and i really enjoyed reading.

[Frieda P]

Thanks for your visit and thoughts here Dana, much appreciated.

[Ruth]

This rendered me speechless...your articulation in imagery is always amazing, so when it is focused on something of this manner, it really hits hard xx

[Frieda P]

Thanks so much Poppy, much appreciate your thoughts here. xxo

[Ken Simm.]

As a teacher this horrifies me. As a person who was bullied it doesn't surprise me. Both affected me deeply.
Whilst I was teaching I intervened every time I saw or suspected. Even if I turned out to be wrong. I reasoned that if I was wrong 9 times out of 10. One was good enough for me.
I tried to counsel both bully and victim equally but I must admt to a lingering hatred of bullying in any form.
So much for subject matter, now to form. Using such words and rich vocabulary would tend to place a line between the reader and the subject. Not so. I find it enhances rather than distracts.

[Frieda P]

I didn't know you were a teacher Ken, seems no one knows what to do, intervening surely needs to be part of the remedy...thanks so much for your thoughts here, these were the only statistics I could find on the suicide rate, they're staggering.....

Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, according to the CDC. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. Over 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and almost 7 percent have attempted it.

[Ken Simm.]

I was an inner city High school teacher for thirty years. I've had the suicides and the failures to understand. I thought I would know it from both sides having been bullied both at school and at home. Showed how wrong I was and it is something that I am not proud of. I could have done more.

[Ken Simm.]

The bullies have to be dealt with as well. Not just punished that tends to entrench behaviour. But the victims need support and understanding, awareness and most importantly a sense of not being alone.

[Frieda P]

Tough crowd there, I guess we could all do more than give it lip service, not sure what that is though....

[Ken Simm.]

Insofar as school bullying is concerned, each establishment need a definite and workable policy. One where value judgements are made. We need to say is this working? If not what can we do to make it work? How can we show first of all the bullied that they are not alone and they know they can come to a safe place and something will be done. There will be understanding and a commitment to make it better. In fact this is what the bullies need to understand also. first and formeost, that something will be done and seen to be done.

[Ken Simm.]

And do you still like me now knowing my guilty secret?

[Frieda P]

Ha now you sound like Sally Fields, yes, I still like you to pieces Ken.....

[Ken Simm.]

Sally Fields, the actress? Now you've lost me I'm afraid Frieda.

[Ken Simm.]

And I like you to pieces as well.

[Frieda P]

It's become quite the joke when she made her Oscar acceptance speech 'You like me, you really like me!'....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl_NpdAy3WY

[Ken Simm.]

Ah. Capisce.

[Frieda P]

;-) ................

[Shaun Payton]

Bullies suck. I was lucky though, I had a few incidents of near being physically bullied back in middle school,thankfully some bystander stepped in and that ended that. Too much violence and not enough parenting in my opinion.

[Frieda P]

No parent wants to believe that of their child either, so many of them are defended, until it's too late, thanks Shaun.

[Shaun Payton]

Some kids bully parents.

[Frieda P]

True too, which I find absurd, where do you go from there.....

[Shaun Payton]

Military school haha

[NA]

I got bullied for being different and shy....tried so hard to turn the other cheek but in the end I snapped, sad that it came to that but I never got bullied again.......powerful message!

[Frieda P]

Good on you Raven, that's what they need, doesn't always work out that way though, thanks so much!

[NA]

My mum would say turn the other cheek, my dad would say take down the biggest one and the rest would fall in line...I'm only 4ft 11 so it wasn't easy...adrenaline was 99% of strength lol...I actually felt sorry for her afterwards as everyone made fun of her...funny thing is we became good friends a few years later...she said she respected me for standing up to her :)