World reacts to bullying victim’s heartbreak
AYOUNG American schoolboy did more in recent days to raise awareness about bullying that a thousand advertising campaigns could ever do. Keaton Jones from Tennessee asked his mother to post a video of him in tears following after he was targeted by school bullies for the umpteenth time.
He asked a simple question - why do they do it?
There is no simple answer and there are many theories on why bullies do what they do, but the core message is that it cannot be allowed to continue.
In this boy’s case, it was an ongoing issue and the perpetrators appear to have continued their harassment of him and others, despite it being raised with parents and school management.
In many cases, this is enough to put a stop to such behaviour but when it’s not what are we to do?
This boy’s heart was breaking through circumstances that did not have to be that way.
It was incredibly brave of him to allow that video to be shared - a video which has now been viewed over 23,000,000 times and shone an international spotlight on the issue.
Seeing from a child’s perspective how damaging it can be should be enough to spark a major change in how such behaviour is addressed.
His honestly and vulnerability showed just what bullying can dot to a young person and while he had the strength to share his situation with his mother, many do not and often nobody knows the suffering they are experiencing.
Many parents are not even aware that their child is being victimised and therefore don’t even know how much they might be struggling.
It was refreshing to see that social media was used in a positive way to raise a really important issue which affects all age groups.
As a growing volume of bullying today is carried out online, it would be a positive outcome, if some of these bullies took note of this viral video and thought about the consequences and the impact of their actions on others.
Often simple awareness campaigns just are not enough to drive the message home, but this young man’s efforts certainly have shone a light on the issue.