Jamie's Story
Jamie hoped to accomplish by filing a lawsuit was to help himself and others feel safe in school. Jamie felt scared, depressed, hopeless, sad, mad, frustrated, weak, and etc on typical days. The bystanders role was just watching Jamie get bullied and they didnt stand up and help. Common misconceptions about bullying are that people think you gotta be a certain size, color, race, or homosexual. The constitutional basis of Jamie's case was that his middle and high school didn't protect him. To me, Jamie's key messages when he speaks at the assembly was, don't be afraid to stand up and use your voice. Just one person's words can help a million others with the same problems. Lessons that I take away from his story is that standing up for yourself is always the best thing to do.
Ja'Meya
Reading Ja'Meya's story made me think and feel that it's crazy to sentence her to that huge amount of jail time for something big yet small. As an athlete and an honor student, it does surprise me that she was bullied. Ja'Meya's decision to bring a gun on the school bus is maybe a reaction of fear, hate, lost, embarrassed, weakness, and etc. The consequences for her actions shouldn't be 45 felony charge accounts, enough to send her to prison for a hundred years. She was only a 14 year old little girl who was being bullied. The consequences should of been less major than what she got. To me, it does matter that she did not intend to hurt anyone. See, if she did hurt someone that would of been a different story. Im guessing she only pulled that gun out to prove a point that she was tired of it all and just to scare them. Lessons we can draw from her story is that there's other ways to solving things like that. Ja'Meya is an African American. Honestly, I don't think she got a hundred years because she's black. She probably got a hundred years because she pulled her gun out and threatened 45 people on her school bus. But then again, a hundred years for an athlete and a honor student making one HUGE mistake with no kind of bad record? They could of did her less harm than a hundred years. The fact that she's African American doesn't matter to me. She's just like every other student, child, kid.
Kelby
Reading Kelby's story made me think about how rude, mean, and heartless how people are. It made me feel kinda mad. The sources of Kelby's strength and optimism is herself and how she feels about herself. She has faith and belief in herself. She has determination to graduate with honors and all. Despite what others say, she's not gonna run away from her problems. She stands up to them instead. I think she was able to face the bullying she endures with such determination because she had a small group of friends by her side. She probably was tired of it all and her way of handeling it was show no mercy to their "humor" or "entertainment". LGBT youth are so often singled out for bullying and harassment in middle and high school because their still young and most of them don't really know any better. People are always quick to judge and talk about others and bully others just to feel better about themselves. Bullying does reflect larger societal conflicts and attitudes in this world because bullying always cause problems. Everyday people gets bullied. Some even committ suicide over getting bullied. Bullying is the main problem.
Alex
Reading Alex's story made me think about how careless people are. It made me feel sorry for him. To me, how people respond when they encounter a difference that they do not understand is that they make fun of others. People always judge off the bat also. Parents and school officals can help a child who is bullied by actually giving consequences to those who bully. You can't really say anything to them because now a days kids don't listen and just do what they feel like doing. Responses by adults can help in many ways if others choose to listen. It can also make it worse because parents tend to go to the school and confront the principal. Therefore, teachers talk and it gets to students and then it gets worse. An adult intervention is most helpful is before things can get out of hand.
