Bullying is a huge problem. Despite many parents’ best efforts to prevent this horrible phenomenon from happening, students continue to harm their peers. This does more than ruin the victim’s day – it can have lasting psychological effects that will shape the person’s entire life.
One group is out to raise awareness about bullying. Four children worked with Matt TV in a creative experiment. “After the recent events that happened with Keaton Jones being bullied, I decided to conduct a social experiment seeing how people would react if they saw a child being bullied in public,” Matt shares. “The results were shocking!”
This man sees bullying as entirely unacceptable. According to Matt, “About 28 percent of students ages 12-18 reported being bullied at school during the school year.” This is a staggering number, considering all of the work put into anti-bullying campaigns. With a little inventiveness, Matt explored the issue himself.
He worked with three teenagers and an elementary school-aged boy to find out what people would do when they directly saw bullying take place. The group headed to several different parks to put their plan into action.
In each location, the young boy would play alone with a soccer ball. Then in came the teenagers to ruin the fun. “Hey there, kid. Nice ball you’ve got there,” the leader would announce in the typical bully style. It was the child’s job to make it obvious that he didn’t know these teenagers and that he didn’t want to play with them.
The group members played out their roles in each park, all while being filmed. They continued to act out their scenario until someone decided to step up and intervene. In each case, and adult saved the day.
“What are you doing?!” was the question on everyone’s mind. Surely these boys were old enough to know better. Each adult stepped right up to the group and let them know how shameful their actions were. Hope in humanity – restored.
After the scene played out, the strangers were asked why they had intervened. “Well I wouldn’t want my son to be getting bullied,” one mother explained, “so if I knew somebody would be around my son at that time, I would want them to do something as well.”
Another woman had been disgusted with the teen’s actions, and she knew she needed to help. “He was just messing with this poor kid, and there was nobody else taking care of it.”
Bullying is a big problem. Matt informs us that “160,000 kids per day do not attend school for fear of being bullied.” With such an invasive issue in our schools, it is comforting to know that parents are willing to step up and protect children – even if they are not their own.
What would you do if you saw a child being bullied? Leave an answer in the comments below.
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