Student's Essays/Bullying

We have been away from America for 10 months- almost a year! This is my longest time ever away from home. The crazy part is, we will not be returning until July of 2012. Our original plan was to come home to visit in December/January, but we are trying to save money, and also we won't have very much time off at our new jobs in Seoul.

Bullying is a huge problem in Korea. We've been away for 10 months, but I've heard reports here and there, and it seems to be getting worse in America too. I had a situation in one of my 9th grade English classes last week. It all started with a simple Bingo review game. Prizes were awarded, fighting ensued and 1 student got so upset that he threw his candy on the ground. Other students were laughing and saying things in Korean so I pulled him aside to find out the problem. There were several issues but I think I got to the heart of it. A few kids had said something, others had laughed, he was upset.... I'm particularly sensitive to issues involving this student because a few months ago, he had written IN ENGLISH on his paper, a little note about suicide and why God hates him and his parents hate him and no one cares. I reported it to the appropriate school officials and they met with him. He assured them he was not suicidal, just frustrated, but I have been worried about this kid for months. He wrote in an early journal from the beginning of the semester that someone had broken into his dorm room and stolen his money, his shoes, and a few other items. So when this incident happened in my class the other day, I had had enough.

After talking with him in the hall, I came back in and started yelling at the entire class. I assigned them extra homework and a 1-page essay on "How we should treat each other." I did some thinking and came up with a great movie called "To Save a Life."

"To Save a Life" is about 2 boys who were childhood friends. In high school, one becomes a star (Jake) , and the other (Roger) gets forgotten about. After years of being picked on and going unnoticed by all of those around him, one day Roger walked into the school and killed himself. The rest of the movie is about Jake trying to take a stand for the forgotten ones and be a friend to the friendless. I made the class write essays about this movie and wanted to share a few that really touched me.


“As I stay in the small community in GVCS, I can see some of the friends like Roger. A friend who hang out alone, who eats the meal alone, who doesn’t want to play together. I’m also regretting now because I couldn’t help them. I couldn’t talk to them or play with them. I thought they are something less than me or outsider. So I treated them as all my friends treated them. I should be different but I couldn’t change myself. After watching movie, I prayed to God to give confidence and wisdom to change myself. To be a leader who can serve these friends with warm heart. I really want to save a life. I don’t want any suicide and bullying in GVCS. I hope and pray that GVCS would be the center of love."

“As I watched this movie, I realized that small bullyings can make a lot of difference. It also can make someone suicide to death. I felt that I need to stop bullying kids and try to stop other kids being bullied. That will give them hope, and they won’t try to suicide. I think I need to be friends to them, talk to them, and go to morning prayer with them. As I change my life, they will change theirs too. As God sees this, He will be happy.”

“After watching this movie I felt something. Something that I can’t explain. But I felt many feeling. Like, I felt sorry to someone, I felt something wrong to someone. I think carefully after watching it. I think carefully about something, that if I do something wrong to someone I thought many things. Things that someone need me, but I didn’t care or help them, if they need any help.”

“If there’s many people in the world like “changed Jake," then the world could be a little better than now. And I was shame about my behaviors. I was afraid to help the people who are alone and having a hard time. Because I am afraid that I would be as same as them. I was sad that I did the same thing with the bad students in the movie. So I decided that I won’t do same thing again. I will help them although it would be hard...this movie became one of my favorite movies.”