Bullying

A time where I was a bystander in a bullying situation was about  6 years ago. I was with a group of fiends it was four of us. We were all pretty much bored and just hanging out at a park called Lillian Bryant. One of my friends said she felt like fighting and another friend agreed with her. On the other side of the play ground was this girl who wasn’t that pretty to look at. And my two friend decided that they were going to tag team her because she was ugly. All four of us began to walk towards the girl. Me and my one friend who hadn’t said anything stood a little back while the other two began to attempt to get the girl upset.
Eventually the first friend hit her and slung her on the ground , then after noticing she wasn’t a match, my friend tagged the other friend in to finish it. That friend got a few hits in but eventually just left her alone because she wasn’t putting up a challenge. The all four of us left. This is one of the things I regret in my life... I coulda said something, I coulda stopped it ,but selfishly it wasn’t me so I didn’t care.

Bullying

I never was really into any sports related activities until high school, and even then I was never really into them I was just good at it and plus it kept me active. When I did do a sport I usually had someone or multiple people who I knew and eventually I was the one to be in a group that is considered to be well known not only in that sport, but in the school as well. I can't say I was one to ever be bullied simply because I was "short" and so "tiny" that everyone thought that it was cute and it was liked by many. Moreover, going into cheerleading my Junior year there are females coming from all walks of life and may not have had such an easy transition to high school as I did. Though going into cheerleading, we built a sisterhood, so regardless of your upbringing if you made the team we were basically family. Of course, you have those who aren't really aware of everything that a female should know to do when it comes to personal upkeep. Meaning some didn't have the necessary toiletries to be able to keep their hygiene up for various reasons. Some can say it is due to lack of family support to be able to afford them, so they may not have had access to them or just the lack of knowledge of knowing what things are right to use if and when they are on their cycle or even what to do with the items. So there was a particular day during practice when one of the three head coaches made a public announcement to all of us that someone had an odor. The thing is everyone knew who it was that she was referring to because it happened often. Keeping in mind there were still immature people on the team, so people were laughing and whispering as if the young lady wasn't in the room. The coach went on expressing how we all are old enough to know how to clean ourselves etc. What she failed to realize is maybe the young lady didn't know the proper way and for her being a coach and a parent after hours she should've chose a different way of voicing her concern on the topic. For example, since she already knew the person she should've pulled her to the side and gave her some pointers and if she was feeling really generous, she could've bought her a few items to help her get a visual of what things she should use and how to use it. Then if she wanted to make an announcement about it she could let everyone know that it's okay to come to her if we needed anything and found a better way of easing or hinting at what she was referring to without pinpointing anyone. Looking back to the situation now, I think I could've became closer to the young lady, get to know her situation if she allowed it, and just offer all the knowledge I had and have based on what my mom taught me about personal hygiene in a way that she would've understood in hopes that she use it in the future.

Bullying

I have been in sports for most of my life and for this reason I have seen bullying in multiple ways both on the field and in the locker room. It is obvious when you look at a young team of athletes that not every member is there because they are talented or because they even want to be. Many kids are urged or even forced into it by their parents to get out and be apart of something. For this reason these kids tend to not fit the mold of the atypical kid and risk being ostracized and picked on. I can remember my freshman year of high school as being the year I witnessed some of the worst of this bullying. A tradition had began that after practice everyday a wrestling tournament would take place in the open area of the locker room. Being fourteen and fifteen year old boys there was a large discrepancy in both body size and body maturity. The players that had a leg up on the others were a lot quicker to join in on the action while the smaller ones made sure to stay out of it. I was somewhere in the middle at the age because I didn't have much muscle but I was tall and sarcastic so I could talk my way out of most trouble. For one of the smallest players, though, he didn't have this  ability. The biggest on the team, a starter on the defensive line was the ring leader of the wresting matches and decided one day to get the smaller kid involved. The kid was clearly scared and not wanting to participate, but the other one didn't care and proceeded to antagonize and provoke him. I wasn't secure enough with myself at the time and didn't feel like I had the power to stop what was going on as I just wanted to fit in too. I was smaller than the antagonizer and figured I would be included in the situation if I intervened. Everyone else seemed to have thought the same as nobody else spoke up and some even joined in by provoking and shoving the kid around too. The largest kid had all the power in the room and once others joined in there wasn't anything to stop them. The shoving and verbal abuse intensified until finally the victim attempted to throw a punch at the antagonizer. This sealed his fate as the kid dodged and body slammed him to the ground. The poor kid grabbed what he could of his things and got out of the locker room as fast as he could with tears in his eyes, and quit the team the next day. I had never talked to the kid, so I didn't know if he had loved football or just did it to make friends, but either way he was robbed of both. I still feel bad about not intervening, but the power dynamic of the locker room would have made it hard for anybody to during that confusing time of adolescents.

Bullying in Sport

Bullying is something that can happen anywhere, and to anyone. Some people are blind to how much this can happen, and how bad it can get. I have been bullied, seen bullying, and even bullied. It is a huge problem in our society, especially with the internet now being used to bully. I am going to talk about a situation I was a bystander of bullying.

At my high school, there was about 2,500 kids. Most people knew of each other in each person's class, but it was big enough not everyone knew everything about everyone. Most of the athletes, male or female, were considered to be "popular" and were more well-known than other kids were. I played many sports throughout high school, but my favorite was volleyball. We had a girl on my volleyball team with a secret. She was also one of our star players. She had come out as gay to a few of the girls on the volleyball team, including me. Although I was accepting, many people were not. Some of the girls on our team told others, and it became gossip. Basically the entire school had found out, and people had a lot to say about it.
At my school, many people were openly gay. This was a bigger deal than anyone else, however. Maybe because she was the star player in three different varsity sports, or because she did not fit people's "stereotype" of what a gay girl would be like. She is very feminine. People bullied her, including girls on the volleyball team. I said I was a bystander, because I did not do anything about it. I thought I should stay out of it, but that was wrong of me. She needed someone to stand up for her. Thankfully, our coach found out about this situation. He made it a point to individually talk to each player separately and ask them to be respectful of this girl.
Even with the help of an adult, she still had a very hard time. She ended up quitting her sports. Watching this happen and knowing I could've helped her makes me feel guilty. I realized being a bystander to bullying is just as bad as doing the bullying yourself.
In my eyes, someone's sexuality shouldn't be judged by anyone.
Bullying happens in a lot of settings, but it seems that it happens a lot in sports settings as well. More people should pay attention to this, and stop the stigma.

Bullying

Playing football, basketball, and baseball growing up I felt like I saw almost every type of bullying from coaches, players, and fans. But I feel like playing football growing up in junior and high school around me they did not ever cut kids from the teams, so everyone was allowed to play if they followed the schools and teams’ rules. I remember kids would be on the team to obviously get in some extra activates so they could be more of an active kid and didn’t play because they loved football, but rather to just be there and have some fun. In high school I remember the locker rooms for football the freshman kids that were so little would get hazed to the point of embarrassment. This kid was really brutally verbally and physically abused because he always had something to say back to kids that would say very mean things to him and once we were on the field he would play with the running backs and safeties he would get targeted and hit really hard just for the fun of it. The power was the upper class man, because whenever I lined up with the varsity and the sophomore team would come over the varsity would find this kid and just go right for him with no regard. The kids’ power was taken away from him because he played all the way from grade school and never quit, because of his dad would push him and push him to keep coming. By the time our sophomore year was up he was mentally and physically done with football. It wasn’t just football he dropped out of high school, moved out of his parents’ house and Peoria, IL, and moved to some small town in Illinois to get away from everything that he grew up around. I felt so bad because even though I wasn’t the cause I knew that I was there and did nothing to stop coaches or other players to stop or lay back on him. The imbalance of this is that growing up I didn’t know how messed up this was to do to kids and seeing it I always kept my mouth shut because I was a shy kid and wanted to play football and learn. It existed because coaches want to get the weakness out of a team, coaching in football is a mental game some coaches believe if they can break a kid than those fans and the game will break him. So, most coaches enjoy to just yell at kids till they are satisfied with the effort, either if it’s a play, conditioning, etc. This existed because no one was able to step up not even his parents, I believe his dad said one thing over about 8 years of football and those were all different coaches for him not one being the same. This cycle continued and still continues today with how coaches want to treat their players. Like I said I probably could have done something about it definitely in high school, but I was always in a tough spot when I wasn’t as shy. I was always really close to starting on varsity and never wanted to jeopardize that by standing up to the coaches, because of how mean they were to kids and single handily that kid alone. I feel bad to this day, because I haven’t heard from the kid when he left high school sophomore year, I could have put myself in a leadership role to stand up but was set on my own goals that I wanted to make happen in my life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8kYsGUIVMY

Bullying in Sport

Bullying is something that happens everyday.  Now that I am in college I feel as if I don't see as much bullying face to face or in public.  Bullying now can happen through the internet and social media. This is called cyberbullying and I feel this is more common at the college level.  

When it comes to an experience that I've had with bullying it is one that I will remember for a long time.  It probably has to do with the fact that I was bullied for most of my 6th grade year. I came into junior high very nervous, but very excited.  It was a new chapter for me and with a new chapter meant new people, older people. The bullying that I experienced was the most common type of bullying.  Now that I was in junior high, I had to get changed for PE in the locker room with the rest of the students. Going into 6th grade I was a bit overweight. I'm a big guy now, but in 6th grade I still had a lot of baby fat and some of the chubbiest cheeks in America, but I could keep up with anyone in any sport at anytime.  I loved to compete and sports gave me a way to fulfill that desire. It started in the locker room, where we changed before class. They would make fun of my body appearance and sometimes my personal hygiene. Not that I wasn't hygienic, but I think they would use anything to try and get under my skin. They did a pretty good job of it and it took a toll on me for most of the first semester my 6th grade year.  I went to the PE coach to tell them about the constant verbal abuse, but nothing changed. I got use to it. I would just take it and it wore me out every single day. I no longer enjoyed going to PE class anymore. I didn't even want to compete in the games we played, because even if I was one of the better players they wouldn't give me the credit and instead would try to shoot me down with words like fat, four eyes, faggot, and other derogatory terms.  

I want to take a step back and talk about who has the power in this situation.  You would think that the PE teacher of the class would own authority, but the teacher was just their to make a paycheck.  It was the high school baseball coach and a lot of the 8th graders that were picking on me were going to be playing on the high school team the next year, so they felt like they could get away with a lot in front of him.  The teacher didn't have the power, it was the four 8th grade assholes that not only bullied me, but some of the other 6th graders as well. I feel like this is the circumstance when it comes to bullying a lot of the time. The students just rule over the teachers and can behave however they feel.  

It didn't turn physical until around the end of my first semester.  It was a day where we played kickball and the team I was on included mostly 6th graders.  The team we were playing against was mainly 8th graders and specifically the four that were consistently bullying me.  Somehow we had won the kick ball game which didn't sit well with the 8th graders. I knew walking back into that locker room I was going to have to deal with them.  I stood in front of my locker and changed out of my uniform and into my street clothes. Before I could put my regular shirt back on, I was shoved in the back and slammed into my locker.  One of the boys said the only reason that my team won was because I was the same weight as two people and that we had an extra person on the field.

When it got physical is when I asked my dad what to do.  I didn't tell my parents about any of the prior bullying, but when it got physical I felt like I had to.  Now, I'm not saying that violence is ever the answer, but my dad told me that I have a right to protect myself and that he would stand behind me if I had to protect myself.  

So, I did.  It was during a badminton tournament in class.  I always had an advantage at this game, because I was taller. In the first round I beat one of the 8th graders that had picked on me all year.  After scoring the game point, the student paced to the net, went under the net (racket raised still in hand). He looked like he had one thing on his mind and I wasn't going to find out what that was.  I did what I had to do to protect myself and ever since that day not another kid picked on me or any of my classmates. I had stood up not only for myself, but for the rest of that 6th grade class. It is a day that I will never forget.  

References:
https://www.google.com/search?q=bullying+in+sports&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr88fh657lAhVQqZ4KHVAJApYQ_AUIEygC&biw=697&bih=676#imgrc=1YKY6sCQ9Jh4YM:

Bullying

Back in grade school my mom was a kindergarten teacher in the west side of Chicago where it was not a safe school or area to be in. There was another school down the block and sometimes during recess kids from that school would come to the school that my mom would teach at and pick on small kids who were on the playground. The kids at my mom’s school knew not to mess with us because we were Mrs. Shannon kids and they knew what the consequences would be if they heard that we were being bullied. One day I decided to stay in my mom’s classroom to play video game on here computer while everyone else including my sister went out on the playground for recess. Some kids came in and told me that my sister was about to get into a fight with some kids from the other school down the block, I jumped up and ran outside looking for my sister and I see her pushing these 2 guys and they were about to hit her back until I stepped in and told them not to do it. My sister ran inside to get my mom and she left me 2 against 1 and people were forming a circle chanting fight, and at the time I didn’t care what would happen to me because I wanted to defend my sister. So, me and the other guys started to fight, and I was actually winning until I felt someone grab me from behind and split all of us up. My mom was cursing out the kids who tried to start a fight with my sister and then dragged me back into her classroom and told me never to get in a fight out here in the west side because you don’t know who’s carrying a gun and you don’t know who they’ll bring up to the school to kill me. At the time I thought my mom was just saying nonsense, but when I grew older and experience some of my friends getting shot not to far from the school then I knew she was looking out for me and telling me the truth. After my mom had the talk with me a few days went by and I saw the same kids who started the fight with my sister again and I went up to them and apologized even though it was my sister who started the fight, but thankfully they accepted my apology and then we all went our separated ways. That was the only time I experienced bullying since the other schools I went to made sure bullying wasn’t happening among the students. At my high school they were really strict about bullying and if they found out someone was being bullied then that person would be expelled so some people didn’t bully people in school, but they instead were cyber bullying a few students who I know, but didn’t tell teachers or anyone, I pretty much stayed out of it and did my own thing. Bullying is still happening in this generation and young people are killing themselves because they believe that is the best option for them because people like me don’t speak up and defend them. If my kids or anyone I know see someone getting bullied I hope they’ll intervene and stop it from happening.

Bully in Sport

I played soccer for many years of my childhood. Up until high school I always played with my friends and had a great time. For the two years that I played in high school I had to go to Muscatine because my school could not field a team. My freshman year was fun. There were five other girls from my school that wen with me, I only played JV, and I was able to make a lot of new friends. Then my sophomore season came around and it was much different. All of my friends from my school decided to quit, so I had to drive down there by myself everyday. My coaches also thought I was talented enough to be a part of the varsity team, but I still mainly play JV. Now I had to practice with the varsity team everyday and felt very lonely. The girls my age were the most rude to me, mainly because they saw me as a threat. No one would include me in their conversations or wanted me to be in their group or team at practice. They also never included me in any outside activities, like team dinners or bonding. The way they treat me made me dread going to practice everyday and made me cry many times driving to and from practices or late at night after away games. 

I was starting to get more varsity playing time by the end of the year, which made me feel even more disliked by the girls. By the time regionals came around the softball season had started and I had to choose between which sport I wanted to play every night. By that point I was done with soccer and how I was being treated by the girls their that I decided to quit before the season was even over. This probably made me even more disliked by those girls, but I really did not care at that point. I was more loved and appreciated playing softball at my own school. It quickly turned into my favorite sport after that because it was so much more fun than my soccer team. So, I decided not to play soccer the next year because I did not want to feel left out and disliked anymore.

Those girls had more power over me because they had started playing varsity soccer their freshman year so they thought they were better than me and one girl’s dad was the head coach. They felt like they were invincible because of the coach and I was a threat to them after I was getting more playing time. I feel like they may have been mean to me on purpose to try to get rid of me. They had also been playing club soccer together from a young age, with the girl’s dad as their coach, so that made me an even bigger outsider. After I left t did start a movement of other girls my age leaving for relatively the same reasons.

Bullying in school

Back when I was in elementary school, I unfortunately noticed a good amount of bullying. Everyday at recess, we would always get everyone together and play soccer. We would all circle up and decide who the captains were going to be and then start to pick teams. One of my classmates was a little overweight and had a hard time running up and down the field a lot of times. He knew he was overweight but this didn't stop him from wanting to play with us because he loved soccer so much. He would always wear soccer jerseys to school and talk about the games that were on TV the night before. As we started to pick teams each day for recess, he would always be picked last and sometimes the captain would make a face or noise of disgust when they had to have them on their team. When you would look at his face, he would never look upset about being picked last because all he wanted to do was to just be able to play. But as soon as people started to make the faces and noises, i could see that it took a toll on him a little each time. Each day of recess would go by and the same thing would happen each day. Except some days when we had an uneven amount of kids, they would tell him that he had to sit out because in order for the teams to have an even amount someone had to. This made him upset because of how much he looked forward to playing soccer each day. He didn't have a lot of friends so when he had to sit out, he would usually just sit alone and watch, rather than going to play something else with other kids. I felt like by this happening each day, it was taking away his love for the game of soccer. He wasn't the type of kid to go to the teacher and tell on the kids who were making fun of him. In this situation, he had no power at all because of him being outnumbered and not willing to stand up for himself. All the power was in the hands of the kids who would pick teams, laugh at him and make jokes about him. Even though he wasn't the best person physically to choose on your team, he knew more about soccer than all of us combined probably. The situation only existed in the first place because nobody wanted to be the one to stop it or say something.

 I remember one day, he asked if he could be a captain and almost everybody started laughing at him. This made me upset because he found the courage to ask if he could and everybody just laughed. After seeing that, i thought to myself that maybe i can do something to change things around. I was a pretty quite kid back then and never really wanted to be a captain because i didn't like being in the spotlight choosing my friends over others. But the day that kid asked to be the captain and everyone laughed, i saw an opportunity. After everybody stopped laughing and they were deciding who would be the captains, i raised my hand. Some were shocked to see me do that but i had a good relationship with almost everyone so they weren't going to shut me down. As i started to pick my team, i choose some of my closest friends first and then very shortly after, i choose the kid who would be bullied and picked last all the time. I could see his eyes open really wide and shocked he was being picked in a position that wasn't last. Other kids looked at me in shock and confusion as to why i did that and i didn't say anything or do anything. I just acted like it was a normal pick. We would end up loosing that day of recess and kids came up to me saying things like "why did you pick him", "We lost because he was on our team", and "How could you choose him over me". I would just ignore them and laugh a little because i knew what i was doing and others didn't see it. As the next couple of weeks went by, i would try and become the captain each time i could. Some days i wasn't able to because they wanted new people and those days he was chosen last again and again. Everyday i was a captain, i made sure to pick him pretty early because i knew it was going to make his day. 

Bullying

When I played softball in high school, there were many cliques within the team. A lot of who belonged to which clique depended on how the coach felt about you at the time because, aside from skill, playing time mainly came from who could shove their head up the coaches butt the most. The reason that it all started is because high school girls can be cruel; but, even more so when placed in a competitive setting.  I was never one of the favorites and most of the things that were said about me didn't phase me. There was another girl who also only fit in from time to time and she one of our main pitchers, who was not the average "body type" of a pitcher and she was often made fun of for not being able to run as fast as the others and unless she was on a hot streak on pitching well, she was often made fun of. A lot for the time it didn't affect her unless she was also not having a good day; but then the other girls on the team would take it further and would rarely console her. "you shouldn't do that." "You need to toughen up."
"you should feel that way." there were more things said about her, than promotion of her, even when she was doing well, even knowing that almost all of the rest of us on the team could not do what she did and throw the ball the way that she did.
I did not join into the banter that the other girls on the team would say about her; but sadly, I did not say anything against them or stop them from saying what they said.
I didn't end out my senior year of high school on the team due to a knee injury, but from the couple of real friends I had on the team would tell me that the cycle never ended.
Some of the cliques and negative speech didn't end until 2 of the coaches left.

Bullying in Sports

The locker room is the heart of high school sports, its where the drama happens, the tea is spilled, team bonding occurs, and  it is an unique environment that stems off of the world of sport. The locker room is a key aspect of the world of basketball, its where the team gets ready together and hyped up for games and it is also gossip central. During my freshman year of basketball, we, the freshman team, were all hanging out in the locker room either before or after practice and the gossip started up. This one girl, Emily, got everyone's attention and showed the group a comparison picture of one of my closest friends, Kaelyn, and her brother, which is who Emily was dating at the time, and was questioning how the same parents could have made such an attractive son and then have 'that'. Emily was bullying my friend behind her back on the basis that Kaelyn does not look like the stereotypical 'it look' of an attractive high school girl. Emily probably did not know it at the time, and neither did I, that she was imposing the "fit look" mold that is forced onto every female athlete through society as Shultz discusses in her books. Emily was degrading Kaelyn solely based on her looks. During Emily's mockery of Kaelyn I sat there quietly while one of my closest friends was bullied behind her back. At the time I was a small freshman with low self-esteem, confronting issues, and was terrible at standing up for people and even myself. Emily was one of the popular, it girls of my class and I did not have enough confidence to stand up to her in front of the whole freshman basketball team to defend my friend. I still regret not standing up for her then. Within this incidence the imbalance of power was in Emily's favor, in high school the popular kids always had the advantage with social power compared to someone who was not popular. My friend's power was being chipped away before my eyes and I did not have enough power within myself to stand up to someone with greater power. If I would have spoken out and told her to stop making fun of my friend she might have and I could have saved my friend from more of Emily talking sh*t behind her back. Later, I did tell Kaelyn what happened so she would know the type of person Emily is, so she can prepare or guard herself from Emily's hurtful stabs. The feeling of disappointment in myself for not being strong enough to defend one of my closets friends to this day still haunts me and the next time one of my friends is being mistreated, mocked, or anything that stems from bullying, I will not just sit there quietly and listen to it.