“Why are you so mean? I know that you don’t have the greatest life at home, but that isn’t any reason to put other people down. Does it really make you feel better about yourself?” Those were my last words I spoke to a current high school.

A classmate would make fun of someone else or tell a story of he and his friends did. He would use disrespectful, demeaning, and profane words to talk about people that were different than him. Anyone that didn;t know the answer to a question was considered dumb. Any girl wearing shorts or a low cut shirt was deemed “easy”. The teachers that were trying to keep him on task were tagged as dictators. And after hearing the constant slander day after day, I had enough.

After I confronted him, he sat there quiet and baffled. He then tried to piece together words that showed what I said had no effect on him -- but he just couldn’t spit it out. For the rest of the class period, he sat there silently.

It’s five months later, and although he stopped talking to me, I still see him in the hallways. I have not heard him say things nearly as malicious as he used to. In fact, I’ve heard him give compliments to people. I’ll don’t know for sure if it were my words that caused that change, or if something else happened to cause him to be considerate of others, but I like to think it’s both.

It only takes a moment of courage to stand up to a bully, and I’m glad our school encourages it’s students to do so by having an environment that reinforces positive attitudes towards others.

A beneficial action my school is taking to prevent bullying is having one of the guidance counselors talk to us about what we can do to stop bullying. She told us that not only does comforting the victim make a difference, but so does using your voice. “Be a voice, not an echo,” words that I will always live by.