I do not understand how parents can see pictures of kids like Ashlynn Conner and still say “kids are just being kids.” How can any parent not imagine what it would be like to never hold their own child again, over something that could–and should–have been stopped a hundred times over?
Taunt. Bully. Beat. Molest.
Ugly words for uglier actions, all inspired by the same beast: want of power.
These words aren’t just words for me. They’re images and memories, heartbreak and resolve.
When I hear the word “bullying,” I think of the parents who told my mom she was a horrible mom, comfortably and confidently in the vicinity of me and their own children.
When their children taunted and belittled in turn, it was hardly surprising. Like parent, like child.
It was clear to me that it boiled down to power. “Power” was being able to do these horrible things and just call it the natural order of things.
Someday, I vowed, I would be so powerful no one would dare try establishing dominion over me by coercion or cruelty.
I was in sixth grade the last time I was bullied by anyone who knew me.
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