TEDxNextGenerationAshville 2010: Bullying Prevention by Martel Jackson & Andrea Griffin
Geschreven op 6-10-2010 - Erik van Erne. Geplaatst in Gezondheid
Andrea Griffin is a senior at Asheville High School in the SILSA program. She recently won an essay contest on defining leadership at a Leadership Conference hosted by UNC-Asheville. Andrea recognizes that she is a leader. Every day she tries to allow her actions to inspire her peers to dream more, become more, and learn more.
As a college-bound student planning for a career in nursing, Andrea has a firm belief that “knowledge is power.” She intends to be the first person in her household to go to college. Her dedication to being a successful person is driven by her desire to be a positive example to her younger siblings and to make her family proud. Andrea became passionate about bullying prevention after experiencing firsthand the effect of being verbally bullied and then being in a physical conflict. As a college-bound student, altercations at school were significantly troubling and at times caused her to lose her desire to go to school. As she began to address this issue, she found that teachers, counselors, and her principal were unable to help her. Feeling alone, she found ways to be strong even when some of her peers viewed her as being scared and defeated. She avoided the threats, took different routes to class, and sat at different tables at lunch. Andrea recognizes how much energy it takes to deal with being bullied. By talking about this issue, she feels she is standing up for those students who feel victimized by bullies and feel that they aren’t strong enough deal with this problem themselves.
Martel Jackson has encountered many challenges during her 17 years of life. One of those giants has been bullies. Her first conflict with a bully occurred when she was 8 years-old. It was a messy experience and spawned a deep fear that took root within her. As her years accumulated and she experienced more intimidation from bullies, her fear changed to anger towards anyone who might take advantage of her. She adopted the mind-set that fighting back was the only way to escape these unwanted experiences, only to discover that fighting sometimes made things worse. Martel recognizes that the issue of bullying is a giant with which most people are never able to declare a victory. She feels it is her responsibility to give a voice to all individuals who are raped of their confidence and experience bullying in their lives. Martel recognizes that bullying has plagued our society for years and she believes that our school systems have implemented little to effectively address this important issue. She wants to share her ideas about what can be done to solve this pervasive problem.
