Viewpoint 39-4: Ten years--a look back at bullying.

• Author: Frenette, Rob

What were you doing in 2005? I can easily recall what I was trying to accomplish. I was a grade 9 student at Bathurst High School at the time, trying to get the courage to do something that no one ever thought I would do--come forward as a sixteen-year-old teenager who endured years of bullying. Come forward to try to accomplish one task, prevent bullying by the year 2008; the year I graduated from High School. The year that, at the time, I was hoping would be enough to prevent one more kid from being silenced about the pain, the thoughts, the abuse they were enduring. The same thoughts, abuse, and the pain I was enduring.

I was kicked, burnt, spit on, called names because of the way I walked--a name that that unfortunately I will remember for the rest of my life.

Prior to going public, I wrote an anonymous letter to the editor of my local newspaper The Northern Light. That letter turned into a column written by the editor of the paper at the time. His column was entitled "Even in so-called enlightened times, bullying is still a problem". That headline spoke volumes to me, and it still does today, but for a different reason.

I can clearly remember the nightmares, the night sweats, the headaches, not being able to do my homework because I had to pay more attention to: was I going to get thrown down the stairs? Tripped? Shoved? Kicked? How could I concentrate on learning while trying to prevent another sleepless night? I remember two students who I went to school with, two girls who were sisters who publicly never got identified, and how they burned the back of my neck on the way to school, and how unfortunately, no punishment could be handed out because a) no one would say a word on what they witnessed in fear that they would be the next target and b) the location the bullying happened--on a school bus. The bus driver didn't see the incident happen and the bus did not have a camera.

In ten years, bullying has changed dramatically. The forms of bullying have changed, the way bullying is reported has changed, the way schools handle bullying has changed too and most importantly youth hopefully know they now have a voice, and...