They all went home after school and locked themselves in their bedrooms where they were “safe” from the chaos of the hallways and the pressure to fit in.

We hear time and time again: “In a world where you can be anything, be yourself.” But, what if your self isn’t good enough? Or perhaps it is, but someone made you believe otherwise?

Lucky for us, bullying isn’t a big problem here at Pentucket Regional High School, but that does not mean it does not exist. We just don’t see it in our hallways.

However, after asking Mr. Evans, principal here at Pentucket, how much time he spends on bullying, he stated that, “I spend more time dealing with bullying outside of school and on social media sites than I do in school.”

After speaking to numerous people and asking them about their experiences with bullying, the following are the stories that were personally shared with me. Because bullying stories are so personal and possibly embarrassing to many people, none of them are current or are from attending Pentucket students.

“I walked down the halls with my head down, because I was afraid to see how many kids were laughing at me because I was “different.” – Maddie Teague

Having different colored hair, being gay, dressing differently, and so forth should not give a person the right to form a negative opinion about someone.

“They called me all sorts of names and told me that I was never going to become something and I started to believe it, they convinced me that doing drugs and being a scumbag was all I was ever going to be.” – Kayla Brown

Words hurt more physical pain, because when someone punches you, you get a bruise and it eventually fades. But when someone regularly puts you down or tells you that you’re not good enough, it can haunt you forever.  It may motivate a person to prove the individual wrong, but they will never forget the person who convinced them they would never succeed or be good enough.

“They followed me home after school and knocked my books out of my hands and taunted me with their harsh words that kept replaying in my head until one day I just snapped.” –Keith Harris

People can only take so much before they snap and hurt him/herself or someone else. That’s why it’s so important to speak up because no one can help you if nobody knows what’s going on.”

Janet Mallard, Pentucket guidance counselor, goes on to say: “Once a student is able to say, ‘I need help’, we are able to work with all the different supports in their life to solve the problem”

The most unfortunate part of the bullying phenomenon is that it could be more or less solved by something most commonly learned in kindergarten: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.”