As you walk by the freshman hallway, right in front of Coach BillieAnne Gay’s classroom, you might’ve seen anti-bullying posters. There was a contest for students to create their own anti-bullying poster, and Gay encouraged all her students to participate.

    “I think it was a light-hearted way to get kids thinking about how they treat others (and how they are treated),” Gay said. “Although the contest is over, I love the posters and want to remind kids every day about making good choices.”

    The small poster on her door was created by freshman Synnovea Ashe, who placed in the contest.

    Bullying is a national problem and can be a problem even at Lincoln.        
    According to the School Board Policy on bullying and harassment, bullying means “systematically and chronically inflicting physical hurt or psychological distress on one or more students or employees.” It may involve such actions as teasing, threats, stalking, harassment (sexual, religious, or racial) and public humiliation.

    Deputy Mike Halligan emphasized that bullying is a repeated and an unwanted process.

    Coach David Wilson explained that bullying is not a problem at Lincoln, but there have been times when he and Halligan have had to stop a mess before it got out of hand.

    A freshman, who wishes to be anonymous, said that bullying does exist at Lincoln. This student also said that bullying can’t be stopped because “it’s going to happen regardless.”

    “I feel like it’s immature, it’s childish,” she said. “We’re in high school so grow up.”

    According to news.turner.com, 75-85 percent of students in schools have witnessed bullying.  Halligan mentioned that several times students have helped Student Affairs learn about bullying situations.

    “We usually get about one tip a month about someone bullying someone,” Wilson said.

With the help of students, parents and teachers, Student Affairs can prevent bad situations from progressing into worse ones.

    “Teachers, schools, and anybody else should be more aware and not be scared to tell (about the incident),” freshman Patrick Taylor said.

    Halligan mentioned that more cyber bullying happens than any other bullying. With cyber bullying, he stated that with the help of students, he can access information if a fight, a party or any bullying is going on.

    “Sometimes there are students who come up to either me or Coach Wilson telling us that this person is bullying them online by sending them private messages or making a status directly for them to see,” Halligan said.

    For Wilson and Halligan to receive evidence for cyber bullying, they call the students in to Student Affairs and show them the messages.

    The anonymous freshman believes that teachers should teach their students about bullying because “they need to feel like they have someone safe to come to when being bullied.”

    And teachers do teach their students. For example, Halligan explained that freshmen who have HOPE classes are taught about bullying.

    “It would be really nice to teach 10^th, 11^th and 12^th graders about bullying,” Halligan said.

    He said that teaching the ninth graders about bullying in their HOPE classes is like a memory refresher to what they learned in eighth grade.

    ESE teacher Christen Goad believes that people shouldn’t be afraid to tell the administration when bullying occurs.

    “I would talk to the (bully and the victim) both. I want the student, that is the bully, to realize how hurtful their actions are and how serious it is,” Goad said. “And I want the victim to learn how to stand up for themselves.”

    Goad thinks that ESE kids are the bully victims because they are “different” and they “stand out.”

    “Sometimes they’re an easy target,” she said.

    Bullying is an issue that people could end by standing up, not watching it pass by and not doing anything about it.