Please Read- KIDS ARE DYING

I have been a teacher for 5 years now. Since I have started teaching, bullying is becoming more prominent in schools everywhere. When I was in middle school there were several of my peers who made my life HELL. They called names and made fun of me on a daily basis because they could. Just because I was different, I was singled out and made fun of to the point that I hated to go to school. It just so happened that I moved right before freshman year and since I was strong willed, I could start new. I could become whatever I wanted to be. I just wanted to be myself, Michele Satterlee. So I was, and things changed. I was allowed to be myself. No one judged me for being me. It was the greatest thing that happened in my life.
My point is, bullying is happening in schools EVERYWHERE. Teachers can only do so much in the classroom and educate kids about bullying. What is happening now, is kids are dying, they are committing suicide because they did not have the strength or the will power or the options like I did. They are killing themselves because other people think they are better than they are and they see no reason to live. I am talking elementary students. Several fifth graders have taken their own lives because of bully's. A fifth grader is 10 or 11 years old!!! This should not be happening in our country.

Today I am a successful teacher doing what I set out in life to do. I graduated with honors and is excelling in my teaching career. I have a wonderful full family. A great husband and a home that I can call my own. I am changing lives every day because I show up and care about those kids that might not have someone else or somewhere else to go. I give them a chance to succeed in life and to believe that they can do it. Where are those people that thought it was funny to judge me every day?

I teach my kids and talk about bullying every day. That is only a small portion of it though. I can enforce it in my classroom but I need your help at home. As my friends and parents, please talk to your kids about bullying- both sides of it. Tell them that it is NOT okay to judge other kids or to make fun of them because of who they are. Also talk to them about if they are getting teased because of who they are okay and talk to them about what to do about it. Let's start doing something about it!!!

STOP BULLYING TODAY!

Okay I will get off my soap box now Thank you for caring about our future, our kids.