Last night we watched Chronicles, the whole family.
It’s a fine movie, the kids loved it.(spoiler alert) A teen aged boy is bullied and bullied, at home and at school. Then he and a couple of buddies get telekinetic powers and the fun begins. Think Carrie with a modern look and no pig blood.
In a perfect world all the bullied kids would turn into compassionate bully counselors who help make the world and schools a better place. But we all know that’s not how it really is.
Well, the bullied kid in the movie, seems sweet enough, but he turns into an absolute jerk and then he morphs into a monster. He’s been bullied and instead of being a kid with super powers who is understanding and heroic, he’s bitter and brutal.
He wants to kill everybody because he’s more powerful.
The truth is, sometimes victims don’t turn into the compassionate citizens. Sometimes, victims become horrible people. So the movie, Chronicles, was a cautionary tale. Victims who have been squashed, want to squish everybody else.
But that doesn’t excuse their behaviour.
Girl bullies are the worst because it’s emotional and cruel. If you’re a boy that’s getting bullied, it’s easier to stand up and overcome the physical abuse.
But Girls….they are wicked. Mary was bullied as a little girl, in elementary school. And now she is a hero for the under-represented. She lives to serve up justice like a juicy steak. She wants to help those who are beat down and if she gets to beat down the bullies that makes her day even better. She’s bold, beautiful, exceptionally opinionated and pretty judgemental….in a brilliant super hero sort of way. Mary is now an “empowered, gorgeous, used- to- be- bullied girl” Most of the girls who used to pick on Mary are now unmarried with a couple of kids, working at a C-store. Mary will get her Masters and works at the Clinton Foundation. Justice will be hers.
But she could have gone the other way. She could have become bitter and cruel.
Last year, Sandor realized a squirrelly kid, Jason, was getting bullied in the boy’s bathroom. He was in third grade and didn’t know what to do. We talked the situation over and came up with a plan.(Yes, we told the principal too) When Sandor ran into the problem again all he did was say “Come on, Jason,” the kid followed him out the door. Sandor escorted the boy out of the bathroom like a security detail. It worked.
Sometimes just extracting someone from a bad situation is enough to help. Bullies are cowards, if somebody, even a little boy, stands up, sometimes they back down. I think that’s because bullies actually know what they are doing is wrong.
I’m tired of talking about bullies and I’m sick of their stories and excuses. They are weak and mean and most are pretty stupid too.
Parents, if your kid is a bully, you probably know it already. Do something about it.