If you didn't know, October was Bully Prevention Month. I wrote a guest post for the Anti-Bully Project a few days ago, titled Keeping Our Kids Free From the Collective Mind. It can be read here. There have been guest posts all month to raise awareness about bullying and to help put an end to it.
Along with my post (and many others), authors have donated items to give away. I'm donating a copy of my forthcoming book, Dissected and a swag pack. If you follow the above link, you can also find out how to enter the contest.
If you've been bullied and are looking for help, visit the resource page at the Anti-Bully Project for a list of website that want to help.
If you want to find out how to do your part in the fight against bullying, you can visit:
She's all over cyberspace, so I'm sure you've already heard her story, if not, here's a video she made one month before her suicide. You should really watch it in its entirety. It's a tragic and haunting look at how bullying can destroy a life. She was only fifteen.
I don't even care what she did. People make mistakes. We all have. It doesn't give anyone the right to humiliate, stalk, and terrorize someone to the point that they become depressed, harm themselves and think their only way out of it is to die.
Perhaps the most troubling thing about this, she's continuing to be bullied in death. People are posting horrible memes. They calling her names, even on the dedication pages made in her honor. They're making fun of her tragic situation. It's cruel and inhuman.
We need to do whatever we can to put an end to this. Bullying is a pandemic and as it did with Amanda it can have a deadly effect.
What can we do? Make bullying illegal. Other than that, I don't know. Here's a start: the Stop Bullying Website. Also, here's a petition to arrest the cyberstalker. Officials have received an anonymous tip about his whereabouts and the fact that he's a 30 year old, which makes him a pedophile as well.
Let's not let Amanda die in vain. Make a stand. Do something.
If I get any negative or nasty remarks on this post, I will delete them and perhaps even report them.
Today is Unity Day. What is Unity Day you ask? It's a call to action to "Make it orange, make it end, and unite against bullying
." Those in support wear orange to unite and send a message to anyone being bullied to show them that they're not alone. Most of us have been bullied at some point in our lives and we're making a stand against it. I think it's also sending a message to bullies that we're standing up to them, together.
Ellen Degeneres is a big Unity Day proponent and wears orange in support. To find out more about Unity Day and to find great ideas to promote Unity Day visit the Pacer National Bully Prevention Center website.
