A widespread issue

by J. Patrick Reilly

One of the things I do when I get a chance is judge different categories of writing and advertising from other newspaper associations throughout the US.  This past week I did different entries from Kentucky.

As always some of the stories stick with me more than others.  The ones that hit me the hardest was the coverage among young people in the schools.  One of the bullying stories talked about a death by suicide of a very nice person who was bullied constantly.

We often hear about issues in our local schools of the same thing going on.  It is gut wrenching to hear how cruel some people can be.

What happens to those who bully when they reach adulthood?  More than likely the bullying does not stop but hopefully adults who are victims have the skills to cope and can use the proper channels to make it go away.

The fact is that kids don’t have that ability very often.  If they can’t defend themselves or someone does not step in to help, they will reman the victim and the results will not be pretty.

We need to be open abut the bullying and if we see it happening, we need to help make it stop.

Lives are precious and should not be ended by those who enjoy bullying others.