There's an App for that!

Believe it or not someone came up with an app that let's kids report bullying anonymously. YES! Now we can finally say there's an app for everything! Here is the article all about it.

The purpose behind this app, Stop!t is a great one and I can only hope schools across the country will see this as a valuable tool that will help kids growing in a more stable and healthy school environment. Telling someone is half the battle of getting these bullies to stop. The way the internet is progressing and technology booming, if we don't take measures to put an end to this, we will have more kids living in turmoil.

I love the fact that the founder, Todd Schobel, is already thinking about expanding upon his original idea and offering the same concept to the military and workplaces. This is definitely an app everyone should have! Can't wait to see this in action. I seriously hope that administrators and schools will take this app seriously and provide the funds so that they can experience kids' having a great time at school instead of dreading it.

Back in highschool, I still remember not wanting to go to school because I knew the people I had to face. There was always going to be a new name to call me or make fun of me for. I couldn't escape it. If I had the Stop!t App, I might have been able to record what these kids were doing. If cyberbullying were apart of my world growing up, I honestly have no idea how I'd stand it. At least when I went home, I was safe. Nowadays, no one is safe because we have social media everywhere. This app will definitely change things.

--Ruth Jackson

Bullies on the Big Screen

Boy is it COLD outside!!! I just want to snuggle underneath a blanket and watch a movie. Speaking of which, I've noticed many of the movies I have come to love and watch over and over again have a character that's a bully. Honestly, I didn't really think about it before. Bullies seem to appear in most movies set in a school or surround the life of a young person usually under 18. In High School Musical, there's Sharpay. In 17 Again, there's Stan. In 13 going on 30, there's Lucy. In Despicable Me, there's Gru, Miss Hattie and Despicable Me 2, you have El Macho. In Back to the Future there's Biff. Watching each character taunt, humiliate or utterly destroy someone's confidence/self esteem makes my heart just plummet.

I wanted to bring this to attention because there's a lesson to be learned. Now, I realize these are fiction films, but nevertheless these things happen in real life. I still remember watching the movie, Cyberbully, and having a million emotions go through me. What I went through was nothing compared to what Taylor was feeling. Regardless, no one has any right to treat someone else like dirt. Not a single person. I'm sure many of us have felt similar maybe even wished we weren't alive, but there is something to be said about staying strong and fighting the fight. The key for me to keep myself from falling into believing the lies fed to me from bullies is to remind myself daily that Ruth Jackson is in fact a one-of-a-kind human being and nothing can bring me down!

Here is a list of movies with bullies in them. Some of them I haven't seen yet, but I plan to! Think about what these characters are doing. If you realize you've been doing the same thing, make a change. If you see a classmate being cornered, be their "hero." Sometimes it's scary whether you are being bullied or standing up for someone else, but it's the right thing to do. Be the person others can look up to.

--Ruth Jackson