Anti-bullying activist reaches out to youth

Author and anti-bullying activist Jodee Blanco says the question most victims of bullying ask themselves is “What’s wrong with me?” Blanco, who has toured the world, reaching out to parents, students and teachers was in T&T last week at the invitation of the Ministry of Education as part of an initiative to tackle violence in the nation’s schools. The activist visited several schools and spoke at the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Port-of-Spain, on the effects bullying had on her life. She also gave advice to parents whose children may be victims of bullying. The 48-year-old American said that from the ages of 11 to 18 she had been bullied by other students at her school. “I was the kid that no one wanted to hang out with. I was the one who cried at home because every school year was a nightmare for me,” Blanco said. Despite her outward confidence, Blanco said she would never be the secure person she could have been because of how her classmates treated her. She told of the sometimes violent nature of the bullies who picked on her. At one time, she said, two boys held her down while a girl shoved snow into her mouth. At another time a dissected baby pig was flung at her face. “I always wondered what’s wrong with me? Why everyone was laughing at me? It is a question I asked most of my life,” said Blanco. She cautioned that if the problem of bullying wasn’t taken care of, every year society would be sending wounded people into the world. She said there were two types of bullying—one in which the student was overtly bullied and the other where the student seemed invisible and no one would talk to them. Blanco said her bullying ended when she went to college and became a successful  woman, working in the White House at the age of 23. Even so, she said, her emotional wounds ran deep. Blanco is the author of two books, Please Stop Laughing at Me and Please Stop Laughing at us.