Interview ~ Jonny Avita

1. What is your personal definition of bullying?

My personal definition of bullying is being picked on. It doesn't matter if its from family or friends, or      people at school.  If they're putting you down/making fun of you, or if they're physically hurting you. It's bullying, even if they claim that they were kidding, or they didn't really mean it, if it hurts you, it's bullying.

2.  Have you ever experienced being bullied?

I used to be bullied when I was in elementary school.  It was not a fun time for me at all.  I used to be made fun of all the time, and sometimes it even got physical.

3.  How did being bullied effect you?

I think in the long run, it made me a stronger and better person cause it made me learn how to harden myself and not care so much about what people say, but at the time I was depressed and sad about it.  I didn't understand why people were so mean.  Now I realize that they were just insecure and didn't like themselves, so they took it out on everyone else.

4.  What was the most extreme case of bullying you've ever faced?
     
I was beat up once by 5 guys.  Other than that, it was more of the names and put downs.

5.  How would you personally stop someone from being bullied?

It depends.  If I saw them getting shoved into a locker right in front of me, probably physically.  If I heard someone calling someone names or saying really bad stuff to them, i'd kind of just be like "hey what's your problem?"

6.  What is your over-all opinion on bullying?

Bullying is something that most people end up going through at least once in their lives, and its really unfortunate.  Bullying is something that shouldn't be taken lightly.  It's a serious issue and can end up resulting in some really horrible things.

7.  How do you think we should resolve this issue?

We need to get the word out about this.  Like in schools, we need to have interventions, we need to teach kids from elementary school that it's not okay for them to bully people and that they need to learn how to tell teachers if they hear anyone being bullied right away.

8.  Do you think that cyber-bullying is more "effective" than traditional bullying?

I think that it's another form of bullying that just shouldn't happen.  It's just like, why do people do this to each other?  There's no point to any of this.

9.  If you could give someone who was constantly being bullied advice, what would it be?

Talk to someone about it.  You need to stop being afraid of what other people think or say and talk to someone about it.  But talk to to someone who could actually do something about it.  Telling your friends how you feel is good, but they can't really do anything for you. you have to tell a teacher or someone with the power to do something.

10. What are your opinions on the oppositions?

It's bullying. It's bad, I don't care what they say.