A Story About Bravery from My Life

At my old school, school had begun over a month ago, when a new girl came. She didn’t know how things worked, because she was home schooled, and no one was really willing to teach her the things that were different. No one wanted to be associated with the “new girl”. She was really struggling to learn things, because the person who was supposed to show her around didn’t tell her anything. Everyone thought it was hilarious when she made a mistake or did the wrong thing. The person who was supposed to show her around, Sammie, claimed that she told the new girl, Anne, everything that she needed to know. After lunch, people surrounded her every day for about a month. The teachers thought they were just talking, but they were actually teasing her and snickering about the mistakes she made. It happened every day. My friends and I felt really bad every time they did this, but none of us did anything. We felt that if we ruined the other people’s fun, they would probably start doing what they did to Anne to us. Therefore, my friends and I didn’t do anything to help Anne.

A girl who didn’t talk to us, Morgan, started to hang out with us a bit after people started to tease Anne. I think she probably felt really bad, and didn’t want to join in. All my friends, Morgan and I talked about stopping it, but we never actually did. We all felt bad, and knew we should do something, but we didn’t.

As the school year went on, the bullies got bolder and started actually hurting Anne. Although people told the teachers when it went too far, they wouldn’t mention any names. They also threatened Anne. They told her that if she told a teacher who would hurt her, then they would hurt her more. While at the beginning, it was only teasing and occasionally a pinch; now it was shoving and hitting. We knew we definitely had to do something, but we still didn’t. Although Anne would walk away from the people hurting her wiping her eyes, we never actually saw her crying. It seemed as if she didn’t want to admit defeat to the bullies, or she didn’t want to let them have the pleasure of seeing her cry. It did not stop. It seemed to almost become normal to walk outside after lunch, and see people crowded around Anne by the fence on the far side of the play ground. Although we hated it, we weren’t willing to stop it. No one was willing to tell a teacher, so the entire thing got bigger, and the bullied bolder.

Once, a bit before spring break, Anne tried to tell a teacher what was happening. A couple people dragged her away telling her to come chat with them. After dragging her away they started to call her names and pinch her for trying to tell a teacher. My friends, Morgan and I got a teacher, but by the time we got one, the other people were gone. Anne had a few bleeding scratches on her arms but she told the teacher she fell into a holly bush. Then, for a few days the people bullying Anne started doing the same to us. However, they stopped after only three days. Every day after this, Anne would go inside with scratches on her arms. She started to bring a coat to cover it up, so the bullies couldn’t blame her for trying to tell a teacher, and then hurt her more.

About a week before school ended, Anne finally cracked. She started to cry in the middle of the circle of people. They laughed at her. Morgan couldn’t take it. So she did what we were all wanting to do, but were too scared to do. She ran in among the people and told them to stop it and go away. I thought she was crazy at the time, because that meant she would end up being bullied as well. Morgan told the teachers who bullied Anne, and then the teachers pulled the leaders of the bullies out and made it so that they couldn’t go outside for the rest of the year. (Which wasn’t much) Now that I look back on it, I find that Morgan was incredibly brave, and did the right thing under pressure. I wouldn’t have been able to do it, and I wouldn’t have done the right thing like Morgan did. If I had heard someone else say this, then I would have been like: That’s stupid; I would have done the right thing. When I was faced under pressure I cracked and was unable to do the right thing.