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John Wilkey, a married man with six kids never told anybody much about his high school

experience. More specifically, he never told anybody about the first six months of his sophomore

year in high school. John Wilkey told his story about getting bullied for the first time. Nobody

really knows about his experience of getting bullied and how that affected him physically and

emotionally.

John went to Granger High School and had gym first period. He walked in on the first

day of school, expecting it to be a normal high school day. However, that all changed when he

had to get in the shower after gym. When John was in High School, everybody would get in the

shower after gym class. While he was showering, a man by the name of David took his clothes

and locked them in his locker. After he finished showering, he wasn’t able to find his clothes. He

started to run around panicking, but then he finally found them in his locker next to David’s. My

dad was late to his next class because of this encounter and he swore that he would never tell

anybody about it because he was too embarrassed to.

John Wilkey went to school the next day and the same thing happened. Along with taking

and hiding his clothes, David would call my dad names and would make fun of him. This

happened every gym period and it lasted the whole semester. He kept his promise to himself and

never told anybody about it until recently. Although he jokes about his experience getting bullied

now, it still pains him thinking about it.

Bullying is just one part of the social issue I am discussing. It is just one type of school

violence that occurs all around us. The CDC states, “School violence is youth violence that

occurs on school property, on the way to or from school or school-sponsored events, or during a
school sponsored event.” School violence is any hurtful act that happens on school property or

on the way to or from school property. These hurtful acts can affect someone physically and

emotionally.

The solution to school violence is creating positive school climates. Reece Peterson and

Russell Skiba talk about the impact of school climates in their report, “Creating School Climates

That Prevent School Violence.” They talk about the three components of preventing school

violence and creating a better school climate. The three components they talk about are

prevention, identification and intervention, and effective responses. They talk about how we

need to implement prevention measures to create a safer school climate. Then, they talk about

how we need to identify the students that struggle with causing school violence or struggle

because they have been affected by school violence. Last, they talk about responding to school

violence and punishing those who were apart of it and helping those who were affected by it. My

dad agreed with these methods and he said that he felt better once the situation was taken care of.

He said that he was able to go back to being a normal high school student after administration

punished David.

Schools have started implementing methods to prevent school violence and schools have

become safer because of this. The 74 million states, “In 1993, 16 percent of students reported

being in a physical fight over the course of a year. By 2015, that percentage dropped to 8

percent.” Schools are becoming safer, although there is still an issue with school violence.

Students are still being impacted physically and emotionally because of school violence. John

was affected because of school violence and he is still affected by it today.

 John was negatively affected by school violence, but he was still able to overcome what

he went through with the help of friends and family. Because my John’s friends and family were

there for him, he was able to move on with his life and become the great man, husband, and

father that he is today. School violence isn’t always noticeable on the outside, but that doesn’t

mean that people don’t go through it. People everywhere make assumptions about what people

are going through, but most of the time their assumptions are inaccurate. School violence isn’t

always noticeable, but it can be treated.

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