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More students call for help against bullies

I'm sure many people have been victims of bully cases before. Bullying does not only mean physical abuse. Bullying comes in many forms - extortion, threatening, physical abuse, cyber bullying etc, all of which leads to a main point, which is to assert one's authority. The rate of bully cases in Singapore has gone up by approximately 47% in the previous year. Such cases were that of a boy being beaten up on his birthday and another, of a girl being slapped, stripped and filmed by her schoolmates. Bullies usually target their peers who are of a smaller build. They also tend to attack their prey in secluded places, alongside fellow bullies.
Now, why would somebody want to bully others? Perhaps the most important reason is that they want to assert their authority to show that they are "bigger" and stronger than others. They put on a front so as to make others fear them, but deep within themselves, they too, are afraid of those who are bigger and tougher than they are. Have you ever realised, as I mentioned earlier, bullies like to prey on those smaller than they are? If they were spoiling for a fight, why wouldn't they approach someone of their own size rather than someone whom they know they can easily defeat? This is largely due to the fact that they have low self-esteem or are lacking in self-confidence and need to boost their ego by picking on somebody to trample over.
Furthermore, although many people get bullied constantly, they seldom or never do speak about it, which makes it hard for someone to help because they would not know what had happened. I believe that the main reason for not speaking up is that they too, have their pride. They could well be thinking “Would my friends think that I’m a weakling if I told them that I was bullied?” Another possible reason could be that they are afraid to anger the bullies by bringing up these matters to a higher authority.
Anyhow, keeping matters to themselves and not speaking up about such cases could lead to undesirable consequences. Bottling up that anger within oneself, could result in mental outbreak. They might contemplate suicide, or worse still harm those around them, just like the Virginia Tech massacre that happened not too long ago.
However, have you ever noticed that most of the bully cases brought up were by the victims themselves and not by their peers? Well, it could be that most victims did not want their friends to talk about it, or that their friends or any passer-by simply could not summon that courage to stand up for the victim lest they get victimized too. Thus I feel that it is a test of one’s moral courage to be able to stand up for their weaker peers. I’m certain that most of us have been guilty of turning a blind eye to bully cases that we are aware of.
What goes around comes around, remember?