10-year-old Braden Blair is a highly intelligent boy who is experiencing vision problems and developmental issues. Inherently, the child tolerates his share of bullying — and has for years. Braden doesn’t want his elementary school to punish those bullying him, however. Alternatively, he’s asking that the bullies get the help it takes to help change their way of thinking, the New York Daily News reports .
One of the most common ways bullying is handled involves some sort of disciplinary action, but Braden opts for a different route to combat a problem almost every school in the nation faces on a daily basis.
KBOI 2 News covers this story about a wise student from Chaparral Elementary School in Meridian, Idaho submitting an idea to his school that will help him and others who torment other kids.
Young Braden says that it can hurt when fellow students poke fun at him. He says he feels like he’s “invisible” sometimes because he doesn’t have many friends and “even the most dumb thing can hurt your feelings.”
Braden Blair wants other kids to understand how it feels to be bullied. He feels with some good information and counseling, maybe people will learn how it can really affect others. Braden’s mother, Kris Drost, agrees. She extols the school’s efforts — saying they do a great job of dealing with bullies.
On Tuesday, the fourth-grader came up with some ideas after coming home on how to deal with bullying. He gave his ideas to the counselors and let them know that he’d like kids who verbally bully other kids to have to discuss it with a teacher or counselor and forget punishing them. Braden says the ones who bully are the ones he thinks need to talk to someone the most.
“People bully other people sometimes because they don’t understand,” Braden says.
The 10-year-old’s mother says when he was in first grade he put up with bullying until the teacher had him sit in front of the classroom and explained his condition to the class. After the teacher educated the class on why Braden was a little bit different, the bullying practically stopped. She says that some of those tormentors even became friends of Braden’s.
Drost adds that school administrators frequently talk about bullying to the entire class instead of confronting a student about his or her actions. This has helped somewhat with the bullying problem, she says.
[Image via KBOI 2 News ]
