In a hot, doughnut and coffee filled room of ninth graders Hannah Freeman, a guest speaker from the Reach program stood at the front, “Have any of you been bullied?” she asked.

“My brother calls me fat, constantly,” said a clearly not fat freshman boy. This type of bullying, according to Freeman, would be caused by the bully’s insecurities being funneled into aggression towards other people.

This was at the “Coffee talk with your Counselors” meeting that counselors at Grand Blanc set up to allow for more interaction with students. With only a few parents and the freshman “pack leaders” in attendance, Hannah Freeman talked about the many different types of bullying, the impact of bullying, and what to do if you or someone you know was being bullied.

Freeman says she still regrets picking on her sister about her weight in high school, although she acknowledged that this is just what sisters do, she also told us her sister, who is now 3 to 4 inches taller than she and weighs less still has problems with her weight. “ No matter how skinny she gets she wont be happy.”

Freeman even said that some types of bullying are against the law. She gave examples like making fun of mentally disabled people, people with speech problems, and even people with glasses. While it’s unlikely you could go to jail for this you could definitely be sued.
Freeman challenged the freshman to not gossip or talk bad about someone for one week and see what they thought of it. She said if their whole class stopped picking on each other in 2 to 3 years the school would be a completely different setting.

They all learned how just because some people are different doesn’t mean they’re and that everyone should get equal treatment.

And with that being said, to wrap the meeting up one of the counselors stood and said to the room “Now you can have doughnuts, but there probably won’t be enough for everybody.”