Animated poem shows life-long effects of bullying


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SALT LAKE CITY — Shane Koyczan grew up being called pork chop at school. The nickname stemmed from his innocent confusion over the meaning of pork chop and karate chop, but it caused years of pain for him.

Now an award-winning poet whose performances include the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, he has published a poem about his experiences with childhood bullying titled "To This Day."

"My experiences with violence in schools still echo throughout my life but standing to face the problem has helped me in immeasurable ways," he said on the "To This Day" project website.

Koyczan's experience is shared by nearly 30 percent of all students, according to the Bullying Statistics website. Further, a new study shows that the effects of bullying last into adulthood of both the bullied and the bully.

The study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, looked at the long-term psychological effects of bullying. It evaluated children at ages 9,11 and 13, then followed up when they were between the ages of 19 and 26.

By the numbers
Bullying and suicide
More than 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide
Nearly 7 percent have attempted it
Bullying victims are between 2 and 9 times more likely to consider suicide
At least half of suicides among young people are related to bullying
10 to 14 year old girls may be at even higher risk for suicide
Nearly 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims of bullying
160,000 kids stay home from school every day because of fear of bullying

Info:bullyingstatistics.org

Of those kids, 5 percent exclusively played the role of the bully, 21 percent were only victims and 4.5 percent were both at some point.

As adults, victims were more likely to suffer from depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, generalized anxiety, panic disorder and agoraphobia.

Kids who had acted as bullies and been victimized were worse off, though. The mental toll on these kids as adults included a greater risk of depression, anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and panic disorder.

In "To This Day," Koyczan gives his personal account of how bullying has changed his life and the lives of his friends.

"I'm not the only kid who grew up this way surrounded by people who used to say that rhyme about sticks and stones as if broken bones hurt more than the names we got called and we got called them all"

In the animated video of the poem, illustrations take the viewer through the poems metaphors and powerful anecdotes from Koyczan's life.

"so broken heart strings bled the blues as we tried to empty ourselves so we would feel nothing don't tell me that hurts less than a broken bone that an ingrown life is something surgeons can cut away that there's no way for it to metastasize"

it does"

Koyczan writes on social media that he wants this message to be shared with others, that they can look for the beauty in the world.

"but our lives will only ever always continue to be a balancing act that has less to do with pain and more to do with beauty."

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Celeste Tholen Rosenlof

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