I am focusing on speaking up as my theme. Young men and women need to be encouraged to speak up anytime something does not feel right. Whether they reach out to their parents, friends, a trusted adult, or a sibling they need to know that they will be safe. A lot of times kids don’t say anything because they are afraid the person who did the crime will bully them even worse. In the case of rape, it probably makes the person who got raped feel like they deserved it and question whether or not they did anything wrong. I have been bullied before and had to tell my mom what happened to me. The bullying did stop but I feel like I was lucky, in some instances it can lead to worse bullying. Some kids get bullied so badly that they get depressed and commit suicide. There are signs that parents can watch out for to know if their kids are being bullied. Signs like not wanting to go to school anymore, depression, wanting to be in their room all the time, not talking to friends, having an attitude, and grades getting bad. It’s really hard to tell kids to do something when they think everyone is going to judge them. It makes a parent’s job harder. Bullies sometimes don’t realize how bad their behavior is or how harmful it is to other kids. They think they are entitled to treat other people like that because they lack empathy. I referred to www.stompoutbullying.com for my information.