Lunchroom applause needs to stop

Lunchroom+applause+needs+to+stop

CRASH.

The blood drains from your face.

The whole lunchroom goes silent.

You can feel your face growing hot with embarrassment.

Then they start clapping. Drawing more and more attention to your small, but loud, accident.

Unfortunately, most of the students in this school have either participated in, or witnessed, the clapping that occurs in the lunchroom after someone trips or drops something.

These lunchroom applauses have been occurring since before I was a freshman. However, I do not know when the actual “tradition” of cheering when someone causes a disturbance started.

I have to ask: Why is this okay?

While lunch can be considered “down-time” to students, it is still in a school setting. Our school is a no-tolerance zone for bullying. Publically embarrassing someone is a form of social bullying.

Bullying is not humorous.

Bullying is not worth applauding.

Usually, the people who trip, drop something, or break an item are already red from embarrassment. There is honestly no need to embarrass them further. Why is it so hard to just pretend like it never happened?

Many may argue that they are entitled to say and do whatever they want because they are not physically harming someone else, even though it may hurt or offend someone. While freedom of speech is very important to how we live our lives in this country, bullying is against school rules.

There is nothing to gain from applauding and laughing at a person who has stumbled, but that person could have a mental breakdown because of your “need” to draw more attention to them. That small moment of clapping might last years in their minds.

Before the argument of, “This generation is too coddled, we need more tough love, people need to stop being pansies” is thrown around, place yourself in the shoes of someone suffering from an anxiety disorder. There is a difference between “coddling” and attempting to eradicate an awful problem that has been around for years. There is a difference between someone “being a pansy” and someone unable to take any more of the sheer awfulness people throw at them.

There is a difference between “tough love” and bullying.

Social anxiety is definitely a problem for today’s teens. More than 20 percent of teens suffer from an anxiety disorder. Being in a school setting can extremely exacerbate a student’s anxiety. But, having all eyes on you after you did something already considered to be “embarrassing” is even worse.

This incident could possibly run through the mind of that person all day. I’m all for having fun and making jokes. I’m not, however, fine with someone hating themselves because they made a small mistake.

This “tradition” needs to end.

17aweber@usd489.com