I read this story about a third grader in New Jersey. Teacher filmed her without consent. Passed the video around to make fun of her learning disability. A grown adult did that.
I felt sick.
We love to say bullying builds character. It doesn’t. It builds fear. It builds silence. It builds the habit of making yourself smaller so other people don’t have to feel uncomfortable.
The same lie we hand kids shows up at work. We call it "Culture.” “Fit.” “Professionalism.”
If nobody calls it out early, the people who mock you grow up thinking it’s leadership.
I asked a professor once for an accommodation. He asked how my “disease” was doing. Out loud. In front of thirty classmates. Cerebral palsy isn’t a disease. I still remember every second of that silence.
Now I’m an adult and people still film me with my Canine Companions® Lovey. They don’t ask. They snap a photo or record, smile, and walk away.
Once it’s online, I lose control. That’s the part nobody thinks about.
The story hit me because it’s all connected.
We’re told to be calm when our rights are debated. Smile through it. Stay professional. Because if we get angry, we’re “too emotional.” If we stay quiet, we’re “not assertive enough.”
We don’t need more awareness months. We need decency.
Teach kids empathy now, and maybe one day the workplace won’t look so much like the classroom.