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UNIT 6
LESSON 3: BACK OFF!! by readworks
A girl stands up to bullies.
Ziainey (zee-AHN-ee) Stokes knows what it’s like to be bullied. Kids have called her names. They’ve made fun of her clothes. One classmate even stole her lunch.
“Sometimes I was scared,” the student from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, told WR News. “I was confused because I never did anything to them.”
The 11-year-old isn’t afraid anymore. In fact, now she’s leading a movement to get rid of bullying for good. And she has one of the world’s most powerful people on her side—former U.S. President Barack Obama.
Ziainey wrote the president for advice last January. To her surprise, Obama wrote back! “He said he is working hard to give schools the resources to stop bullying,” she says.
The president’s letter gave Ziainey Stokes an idea. The president’s letter inspired her to start an anti-bullying group. To inspire is to move someone to do something. The group is called No Child Should Be Bullied. Its purpose is to talk to kids about bullying.
The mean acts are a major, or big, problem, experts say. About one in seven U.S. kids is bullied or bullies someone else. That’s according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Bullying victims can feel upset and lonely. A victim is someone who is hurt by somebody else. Mean acts can even make some kids sick.
The best way to help a bullying victim is to be kind, says Stan Davis. He studies bullying. “If you see someone sitting alone at lunch and you go sit with them, that might be the most powerful thing anyone can do.”
Words
back off
to stand up to
bullies (bully)
to be bullied
to call names
scared
confused
to lead
movement
to get rid of
for good
on her side
advice
resources
to inspire
to move
purpose
mean
acts
according to
Education
victims
upset
kind
might
