Bystander Behavior

BYSTANDER BEHAVIOR

At the beginning of senior year during lunch my friends and I would always notice this girl named Anna eating by herself, so one day my friend I invited her to sit with us. Little did we know she was very different than all of us and she believed everything we told her. As the semester progressed people at the table would not necessarily be mean to her but would make jokes and comments about her while she was sitting at the other end of the table. It was my idea to invite her to sit with us but it was not my intentions for her to be the center of our conversation everyday at lunch. Before the semester was over she stopped sitting with us and we never really saw her or ran into her again. I should of stuck up for her more because after all I was the one who asked her to sit with us.

Well I wish a bystander would have stepped in to help Anna from my lunch. Everyone in the cafeteria knew she sat with us and knew that our table made fun of her but not one person the entire semester came up to us and said anything. Even teachers and assistant principles who monitored the lunch knew about what our intentions were and they never stepped in either. The poor girl did not have any friends and no one ever took the opportunity to really get to know her, to ask her about her personal and home life. Everyone in that lunch room was pretty naive, even myself and some of my closet friends.

College students do not speak up to wrong doing simple because they do not want to stand out. They see someone who needs help but they ask themselves is it really their place to step in? Shouldn't someone closer to that person step in and help them. I believe most college students mainly are afraid of embarrassment, they are almost ashamed to help some they do not know, let alone someone they will most likely never see again.