By Joshua Bonello

Published Sunday, 18th of March,

2012

Why Him?

“I can’t wait to go to school today” said Jim as he was happily

packing his bag while sweat was slowly dripping down his face

from the hot sun outside.

Jim was a friendly, caring and responsible brown haired boy in

year six. His mum asked in a confused way,

“Why are you

so excited…?”

Jim replied in a deep voice “BECAUSE I AM SCHOOL CAPTAIN

MUM, DON’T YOU REMEMBER?”

His mum answered “Oh, Umm, yes of course I remember”

Usually Jim wouldn’t be as excited as

this, but today he gets to raise the flag up

in front of the whole school at

assembly.

He is so excited his face is

as red as a tomato that has just

been washed with water.

Jim walked to school very enthusiastically for the day ahead.

Once Jim arrived at school, he went and played with his

friends. He noticed that there was a new guy at school. He saw

that there were people around talking to him. Jim was curious

to find out what they were saying, so he tried to creep closer

to them without them realising what he was doing.

Once Jim was close

enough to hear what

they were saying his

excitement to do the

flag was taken away.

To Jims surprise they were BULLYING him. The new guy was

called Zambi.

He was being bullied because he had dark

skin.

Jim felt sorry for Zambi and Jim knew he

had to do something about it

Jim went home that afternoon very

sad as a tear dropped to the floor from

his face.

He talked about Zambi while he was eating dinner with his

parents, but all they said was

“You’re in year six

now and you have

to figure out what

the right thing to

do is.”

He didn’t have a clue of what to do. He sat up in his bed the

majority of the night thinking of what to do until he finally fell

asleep.

He was tired in the morning but he

knew what to do which was good.

He tried telling them to stop but

that idea that he thought of all

night didn’t even work

.

Jim said to himself, “What am I going to do?”

The next morning he woke up at

5:30 to make big posters about

NOT BULLYING. He put them up

around the school but as he walked

passed one of his posters that

afternoon he saw that it was

ripped and torn to pieces on the

ground to fly away in the light

breeze.

Once again, this idea didn’t work.

Jim went over to Zambi and asked if he was alright and Zambi

said “No actually I am being bullied.” And Jim responded

saying “I know.” Zambi then said “Is there any speech or any

talk you can do to stop bullying?”

Luckily there was.

Jim that day went home and changed the speech for the next

assembly from littering to bullying and based it on Zambi.

The next day at school, Jim was preparing for the speech and

he saw out of the corner of his eye people bullying Zambi once

again, so he went over and listened so he could get a better

idea of what to do for his speech. While Jim was walking home

that afternoon, he was listening to his iPod.

He was listening to “WHERE IS THE LOVE” by “THE BLACK EYED

PEAS ‘and put quotes from the song in his speech like

“If you only have love for your own

race, there is only room left to

discriminate,

and to discriminate only generates

hate

and if you hate you’re bound to get

irate.

Jim made his speech. He was very nervous and was shaking

like a dog waiting for food. After he finished he knew it had a

good outcome because the speech and the messages in the

speech reached out to the people and made a difference. Jim

was relieved because that lunch he saw that people were over

talking to Zambi and they weren’t bullying him.

“All the people that bullied Zambi said sorry to him and

realised he was actually quite nice and friendly, but they didn’t

know that

because they

judged him

before they got

to know him.”

said Jim happily

to one of his

friends.

After school Jim was thanked

by the principal for such a

powerful and meaningful

speech.

As Jim walked home that day he wondered why they were

bullying him because of his skin. Jim went home to tell his

parents that night everything that happened that day. He

went to bed still thinking about why Zambi was judged until

he was asleep

WHY DO YOU THINK ZAMBI WAS JUDGED BEFORE ANYONE

KNEW HIM…?

????

??