March 26, 2023 • 58 mins
The schools have gotten worse and we have a couple decades of issues that need to be addressed. This week Will Wilson and I discuss the effects of bullying in our education system and bring up the alarming statistics that people are scared to address. It is time for us to stand up for what is right and demand the change that needs to be taken within our public education system.
This collaboration is important and a step in the right direction to what needs to happen for changes that need to be made. Please listen as we discuss the importance, effects, and overall state of what is going on in our education system. We will have more information to come throughout the week so please keep up with us on our social media platforms for more important information.
Important links:
Article:
https://thisisreno.com/2021/03/the-truth-of-fernley-high-school-opinion/?fbclid=IwAR0gixPKk185ENVKTSxXi8pRiQQ7FD6Z2gx0cDJzd3qbtxnTbYi2OF8CN3Y
Video:
https://www.facebook.com/100073702713837/videos/648441957292330
#FYP #standup #voiceyourconcerns #nomorebullying #change #support #schools #catalyst #influence #believe
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dustin Steffey (00:00):
Welcome Chop nation to another new week,
which you all know what thatmeans. Another new exciting
episode. I missed you guys. Iknow it's only been a week but
I'm excited to dive right intoit introduce our new guest
speaker and to provide relevantinformation so you all know what
that means. Let's chop it upWelcome to your top rated global
(00:27):
podcast that is your one stopshop for everything
entrepreneurship, selfdevelopment, and smart
investment decisions. Thispodcast is hosted by owner Dr.
And creator Dustin Steffey wereblessed to have accolades that
include a 2022 nomination by thePeople's Podcast Awards. In the
(00:47):
category of business moneydonated to two amazing causes
cystic fibrosis and the Boys andGirls Club. Lastly, global
recognition of gaining top 50podcast in four countries.
Without further ado, let's chopit up a chop nation welcome to a
(01:14):
special episode of chopping woodfire. I am joined with my friend
and host of Sargassum andorgasms. Will Wilson Well, how
are you?
Will (01:27):
I'm good, my friend. Thank you for having me. How are you
doing?
Dustin Steffey (01:30):
I'm doing all right. The topic that we're
going to discuss however, is isit's pretty robust. And it hits
home nationally. So I know youand I have talked about and
we're kind of ready to dive in.
But I'm, you know, I'm excitedto do a collaboration with you
as always.
Will (01:48):
So uh, my buddy, you know, I'm always here to support you
no matter what. So thank you forhaving me.
Dustin Steffey (01:52):
And thanks for coming on. I know that you and I
do a lot of collabs. So this,this will be fun.
Will (01:57):
It will be it will be I just wanted to say this. I also
want to say that I'm sorry thatyour counterpart is not here. I
know the there's been days goingon. It's just everybody who's
out there listening. We all knowthat JT was a part of this. And
just, he couldn't be here. So Ijust want to give a shout out to
(02:18):
him, as well. So thank you toboth of you. Yeah,
Dustin Steffey (02:21):
thank you. And yes, shout out to Jaden he is
doing while coaching for CSU andliving his dream out so good on
him.
Will (02:31):
Yeah, they still suck. So
Dustin Steffey (02:33):
I'll leave that for you and Jaden to fight it
out.
Will (02:37):
One hour, okay.
Dustin Steffey (02:41):
So with that being said, our special episode
today is going to address in myopinion, it's an epidemic and
it's on the rise. It's somethingthat is close to me because I
have a child will has a childand there are many of you that
listen that have children. Andthat's the effects of bullying
in school and other issues thatare related with the public
(03:05):
school system right now. So Ithink we should just dive in
first, before we dive in, I'mgoing to read out some
statistics so people can stay onit while we're talking about
this. So statistically, rightnow, according to ed.gov 53
point 9 million students areenrolled in kindergarten through
(03:26):
12th grade right now of which 9%of that number is in a public
school or in a private schoolsetting. So the rest the other
91% are in public schools. Sowhen we're going through the
stats, keep that in your mind.
90% of kids that are enrolled ingrades fourth through eighth
grade have been harassed and orbullied. 28% of students that
(03:47):
are enrolled in grades sixthrough 12 have experienced
bullying. And then 20% ofstudents enrolled grades nine
through 12 have experiencedbullying. But the stats get
deeper 160,000 Kids daily,refuse to go to school because
(04:08):
of the effects of bullying. Andthey're not getting the proper
education that they need. 70% ofstudents witness bullying and
recognize the effects, but don'tdo anything about it. They allow
it to continue each month. Yeah,yeah, I agree. And then on top
of that, each month, 282,000kids are assaulted daily within
(04:31):
a school. And that number isgrowing monthly, monthly dude.
And then 75% of all of the statsthat we just released out to you
guys relate to and lead up toschool shootings, deaths, and
other things that we'veexperienced that are on the rise
(04:52):
since post pandemic. What areyour thoughts to that? Well,
just listening to those dots.
Will (05:02):
It's, it's a lot to digest. Because you almost want
to think like, well, who'sresponsible for others. At
first, you want to blame thekids. But then again, you can't
fully blame the children becauseit starts with the parents, we
all know that some things areconditioned, some things are
taught, like you see something,and then you emulate it. And so
(05:26):
it's another thing like bullyingcan be taught. Because if it
comes from children who are inhomes where there is any type of
abuse was mental or physical oremotional, where there may be
DNA carries, then as triggers,so if a kid is being bullied at
home, that he's gonna take hisanger and aggression at someone
(05:46):
at school that is, you know,less than him or her, whichever
doesn't have to be just onegender. So those stats, they are
staggering. They are staggering,really, it's almost like gasping
for air, like you can't believeit. And you it's almost like one
of these organizations for whatis the PTA or mothers or fathers
(06:09):
or whatever the fuck they are, Idon't know. I can only say from
my experience, I experiencedbullying. Because when I was in
high school, everyone to getpersonal, I went to a
predominantly white school,never forget. And it wasn't
hurtful to me because I camefrom a black school. So I do
hire survive with stupidity.
Because at once as for your UC,saying the N word, like it's
(06:32):
everyday being in and hearing ina different way, you almost want
to fight. And that's why kind ofon the person I am because I can
fight with words, because I'mgonna use my fist because
there's no need to. So it'shard, you can't tell kids to
stand up for themselves. Andthey do. And then we see what
happens, they end up takingtheir father's garden or their
(06:53):
mother's garden and killing thatperson, and then they destroy
their life for the rest of theirlife. So those numbers are just
overwhelmingly sad, just reallysad.
Dustin Steffey (07:05):
And let's rewind for a sec, because I did want to
make mention of something. Sobefore we dive any deeper, I
want everyone to know that we'lland I are doing our part with
our influence right now. Andwhat we have as an audience and
as creative influencers, to putawareness behind the bullying,
the sexual harassment, thethings that are going on in
(07:28):
school that people know aregoing on, but they're not
voicing their concern, and sofriendly, today starts the fight
for the future of making oureducation system great again,
and I know it sounds cliche, butwe haven't done a good job on
our parts of using our voice tobring to the table what we know
(07:53):
we can to provide that bettereducation. Let's be realistic
for a second here. Well, you andI, like if we were in school
right now, and both you and Iwere being bullied, are you more
likely to want to go to schooland learn or less likely,
Will (08:10):
more, I'm less likely because if I'm in a time in
space where like, I don't feelcomfortable, like I can't even
go to school because someone'smessing with me every day.
They're coming up to me, they'reknocking, my books are pushing
me, they're making me feelbelittled by you know,
embarrassing me in front of theother people. I don't want to go
(08:30):
to school, then I want to likebe homeschooled or I want to
take cyber classes. I'd neverknew that was a thing until I
was in high school. So it'slike, kids go through a lot of
things. And even when there is acry for help, we don't listen to
parents just they don't listen,it goes almost like they don't
care until it's really too late.
Dustin Steffey (08:52):
And that's the thing right now. So another
statistic because I'm full ofthem tonight. 30% in the last
three years of students enrolledin school, have gone to online
school, due in large part to howbad the education system has
gotten, and how theaccountability is not there
(09:14):
anymore for making students feelcomfortable to go to school and
get an education. Furthermore, Iwant you all to know, this is
not a hashtag me too are like,like devaluing what was before
and is now this is puttingawareness to something that is
an epidemic. I believe in alittle bit of roughhousing, but
(09:37):
I do not believe in beingbullied.
Will (09:42):
Yeah, it's it's a and then even green brings back to
memories like I remember mysophomore year, like my
sophomore year. I got sick ofthe White country folk always
messing with me. I really theywere messing me up I was the
type that, like, I didn't dosports, I was just more like, I
(10:04):
was good in class. But I wassmart. But then I was
articulate, but I was goodlooking, too. But I never got in
the mix with anybody, I just didmy own thing. So after a while,
when I'm putting a Volga here,will you hear people just call
you nigger all the time, all thetime. You walk down the hall,
and they say, yeah, come on,load, nigger, keep walking. So
(10:26):
it's almost like you want tofight people with words, but
people, they're not ready. Andthen that shock value comes. So
in order to like really combatthis, you got to tell people if
you're going to fight people,five people the smart way with
bullies, because bullies theydon't want to be stood up to,
they don't want to you get thebetter of them. And their
friends are looking at them.
Like, you just gotta let themsay that. So it's almost like
(10:46):
that thing, way back in the daylike kids would play the does is
like, if I'm gonna talk aboutyour mom, you're gonna talk my
way, I'm going to make sure ithits any things harder than
supposed to be, but because weknow, that's how fighting really
starts. But kids, they're sothey're so stupid, really.
Because they're, they're nottrained to like just talk about
(11:07):
what's going on. Because noone's actually given them a
chance to have an outlet of anysort. And it's gotten even
worse, because social mediamakes it even more of a, of a
vibrant territory to wherebullying goes to a whole nother
level. Like, we can like justcall each other names and move
on. But no, if you become ameme, you will become a meme
(11:27):
forever. And nobody will everforget that.
Dustin Steffey (11:31):
And let's let's dive into a couple of different
things. First, I want to diveinto the role of administration
and teachers within this firstand foremost, and then we'll
dive in to technology and socialmedia. So So teachers, faculty,
staff, and admin, have a role toplay in accountability and
(11:55):
making sure the schools aresafe. However, there's been
nearly two decades of crapthat's piled on and piled on,
and rules and red tape, wherenow we're in and we're in a day
and age now, where the teachershave no power to be able to do
anything. And thenadministration has some power,
(12:18):
but they're protected by theselabor boards and unions, where
there are certain rules thatthey have to follow. So for
example, in my district, rightnow, the rule for bullying is
very simple. You have a threestrike policy, so you have to do
it three times before you'resuspended. So in my mind, yeah,
(12:39):
I know. So watch this in mymind, okay. So say Person A,
beats the living heck out ofsomeone, right? And then the
next time, they don't beat theliving heck out of them, they
bring a knife to school, staband kill them. They didn't get
in trouble, whatever, threestrike rule, right, like 333
times and then you're suspendedlike I'm trying not to laughs at
Will (13:02):
all right that either I wait a bit. So you have to do
something three times before itbecomes serious to where you
just expelled them or kick themout or whatever it might be.
Whereas ISS Oh,
Dustin Steffey (13:15):
that's not expulsion, dude. That's
suspension. Oh, there's more.
There's more to this. You haveto you have to be so like,
messed up and do it so much TVget the hopes of expulsion?
Like, what is this shit?
(13:36):
Seriously? Like, what is thisshit? Like, when I was in
school? It was one time andyou're, you're done. You're
done. That's it. Now, what we'redoing is is there's no
accountability, right? There'sno, there's no safety net.
There's no anything like we'rereally barred by all this red
(13:58):
tape bullshit. Okay. And I'msorry, like for everyone that's
listening. And first, howserious of a topic it is. Well,
and I aren't laughing at thetopic. We're laughing at the
goddamn policies and like, wherehow did we get here?
Will (14:17):
Soft people. Fairy Bo gritty? Yes. Yo gritty, soft as
moist people, the people whothey said that they cared, and
then the ones who bullied theygrew up and now they became the
administrator. They became thepowers that be. So with that,
they they almost took over towhere they're going to allow it.
(14:42):
But they're going to putstipulations into it to make
sure like, oh, yeah, let's givethese office kids a chance
because you know, these pissy asparents, they don't know what
they're doing. So we'll justcover it for them. So it's, it's
a repetitive cycle of stupidity.
It really is a serious me Net.
Dustin Steffey (15:00):
Let's paint the picture a little deeper here.
Well, it gets worse.
Will (15:03):
He gets worse. Let's paint this picture. Here we go. All
right.
Dustin Steffey (15:07):
So let's start out with where my daughter is.
She's in elementary school.
Okay. Right now as it stands herrules and this is her coming
home to dad every single day,Dad, I have an issue. All right,
what is it Peyton? I have thesetwo boys that continue to call
me a fat cow, hold my hair andslap me. And I go to tell my
(15:28):
teacher. And my teacher saysbecause they've already been
aware of these kids beingbullies to begin with. There's
nothing that she can do. So wrapyour head around that for a
second. Okay, wrap like thinkfor a second on that? Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Yeah. It gets worse.
(15:50):
You're ready for this one?
Will (15:52):
Yeah. So
Dustin Steffey (15:55):
these kids, in my opinion, that are doing this
and with the repercussions thatthey're getting, which is
nothing, okay. is essentiallyteaching my daughter who is 10
years old, that it is okay forboys to slap, beat you call you
a fat cow pull your hair. It isokay for that. And mind you
(16:19):
Peyton hasn't retaliated andPeyton retaliates, she gets in
trouble. But she's the victim.
Remember this. So let's moveforward. Okay, so let's move
forward to the middle school.
This is the skit and worse, yougo to the Middle School. And in
the middle school, you havethese kids that are blatantly
smoking pot in public. They'refucking in the bathrooms.
(16:42):
They're not getting in troubleat all. They're in the
classroom, where the teacher istrying to teach, but they're not
paying attention because they'reon their phones doing whatever,
whatever they're calling theteacher names, whatever the case
may be, and there's norepercussion there. So they're
being allowed to act likeheathens. And then you get to
the high school. Here we go.
Here's where the cherry justfalls on top. So, at the high
(17:05):
school, I have I've nice, right,she she told me first day of
school, she walks in, she walksinto the stall, to hearing like
two or three couples justfornicating in the stall, and
then like you walk outside,there's like condoms, there's,
there's drugs, there's girlsthat are beating other people
(17:30):
for no reason. There's like foulattitudes, there's no respect.
There's no accountability,there's no nothing. And then you
look at the administration, andthey're not doing a damn thing
about it. Not one damn thing?
Will (17:46):
Well, there can be some a little bit of understanding when
it comes in administration. Andbecause we know with teachers,
they are really underpaid. Theyare. And that's what they got
don't get is if you know you'regoing to be underpaid. Why the
hell would you want to become ateacher? That that's a really
legitimate question. And I cancare less to say, oh, I want to
mold young minds. Fuck thatwe're not going to do everything
(18:09):
for free. We're not going to doit for the joy of something.
We're doing somebody to getpaid? Because that's what we
want to do. How are you going togo to school for almost six
years of undergrad and then acouple years of grad, get your
teaching certificate, sub for acouple of years and then become
a full time teacher? And thenit's like, it's the greatest
thing ever. And then you wonderwhy, you know, teachers are
(18:30):
sleeping with students becausethey have no other choice. Like,
there. There's just the sadstudents are. And it was like,
there, you're right, there is noaccountability. But it's another
thing is it. It's one of thosethings that I keep saying, that
is a repetitive cycle, thatbroken homes or raising broken
people, is a truly repetitivecycle. And if you're not really
(18:52):
alarmed what's going on at home,then ages it carries to the
school, you take your angerfrustrations out, everybody. Now
that's a bit to the middleschool, when it gets to the high
school. That's just a differentstory. They're just, they're
fucked up. They're gonna befucked up for the rest of their
lives. So there's some goodones, there are some bad ones.
And they're just ones that wejust might see them on the 10
(19:14):
O'Clock News, or asking, askedme what to do on paper or
plastic, or we want fries withthat, you know, wherever the
market might be. But it reallycomes down to it's all about
your home environment. How areyou conducting yourself at home?
Where are you seeing at homethat makes you carry out in
school next day? So it's itstarts at home really it does.
(19:38):
And the administrators that wehave in place their ad, it says
well, because I can remember.
Like my my principal. He wassleeping with my guidance
counselor. We all knew it. Andshe used to carry a flask in her
purse and drink on the job. Likeshe was a really she was a stone
out drunk and didn't give a damnyou go into her office, she
(19:59):
already smell like it was happyhour. It was nine o'clock in the
morning. So it just goes to showyou that. If they don't care,
they're going to make it No,because they're just there. for
the hell of it.
Dustin Steffey (20:12):
It's five o'clock somewhere, right?
Will (20:14):
You didn't write it is.
Dustin Steffey (20:16):
But here, let me paint this picture more. So I
have an article written by RhettSchumann. And the article title
is the truth of Fernley HighSchool. Okay, this is the high
school that my daughter isslated to go to. Okay, this was
written in 2021. So it's stillrelevant. Okay. So let me just
(20:38):
read an excerpt from it. Whatwould you do if your child was
being bullied or sexuallyharassed out there school?
School is meant to be a safelearning environment. But what
is protocol when thatenvironment is interrupted? What
is the school administration'sjob in these situations? What if
the school brushed off any andall allegations brought to them
(21:00):
by their own students? These arequestions surrounding a school
in our own backyard, which isFHS. Right? The one I was
telling you about. So thearticle goes on. This is a
formal female that was at thishigh school, okay. 1700 people
signed a petition. And they signit's continuing to be signed
(21:24):
this day, right? Once you signthe petition, you have the
option to leave a comment. Whenyou sign it right. There were
over 85 comments that were puton to that. Okay, some of these
accom comments include onsigning this petition because I
personally dropped out of FHS,my freshman year due to severe
(21:48):
bullying after I was raped, andthe whole school found out and
accused me of lying. I went tothe counselors and admin and
told them what happened. Andinstead of helping, they brushed
it off and sent me back to classwith my rapist. That's one
comment. Here's another comment.
They've failed us. Pretty,pretty brief. Pretty easy
(22:10):
comment right there. Yeah, watchthis. It gets worse. It got so
bad I self harmed and they gaveme a pap, which I don't know if
you know what a PAP is. It'salternative placement education
program, until my mother took meto West Hills, which for you to
know, because you're not fromhere. West Hills is a mental
facility. So took took the kidto West Hills. They didn't want
(22:33):
to deal with me or have otherkids see me like that. So I'd
like to personally thank the FHSoffice staff for my trauma that
I'm still going to therapy fortoday. There's another comment
you're seeing. Here's one Ihated every moment of every day
in this sad excuse for school. Ireported my friend's stepfather
for beating her. Nothinghappened. My other friend
(22:57):
reported a boy threatening toshoot her. They said they can't
do anything. One of my friendswas jumped, and the school
actively fought against her. Youknow, what are we fucking doing?
Dude,
Will (23:11):
you're right, everybody's gonna buy high school every day
and never fail. It never feltthere was a bomb threat called
it every day before secondperiod. It never fucking failed
every day. And it's just It goesto show you like the mental and
the mentality of these kids.
It's growing into a more severesevere cry for help because no
(23:34):
one is trying to help anybody.
They're just masking it towhere, oh, we'll deal with it,
but only when it gets reallysevere after like their fifth or
sixth strike when they've reallydone something bad. So it's
like, who's guarding? Who? Who'swatching who? Like, should we be
watching the teachers should youknow we say hey, maybe I should
(23:57):
go to counseling, you know, cuzmaybe all overworked and
underpaid, but then the kids,they're more overworked than
anybody because they have to doso much, you know, almost
prepare themselves for adultlife. Because after 18 It just
pushes you out and they willgive it they're like I don't
know, man. It's different for mebecause I think I grew up at a
(24:22):
time right to where social mediawas about to start. But you
still had to, you still had towork for dates, you still had to
be accountable. You know, I hadsome good teachers that I still
remember to this day had somebad ones. But it was up to me to
make my own mark because Ididn't want to be another
statistic. I didn't want to beanother black kid who dropped
(24:45):
out. And then I would have tolike go get my GED. So it's like
it's hard to really not put theblame but really give a
definitive answer on what'sreally going on.
Dustin Steffey (24:57):
Isn't it sad?
That what We've come to youseriously.
Will (25:02):
Truly is this really sad?
Dustin Steffey (25:05):
So I'm going to, I'm going to show you something
else to this. This is this isfor because this is going to be
on, on video for us on YouTube.
So I'm going to show a videoreal quick, I'm going to share
my screen so people can see it.
This is at Sid FHS. Thishappened three, three days ago.
(25:26):
Okay, I FHS. So I'm about toshow you what we're dealing
with. We will be right backafter a quick break. Hello, chop
nation. I hope all of you areenjoying the guests and content
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(25:48):
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(27:13):
right there is sad, dude. realsad.
Will (27:17):
So you can see the girl she's just she's walking away.
She's probably saying no, don'tdo this. Leave me alone. You can
just tell by her body posture.
And it's oh my god. No,everybody's just walk walking
paths. Not seeing a goddamnthing. Like no one wants to get
involved. Everyone else would besaying, oh, let's stand up.
Let's combat this. But no onetakes a stand for nobody.
(27:38):
Everybody's a fuckingindividual. Everybody.
Dustin Steffey (27:42):
So that's for that that victim that was
getting mauled. is the daughterof someone I'm close to. Okay.
And I know how the daughterfeels I'm not going to exploit
names or anything. But of coursenot she can fight she chose not
to, because the repercussionsare the same. Number one, number
(28:06):
two, this video right here isthe catalyst or moving forward
on what you and I are trying todo right now, which is we're
trying to create a change thatright there is BS, though, that,
like you saw it, there was novoice or anything. But if I were
to turn on the sound, kids inthe background, we're
(28:29):
encouraging the fight. And howdid the fight even start? There
was no nothing to provoke it atall. Nothing.
Will (28:41):
At first, she was just sitting there. And then she got
up and started backing away.
Dustin Steffey (28:45):
Because she knew something was gonna happen. Yep.
Yeah. She knew she smart girl.
She knew something was gonnahappen. And this is what I'm
talking about. That's thebullying part. This doesn't
include teachers that areadvancing on their high school
students trying to have sex withthem. This doesn't include rate
this doesn't include the blatantdisrespect within the schools.
(29:09):
This doesn't include all of thatat all. This accountability
piece right here in theeducation system is lacking. And
it is not okay. And we haven'taddressed the next part yet. We
will the parenting part we willget to but first I want to end
this on the education side. Thatright there is bullshit and
(29:32):
that's not acceptable. That isnot a safe environment for a kid
to go to. To learn
Will (29:40):
at all. That's right. That is correct.
Dustin Steffey (29:43):
That is not okay. Like well, you and I are
grown grown men do you and andwe've been through our fair
share of stuff when we wereyounger, but that shit is not
okay.
Will (29:52):
No, it's not. And it's it's even it's cringing because
you could just see she wassitting there peacefully, just
peacefully She gets up andstarts backing away. And it's
like, I feel very bad for thatgirl. I really do. I feel for
her because I've seen thathappen. But also you see, like,
people will like get up and justtry to like walk off. But she
(30:15):
had nowhere to go because therewas a wall behind her. So she
can go anywhere. And then herecomes that two piece and a
biscuit. So,
Dustin Steffey (30:22):
you know what the response of the school was
for this?
Will (30:25):
Oh, my goodness. Okay, yeah, go ahead, Lay it on me.
Dustin Steffey (30:30):
There's nothing they can do. They gave her ISS
for four days.
Will (30:35):
I asked her establish these OSS for a week.
Dustin Steffey (30:41):
She needs a lot more than that. Like, this is
why I brought up this is why Ibrought up what I did in the
beginning, there needs to be achange. There needs to be some
form of counseling, there needsto be processes and procedures
to help these young adultsbecome citizens within our
society because clearly thatdoes not fly and clearly that
(31:03):
right there to me. Someone likethat is going to be in and out
of jail.
Will (31:09):
Sure, screwed. Fucking screwed.
Dustin Steffey (31:14):
This this is one snippet like this is happening
nationwide, bro. Like, this isone fucking little puzzle piece
of the grander scheme.
Will (31:24):
I get it. And I want to go back to what you just talked
about pain because, say, and Idon't mean to make this sound
like this. But this is my mind.
If she was black. She came hometo my mom and my mom said that
fuck going to the teachers willroll to the parents house and be
like, Why are you beating up onmy baby? What is wrong with your
(31:47):
sons? Do you have any fuckingidea what's going on? So if our
kids will continue to fight,we're going to fight because if
they keep beating her ass, I'mgonna beat your ass and then
sooner or later, it's gonna it'sgonna get squashed could handle.
But how dare you slap a kid?
(32:07):
Call her a fat cow or whatever.
Like you don't do that, likewhat the fuck is wrong with you?
I just noticed she was black,which I'm not saying this. But
it would be handled differently,like white people or black
people. We handle things verydifferently. You're not going to
bully your children. Because ifthat's happened, we're going to
come to you and we're going tobully you. That's just how it's
(32:28):
handled. Like that's handled asadults. So not that I'm saying
that you're not doing that.
Because what you're doing nowdoes is very admirable. It is. I
just know from what I've seenfrom my background, if that
happens to my daughter, or ifthat's happened, someone else
has done it. And she was black.
Yeah, I asked when it got beatena long time ago. Fuck three
strike rule. Yeah, I'll give youthree strikes across your face.
Dustin Steffey (32:53):
And I'm telling you right now, my friend like I
it isn't different from black towhite. Because I'm not scared to
make a house call. I just knowthat I'm a single father and I'm
all paid and has so if I made ahouse call and went to jail,
that's not doing Peyton anygood. Because I will go to jail.
I'll beat the living hell out ofsomeone. Oh, yeah, I know that.
But But I also know I'm educatedand intelligent. So I can I can
(33:16):
really make an impact right nowlike we're doing and that's what
we're doing.
Will (33:21):
Yeah. And I can roll up that degree and just slap a
subject across your face. You'rereally using it? Yeah, yeah.
Dustin Steffey (33:30):
I get it. Did I get it? Like this, this like,
like all joking aside, right?
Like, we are trying to make thisa little lighter. But all joking
aside, this is a big deal. Andthis leads us to the next step,
which is parenting, right?
Parents are more absent now, inmy opinion than they've ever
(33:52):
been in children's lives. Okay.
And it's due in large part tothe fast paced society having to
work more not making enoughmoney, bad, bad dynamics, maybe
maybe you have parents that youhave a dad or a mom that are in
and out of jail, and it'ssetting a bad example, whatever
the case may be. Things stemfrom home life and bleed in to
(34:14):
the school life. However, watchthis before we dive into
anything like opinion, please Nomore. No, no, no. And then
another video No, no, no othervideo but watch this. This is
where I get frustrated. You haveparents that aren't absent in
their children's lives that aretrying to raise them right. But
(34:38):
the kids are influenced by otherkids on where they go. So
anything parenting related isout the damn window. Because
influences influence Okay, soyou can be the best damn parent
ever doing the right things bythe kids. But the kids aren't
Just learning from you, they'relearning from their environment
(35:01):
and where they go.
Will (35:04):
Yes. And you know, when you said that it reminds me of
this movie that came out forthose of you who are born after
2000, it was a movie calledbully came out in like
2001 2002. And it was based on atrue story where a guy was
bullying a guy. And then all ofthem got together and killed him
(35:25):
down in Florida and tried tothrow him in a swamp. So that's
what happens. Like you can bebullied by someone who is your
best friend, your homie, you'rea one since day one. But sooner
or later, you'll get sick of it,and you'll kill somebody because
you're tired of it. And thishappens, it happens every day,
to where you think you got theswarm of friends. And not just
(35:48):
like your home life, but outsideof your home where you know,
people you're with, but you'realways the butt of your jokes.
So sometimes you might get sickof it, you're gonna shoot
somebody. I know, I have plentyof friends like that, that I
grew up with that one of themthat he went to juvie because he
like, beat the living shit outof a kid because he was just
tired of his shit. He reallywas. And he was like talk of
(36:11):
school for at least a good week.
Like we were all shocked when ithappened. And it just goes to
show you that no matter what,even if you do have a stable
foundation, a stable home life,sometimes it's the friends that
you have are not always thefriends that you need to keep.
Dustin Steffey (36:29):
And here's the deal, like I presented in the
beginning, school shootings anddeaths are on the rise. And it
all attributes and is part ofbullying. Most of the school
shooters that are doing theshooting were bullied. That's
bad. It's just bad all the wayaround. We already addressed
(36:50):
that there's a lack ofaccountability, and a lack of
processes in place in theschools. We've already addressed
home life and parenting. Let'saddress the district level. So
district letter, Oh, dude, itis. So I have I have a school
board meeting on Tuesday. Okay.
And here's the deal, they giveyou three minutes to talk and
(37:15):
say what's going on. And youhave to articulate that in three
minutes for them to maybe, maybemake a difference. That it's
it's just a broken process rightnow. And I'm not, listen, here's
the deal. I'm not bashing onadmins teachers are or the
district level right now, thisisn't about bashing on them.
(37:40):
This is about bringing inawareness of something that's
broken, something that's broken,that clearly needs to be fixed.
And we need to come up withsolutions. And we need more
voices, whether it be students,whether it be parents, whether
it be faculty, to voice theirconcerns, so we can get through
(38:00):
this and come up with a new wayof how to educate our kids and
create a safe environment foreducation, how to enable, enable
programs that are put into placefor accountability. And to drive
respect, again, in my opinion,to these young adolescents,
having to learn how to respectbetter to be able to function in
(38:25):
society later.
Will (38:29):
And it's almost you want to a and then you use your three
minutes of us like well, what ifyour child, how would you feel?
How would you feel if your childwas getting bullied, or your
child wants to bully? And evenif you try to put into that
general narrative, it's stillgoing to be a problem because
they're going to justify bysaying, Oh, well, I don't think
my kids do that. The fuck yeah,if your kid is influenced, or
(38:52):
your kid is being neglected,they're going to do whatever
they wanted to, that's gonnacause them to act out in air
quotes. So it's really hard toget through the masses because
they don't want to listen toreason. As well as you know,
understanding coming from, youknow, a parent's perspective,
like my kids being bullied, I'mtired of your shit. We need to
(39:12):
do more. Stop masking it, likeput better, put better agendas.
So you know, things like thisdon't happen. Like we can teach
kids kids can be able to go toschool and enjoy and want to
come to school every day. Not beafraid to stay at home or fake
sick or they'll do a half a dayback. Oh yeah. I don't want to
(39:35):
do this just clock out. Becauseafter a while you get sick of
it. And do you even have liketwo statistics when it comes to
what graduation rates are aftera child is bullied?
Dustin Steffey (39:47):
I do actually I wrote them down. So if we're
looking at graduation statisticsabout 15% of kids nationally,
drop out of school due tobullying and never graduate.
Will (40:01):
Yeah. And then he started working for Amazon.
Dustin Steffey (40:03):
Nice. That's and see, that's the bad part here.
So those kids in indirectly ruintheir own lives because they
dropped out because they thoughtthey had no other choice. And
now they can't betterthemselves. And now, now we're
getting in two bigger situationsthat I don't want to address on
this podcast right now, becausethey're very political like,
(40:24):
like going on to unemploymentand our retention rate of people
and like, there, there arebigger issues that these things
stem from, from kids going to beadults.
Will (40:38):
I don't think that's political dashes more of latency
of what could happen. If youdon't, I won't even say mitigate
if you don't stop it in histracks. Because if you let if
you don't take care of thewound, now while it's small,
while his small to her, you'reable to heal it, and it it, it
(40:59):
clears up there, there might bea scar, but it won't be as huge
as gash, that you just keeptrying to throw a bandaid on,
and figuring it's just gonnaheal, no, you're gonna break,
break the foundation of it set anew ground for. So we need to
stop people from bullying eachother we do, because nothing
good comes from it. Either.
It's, you know, more morefights, you know, more acts out,
(41:22):
and eventually it'll lead todeaths, because that's what it
does, that's all leads to isdeath. Nothing good comes out of
someone being bullied. And I cansay that because I one time I
remember I was a bully, becauseI used to act out because I had
behavior issues I want to say,because I won't say I had the
(41:42):
best upbringing, but I come froma single parent home, where I
just had my dad had, there aresome times where, you know, I
went to see my dad or spend timewith him because he was always
working, trying to raise mybrother at night. And then you
know, I would go to school orjust act out and bully other
kids it took it took one teacherto really sit down and talk to
me, like me actually talking toa teacher, and to a guidance
(42:06):
counselor, the teacher was MissLaura, I never forget her. And
then the guidance counselor wasMiss saysky. So those two, they
really helped me, you know, tryto figure out what was going on.
And then, you know, I grew outof it, I became a better person,
because you don't want to be abully forever. You just want to
go to school, learn and enjoyand grow. So there has to be
(42:29):
some type of intervention, sometype of mitigate mitigation to
where children are able to givea safe haven to where they know
they're okay, they will be takencare of. But teachers don't want
to do that, because they're toobusy trying to sleep with them.
So
Dustin Steffey (42:49):
yeah, the we've brought up so many problems. And
I know we haven't brought upsolutions yet. We'll get to
that. But basically, as itstands right now, we have an
epidemic that's not goinganywhere. And we have a plethora
of problems that are being putonto the plate. We have faculty
(43:10):
and staff that can't buy holdpeople accountable. We have
administration that's barred. Wehave the teachers union that has
their own rules. And then wehave district, right. And then
we have parents who can'tarticulate. And so they go to
these meetings, and they justcome on done, and nothing's
getting done. And then you havesomeone like me who's gonna go
(43:32):
to the meeting, and bestructured and not, I don't know
what's gonna come of it. Butwhat I do know is it's not going
to stop for me because thisisn't a one and done. This is
something that if we're going toneed a change, this is this is
it. This is the start of thelong haul right here. This is
the start of a movement ofsomething that needs to be done,
(43:56):
not only locally for me and whatyou just saw, but nationally,
because this isn't just a oneoff, this is happening
everywhere.
Will (44:07):
And then. And then we wonder why we have so many
people that are introverted orextroverted because of stuff
like this.
Dustin Steffey (44:17):
Yeah, it's it's alarming. So let's, let's round
off everything. And let's talkabout potential solutions. Like
we're not we're obviously notthe be all end all. But we're
smart enough to kind of figureout with what our knowledge is
and what we've been through andwhat we're seeing, what are some
potential ways that we can fixthis? So in your mind, well,
(44:39):
like all at all, open the floorto you first, like what do you
think should happen? What do youthink is the long game for this?
What do you think we need to doto be able to move forward into
something different? What areyour thoughts?
Will (44:55):
There's just so many and It's really hard to say just one
because it could be a multitudeof reasons. If anything, maybe
just, instead of automaticallyjust discipline the kid,
(45:16):
bringing the parent in, bringboth parents in sipo, from from
down, whether it's how, howevermany years, so they all know
what's going on. Because youcan't always keep this in house
and not do anything, you can'tkeep it in house and then send a
note home, or send a text oremail, we're gonna stay UK
(45:37):
because such such No, let themface it. They did it by
themselves. Remember, like thesaying goes was done in a dark
will come to the light. So let'sbring it to light bring the
parents in so they know what'sgoing on. So they can talk, like
really start that, start thatright there. And then somehow,
some way, maybe something goodcan come about it. I think that
(46:00):
could be maybe the easiestsolution. If you really get
parents involved, if you reallycare about children and their
well being. That's my idea, mylogical, white idea.
Dustin Steffey (46:13):
Let me ask you something else, because we
didn't dive into it. And we cantechnology hiding behind the
screen, cyber bullying, all ofthat, like, what role does that
play?
Will (46:23):
It plays a huge role now.
Because you know, when you and Iwas in school, we didn't have
technology like that we had cellphones, but not like this. So
it's not like we can get onFacebook or Instagram, we can
like just talk shit all day.
Now, kids can actually hidebehind screens, but you can
still find them. But there'sgoing to be some type Avenue
(46:43):
some type of outlet to whereit's not going to stop. It may
may stop physically, butemotionally, it won't. So it's
hard to try to fight bullyingonline. Because once a grows leg
is going to keep growing andgrowing. And it's hard to stop
it.
Dustin Steffey (47:01):
I agree, I think the rise of technology. And like
I said in the beginning were twodecades into this epidemic. The
rise of technology has createdmore issues, in my opinion, than
good. I'm not saying thattechnology should disappear. But
I'm saying that we need to havemore responsibility and limited
(47:26):
interactions with youngadolescents on social media. And
furthermore, with some of thistechnology, to be able to help
them mature and use social mediaand other things like avenues to
how you and I use it we use. Weuse social media and technology
to educate people to or in yourcase for you and your podcast,
(47:49):
to give people laughs Andactually, like, help people to
make it through their day. Andthen for my podcast, it's very
much on education, on businessand on investments and on
bringing real examples in tohelp people move further and
better themselves.
Will (48:08):
I just want to interject here for a minute. I've been on
your page, and I have yet to seean investment that is really
lucrative. So you need to dobetter there, buddy.
Dustin Steffey (48:17):
Hey, listen, first and foremost, buddy, not
not to not to do anything meanhere. You have to have money to
be able to invest.
Will (48:25):
I look, but I never said to have money. I just see the
idea that was lucrative.
Dustin Steffey (48:31):
All right. Well, I'll do better on that. Then all
you know, I'm writing that downright now. Duly noted.
Will (48:38):
Yeah, he's not. He's not stop, stop.
Dustin Steffey (48:42):
So here's where I'm at. Because we're talking
about solutions, right? I, I'mthinking about this right. And
for the bully. I feel like whatwe have in place now is what
they want, right? They want toget suspended. They want to not
have to do school they want tolike be they're almost being
rewarded to be a bully. And sowe have to think about
(49:07):
repercussions and putting themin place for like really
teaching like negative versuspositive. Right. So for me, I
don't have a clear cookie cutteranswer. I have ideas. First and
foremost, we have to giveaccountability, like back and we
(49:28):
have to hold people accountable.
That's first and foremost, Ithink there should be some form
of counseling, or maybe a schoolcounselor, you know, that
actually dives into this alittle more. I think there
should be some support programs.
I get it. I understand whatyou're saying I do. And again,
I'm bringing up ideas that Ithink are great and well they
(49:49):
happen who knows it for youyou're saying no,
Will (49:52):
but it's not like that.
It's just saying but you knowyou want to bring in more people
and then you already adding workto them. are over abundant
workload that they have already.
So you're making them do moreand in such amount of time that
hell no, you want to beresponsible for the shit that's
going on now. And then, you knowof a bully saying, oh, yeah, I
guess spend it, then that'swhere it goes, we were just
(50:15):
saying a moment ago to wherethat that dropout rate
increases, because they justgive up like, oh fucking Well,
now for the people who are beingwho are being bullied the
bullies like some of them dropout too, or some of them make it
to Wall Street, you know, likeour president did, we're experts
at it. But that's beside thepoint. But still, I mean, it's
(50:35):
just, you just don't know.
Because even every avenue thatyou tried to take, there's going
to be some type of loophole towhere it's just, it won't work.
Not to say it won't, becauseanything's possible, but you
have to be realistic about this.
So trying to give a teacher moreresponsibility to really put in
the time to try to figure outlike about this is really
(50:58):
difficult.
Dustin Steffey (51:00):
I agree. And I understand the putting more work
on when they're already notdoing the work to begin with.
But we have to, we have to startlooking at what restructure
looks like we have to, there areeducators, and there are staff,
faculty and admin, that is outthere that does care. And that
(51:21):
does want to do things, but theycan't.
Will (51:24):
And we just fire them. And we just have robots teach them.
Dustin Steffey (51:27):
I mean, that's probably where we're heading to
be honest with you. It
Will (51:31):
I mean, it's, it's not a bad idea. But it is a bad idea.
Because the you get rid of theteacher element of it all, which
that's the most important thing,having a person a person
contact. So a robot is now mostinclined to have some type of
(51:52):
emotional attachment oremotional investment when it
comes to teaching. So I mean, Iwouldn't be my top AI robot, but
I don't know. I'm a littleindifferent about it.
Dustin Steffey (52:04):
All right. Yeah, I have no comment. I'm not even
going to make a comment dude on,not at all, not at all off. Here
is, here is what I'm going todo. I'm rounding this off and
ending, I want to bring thelight a couple of things. For
those of you that are listening,that are out there. Maybe you
(52:26):
guys are in school, maybe I havea couple of you that are
listening, that are in schoolthat are being bullied, please
don't let being bullied, silenceyou. Please continue to speak
up, please continue to bestrong. Please continue to do
the right things. Because wehear you. We're here, we're
(52:46):
listening, we hear you. Andwe're trying to figure out a way
to make this better, that it'sit's not going to be an
overnight thing. And it's it'sit's a difficult road that is
ahead for pretty much all of us,right? But we hear you don't be
silenced. Don't be discouraged.
And don't let that take anythingaway from what you are. For
(53:08):
those of you that are being thebullies. Shame on you, and your
time will come. And I promiseyou, you're not gonna like
yourself 10 years down the road.
I promise.
Will (53:23):
It really not. There's nothing wrong with peaceful
protests. There's nothing wrongwith taking a peaceful stance.
But also remember people thatyou still have to protect
yourself, no matter what. So weare we as people, we all have
feelings, we can only take somany punches, whether it's
physical, or mental. But you Ihave to say this, you have to
(53:44):
learn how to stand up foryourself. You got to have some
backbone, you can't keep justtaking and taking and taking it
and walking off. Like evenGandhi got sick of it, he did
something. In that's the mostpeaceful person, I can say that
you can be able to look up andunderstand about his struggles
and what he did. But he stillwas able to fight back and still
(54:06):
be able to look himself in themirror and say, I took a stand,
I did something. So running andhiding all the time is not going
to do anything. I'm not goingagainst what Dustin saying I'm
just adding by saying you haveto learn how to stand up for
yourself. Because if you don't,you're going to be bullied
forever. And people will seethat and they'll take advantage
(54:28):
of that. So yes, if somethinghas happened to you talk to
anybody who can who is willingto listen. But then also, you
also have to do something to I'mnot saying to be physical
because violence has itself anyday. But you know what, it tells
a bully you don't want to bemessed with and you need to
leave you alone. So just take itas you are you want but just
(54:51):
know speak up and speak out.
Dustin Steffey (54:55):
And lastly, I'm going to leave you guys with a
quote that resonates with me forthis app. So, which is, I've
learned that people will forgetwhat you said, people will
forget what you did. But peoplewill never forget how you made
them feel. And that's from MayaAngelou, which is a civil rights
(55:16):
activist. So I'm just lettingyou guys know, like, we are
listening, we are going to makea difference. And the more
voices that back this, and themore people that come into this
old into this corner, we aregoing to be heard and something
will have to be done, becausethey can't just let it keep
(55:36):
going the way it is. And as Willsaid, he is not wrong, I'm not
going to sit here and tell youto be violent, because that
isn't that isn't the play. Butwhat I am going to sit here and
tell you to do is use use whatyour strengths are in order to
protect yourself. So for me, my,my strengths are I can
(55:56):
definitely be physical, but Ialso have an intellect as well,
too. And so that's the strengththat I'm playing off of right
now to make that difference.
Will (56:05):
Definitely, definitely.
And I'm not saying violenceeither people, I'm not saying
that. Just just protectyourself. That's all it really
comes because it's just you, andit's whoever it is. So it comes
down to okay, they're gonna hityou, you go tell, but they're
gonna keep coming back. It'slike, you got to fight back
somehow, someway. So don'talways hide every time go tell
(56:27):
somebody, whoever it might be,whoever. Well,
Dustin Steffey (56:34):
thank you. Just thank you for coming on and
helping us through this. I know,it's it's a little different
pace from what you're used to.
But I also know that it hitshome for you too. So I
appreciate you coming on to cohost with me for this one
because it it's definitely a bigtopic. And it's something that I
think you and I want to drive adifference. And so I appreciate
you.
Will (56:56):
Oh, yeah, man, thank you so much. It does definitely hit
home because like I said,earlier, I've been on both
sides. So I know how it feels.
But when I was going to be inbullied or fought back, I got
sick of it. And I was like, I'mnot going to take this anymore.
I stood my ground after I toldyou know, my teachers, and my
admins and everybody and no onedid nothing. So I took it upon
(57:17):
myself and I'm like, Alright, Ifought back. But of course, I
got OSS, but I was happy aboutit because I took a stand. I did
something about it. And I wasjust happy that it came about. I
wasn't very happy that I had toCigna seclusion, but it was
still it was so good. And thatperson never bothered me ever
(57:39):
again. So thank you so much forhaving me, man. I really
appreciate it. Honestly, I do.
And this fight is not going tostop here. It's not we're going
to make this a global day.
Dustin Steffey (57:51):
We are its influences banding together. And
now it's time to use our talentsand that's what we're doing. So,
again, thank you guys, fortuning in. Thanks for listening.
If you like what you hear andyou're interested in more
because like well said thisisn't going anywhere. Please
subscribe to any of our socialmedias at chopping wood fire and
(58:12):
or if you want to listen to someof Will's stuff, subscribe to
any of his social medias, whichis at sarcasm and orgasms. And
please drop us a line just dropus a comment. Let us know what
we can do what you've beenthrough. We're here we're here
to talk. We like to definitelytalk to people and really help
(58:34):
out and make a difference. Sothank you again for listening.
Well, thank you for coming on.
And this is another episode ofchopping with fire
Welcome Chop nation to another new week,
which you all know what thatmeans. Another new exciting
episode. I missed you guys. Iknow it's only been a week but
I'm excited to dive right intoit introduce our new guest
speaker and to provide relevantinformation so you all know what
that means. Let's chop it upWelcome to your top rated global
(00:27):
podcast that is your one stopshop for everything
entrepreneurship, selfdevelopment, and smart
investment decisions. Thispodcast is hosted by owner Dr.
And creator Dustin Steffey wereblessed to have accolades that
include a 2022 nomination by thePeople's Podcast Awards. In the
(00:47):
category of business moneydonated to two amazing causes
cystic fibrosis and the Boys andGirls Club. Lastly, global
recognition of gaining top 50podcast in four countries.
Without further ado, let's chopit up a chop nation welcome to a
(01:14):
special episode of chopping woodfire. I am joined with my friend
and host of Sargassum andorgasms. Will Wilson Well, how
are you?
Will (01:27):
I'm good, my friend. Thank you for having me. How are you
doing?
Dustin Steffey (01:30):
I'm doing all right. The topic that we're
going to discuss however, is isit's pretty robust. And it hits
home nationally. So I know youand I have talked about and
we're kind of ready to dive in.
But I'm, you know, I'm excitedto do a collaboration with you
as always.
Will (01:48):
So uh, my buddy, you know, I'm always here to support you
no matter what. So thank you forhaving me.
Dustin Steffey (01:52):
And thanks for coming on. I know that you and I
do a lot of collabs. So this,this will be fun.
Will (01:57):
It will be it will be I just wanted to say this. I also
want to say that I'm sorry thatyour counterpart is not here. I
know the there's been days goingon. It's just everybody who's
out there listening. We all knowthat JT was a part of this. And
just, he couldn't be here. So Ijust want to give a shout out to
(02:18):
him, as well. So thank you toboth of you. Yeah,
Dustin Steffey (02:21):
thank you. And yes, shout out to Jaden he is
doing while coaching for CSU andliving his dream out so good on
him.
Will (02:31):
Yeah, they still suck. So
Dustin Steffey (02:33):
I'll leave that for you and Jaden to fight it
out.
Will (02:37):
One hour, okay.
Dustin Steffey (02:41):
So with that being said, our special episode
today is going to address in myopinion, it's an epidemic and
it's on the rise. It's somethingthat is close to me because I
have a child will has a childand there are many of you that
listen that have children. Andthat's the effects of bullying
in school and other issues thatare related with the public
(03:05):
school system right now. So Ithink we should just dive in
first, before we dive in, I'mgoing to read out some
statistics so people can stay onit while we're talking about
this. So statistically, rightnow, according to ed.gov 53
point 9 million students areenrolled in kindergarten through
(03:26):
12th grade right now of which 9%of that number is in a public
school or in a private schoolsetting. So the rest the other
91% are in public schools. Sowhen we're going through the
stats, keep that in your mind.
90% of kids that are enrolled ingrades fourth through eighth
grade have been harassed and orbullied. 28% of students that
(03:47):
are enrolled in grades sixthrough 12 have experienced
bullying. And then 20% ofstudents enrolled grades nine
through 12 have experiencedbullying. But the stats get
deeper 160,000 Kids daily,refuse to go to school because
(04:08):
of the effects of bullying. Andthey're not getting the proper
education that they need. 70% ofstudents witness bullying and
recognize the effects, but don'tdo anything about it. They allow
it to continue each month. Yeah,yeah, I agree. And then on top
of that, each month, 282,000kids are assaulted daily within
(04:31):
a school. And that number isgrowing monthly, monthly dude.
And then 75% of all of the statsthat we just released out to you
guys relate to and lead up toschool shootings, deaths, and
other things that we'veexperienced that are on the rise
(04:52):
since post pandemic. What areyour thoughts to that? Well,
just listening to those dots.
Will (05:02):
It's, it's a lot to digest. Because you almost want
to think like, well, who'sresponsible for others. At
first, you want to blame thekids. But then again, you can't
fully blame the children becauseit starts with the parents, we
all know that some things areconditioned, some things are
taught, like you see something,and then you emulate it. And so
(05:26):
it's another thing like bullyingcan be taught. Because if it
comes from children who are inhomes where there is any type of
abuse was mental or physical oremotional, where there may be
DNA carries, then as triggers,so if a kid is being bullied at
home, that he's gonna take hisanger and aggression at someone
(05:46):
at school that is, you know,less than him or her, whichever
doesn't have to be just onegender. So those stats, they are
staggering. They are staggering,really, it's almost like gasping
for air, like you can't believeit. And you it's almost like one
of these organizations for whatis the PTA or mothers or fathers
(06:09):
or whatever the fuck they are, Idon't know. I can only say from
my experience, I experiencedbullying. Because when I was in
high school, everyone to getpersonal, I went to a
predominantly white school,never forget. And it wasn't
hurtful to me because I camefrom a black school. So I do
hire survive with stupidity.
Because at once as for your UC,saying the N word, like it's
(06:32):
everyday being in and hearing ina different way, you almost want
to fight. And that's why kind ofon the person I am because I can
fight with words, because I'mgonna use my fist because
there's no need to. So it'shard, you can't tell kids to
stand up for themselves. Andthey do. And then we see what
happens, they end up takingtheir father's garden or their
(06:53):
mother's garden and killing thatperson, and then they destroy
their life for the rest of theirlife. So those numbers are just
overwhelmingly sad, just reallysad.
Dustin Steffey (07:05):
And let's rewind for a sec, because I did want to
make mention of something. Sobefore we dive any deeper, I
want everyone to know that we'lland I are doing our part with
our influence right now. Andwhat we have as an audience and
as creative influencers, to putawareness behind the bullying,
the sexual harassment, thethings that are going on in
(07:28):
school that people know aregoing on, but they're not
voicing their concern, and sofriendly, today starts the fight
for the future of making oureducation system great again,
and I know it sounds cliche, butwe haven't done a good job on
our parts of using our voice tobring to the table what we know
(07:53):
we can to provide that bettereducation. Let's be realistic
for a second here. Well, you andI, like if we were in school
right now, and both you and Iwere being bullied, are you more
likely to want to go to schooland learn or less likely,
Will (08:10):
more, I'm less likely because if I'm in a time in
space where like, I don't feelcomfortable, like I can't even
go to school because someone'smessing with me every day.
They're coming up to me, they'reknocking, my books are pushing
me, they're making me feelbelittled by you know,
embarrassing me in front of theother people. I don't want to go
(08:30):
to school, then I want to likebe homeschooled or I want to
take cyber classes. I'd neverknew that was a thing until I
was in high school. So it'slike, kids go through a lot of
things. And even when there is acry for help, we don't listen to
parents just they don't listen,it goes almost like they don't
care until it's really too late.
Dustin Steffey (08:52):
And that's the thing right now. So another
statistic because I'm full ofthem tonight. 30% in the last
three years of students enrolledin school, have gone to online
school, due in large part to howbad the education system has
gotten, and how theaccountability is not there
(09:14):
anymore for making students feelcomfortable to go to school and
get an education. Furthermore, Iwant you all to know, this is
not a hashtag me too are like,like devaluing what was before
and is now this is puttingawareness to something that is
an epidemic. I believe in alittle bit of roughhousing, but
(09:37):
I do not believe in beingbullied.
Will (09:42):
Yeah, it's it's a and then even green brings back to
memories like I remember mysophomore year, like my
sophomore year. I got sick ofthe White country folk always
messing with me. I really theywere messing me up I was the
type that, like, I didn't dosports, I was just more like, I
(10:04):
was good in class. But I wassmart. But then I was
articulate, but I was goodlooking, too. But I never got in
the mix with anybody, I just didmy own thing. So after a while,
when I'm putting a Volga here,will you hear people just call
you nigger all the time, all thetime. You walk down the hall,
and they say, yeah, come on,load, nigger, keep walking. So
(10:26):
it's almost like you want tofight people with words, but
people, they're not ready. Andthen that shock value comes. So
in order to like really combatthis, you got to tell people if
you're going to fight people,five people the smart way with
bullies, because bullies theydon't want to be stood up to,
they don't want to you get thebetter of them. And their
friends are looking at them.
Like, you just gotta let themsay that. So it's almost like
(10:46):
that thing, way back in the daylike kids would play the does is
like, if I'm gonna talk aboutyour mom, you're gonna talk my
way, I'm going to make sure ithits any things harder than
supposed to be, but because weknow, that's how fighting really
starts. But kids, they're sothey're so stupid, really.
Because they're, they're nottrained to like just talk about
(11:07):
what's going on. Because noone's actually given them a
chance to have an outlet of anysort. And it's gotten even
worse, because social mediamakes it even more of a, of a
vibrant territory to wherebullying goes to a whole nother
level. Like, we can like justcall each other names and move
on. But no, if you become ameme, you will become a meme
(11:27):
forever. And nobody will everforget that.
Dustin Steffey (11:31):
And let's let's dive into a couple of different
things. First, I want to diveinto the role of administration
and teachers within this firstand foremost, and then we'll
dive in to technology and socialmedia. So So teachers, faculty,
staff, and admin, have a role toplay in accountability and
(11:55):
making sure the schools aresafe. However, there's been
nearly two decades of crapthat's piled on and piled on,
and rules and red tape, wherenow we're in and we're in a day
and age now, where the teachershave no power to be able to do
anything. And thenadministration has some power,
(12:18):
but they're protected by theselabor boards and unions, where
there are certain rules thatthey have to follow. So for
example, in my district, rightnow, the rule for bullying is
very simple. You have a threestrike policy, so you have to do
it three times before you'resuspended. So in my mind, yeah,
(12:39):
I know. So watch this in mymind, okay. So say Person A,
beats the living heck out ofsomeone, right? And then the
next time, they don't beat theliving heck out of them, they
bring a knife to school, staband kill them. They didn't get
in trouble, whatever, threestrike rule, right, like 333
times and then you're suspendedlike I'm trying not to laughs at
Will (13:02):
all right that either I wait a bit. So you have to do
something three times before itbecomes serious to where you
just expelled them or kick themout or whatever it might be.
Whereas ISS Oh,
Dustin Steffey (13:15):
that's not expulsion, dude. That's
suspension. Oh, there's more.
There's more to this. You haveto you have to be so like,
messed up and do it so much TVget the hopes of expulsion?
Like, what is this shit?
(13:36):
Seriously? Like, what is thisshit? Like, when I was in
school? It was one time andyou're, you're done. You're
done. That's it. Now, what we'redoing is is there's no
accountability, right? There'sno, there's no safety net.
There's no anything like we'rereally barred by all this red
(13:58):
tape bullshit. Okay. And I'msorry, like for everyone that's
listening. And first, howserious of a topic it is. Well,
and I aren't laughing at thetopic. We're laughing at the
goddamn policies and like, wherehow did we get here?
Will (14:17):
Soft people. Fairy Bo gritty? Yes. Yo gritty, soft as
moist people, the people whothey said that they cared, and
then the ones who bullied theygrew up and now they became the
administrator. They became thepowers that be. So with that,
they they almost took over towhere they're going to allow it.
(14:42):
But they're going to putstipulations into it to make
sure like, oh, yeah, let's givethese office kids a chance
because you know, these pissy asparents, they don't know what
they're doing. So we'll justcover it for them. So it's, it's
a repetitive cycle of stupidity.
It really is a serious me Net.
Dustin Steffey (15:00):
Let's paint the picture a little deeper here.
Well, it gets worse.
Will (15:03):
He gets worse. Let's paint this picture. Here we go. All
right.
Dustin Steffey (15:07):
So let's start out with where my daughter is.
She's in elementary school.
Okay. Right now as it stands herrules and this is her coming
home to dad every single day,Dad, I have an issue. All right,
what is it Peyton? I have thesetwo boys that continue to call
me a fat cow, hold my hair andslap me. And I go to tell my
(15:28):
teacher. And my teacher saysbecause they've already been
aware of these kids beingbullies to begin with. There's
nothing that she can do. So wrapyour head around that for a
second. Okay, wrap like thinkfor a second on that? Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Yeah. It gets worse.
(15:50):
You're ready for this one?
Will (15:52):
Yeah. So
Dustin Steffey (15:55):
these kids, in my opinion, that are doing this
and with the repercussions thatthey're getting, which is
nothing, okay. is essentiallyteaching my daughter who is 10
years old, that it is okay forboys to slap, beat you call you
a fat cow pull your hair. It isokay for that. And mind you
(16:19):
Peyton hasn't retaliated andPeyton retaliates, she gets in
trouble. But she's the victim.
Remember this. So let's moveforward. Okay, so let's move
forward to the middle school.
This is the skit and worse, yougo to the Middle School. And in
the middle school, you havethese kids that are blatantly
smoking pot in public. They'refucking in the bathrooms.
(16:42):
They're not getting in troubleat all. They're in the
classroom, where the teacher istrying to teach, but they're not
paying attention because they'reon their phones doing whatever,
whatever they're calling theteacher names, whatever the case
may be, and there's norepercussion there. So they're
being allowed to act likeheathens. And then you get to
the high school. Here we go.
Here's where the cherry justfalls on top. So, at the high
(17:05):
school, I have I've nice, right,she she told me first day of
school, she walks in, she walksinto the stall, to hearing like
two or three couples justfornicating in the stall, and
then like you walk outside,there's like condoms, there's,
there's drugs, there's girlsthat are beating other people
(17:30):
for no reason. There's like foulattitudes, there's no respect.
There's no accountability,there's no nothing. And then you
look at the administration, andthey're not doing a damn thing
about it. Not one damn thing?
Will (17:46):
Well, there can be some a little bit of understanding when
it comes in administration. Andbecause we know with teachers,
they are really underpaid. Theyare. And that's what they got
don't get is if you know you'regoing to be underpaid. Why the
hell would you want to become ateacher? That that's a really
legitimate question. And I cancare less to say, oh, I want to
mold young minds. Fuck thatwe're not going to do everything
(18:09):
for free. We're not going to doit for the joy of something.
We're doing somebody to getpaid? Because that's what we
want to do. How are you going togo to school for almost six
years of undergrad and then acouple years of grad, get your
teaching certificate, sub for acouple of years and then become
a full time teacher? And thenit's like, it's the greatest
thing ever. And then you wonderwhy, you know, teachers are
(18:30):
sleeping with students becausethey have no other choice. Like,
there. There's just the sadstudents are. And it was like,
there, you're right, there is noaccountability. But it's another
thing is it. It's one of thosethings that I keep saying, that
is a repetitive cycle, thatbroken homes or raising broken
people, is a truly repetitivecycle. And if you're not really
(18:52):
alarmed what's going on at home,then ages it carries to the
school, you take your angerfrustrations out, everybody. Now
that's a bit to the middleschool, when it gets to the high
school. That's just a differentstory. They're just, they're
fucked up. They're gonna befucked up for the rest of their
lives. So there's some goodones, there are some bad ones.
And they're just ones that wejust might see them on the 10
(19:14):
O'Clock News, or asking, askedme what to do on paper or
plastic, or we want fries withthat, you know, wherever the
market might be. But it reallycomes down to it's all about
your home environment. How areyou conducting yourself at home?
Where are you seeing at homethat makes you carry out in
school next day? So it's itstarts at home really it does.
(19:38):
And the administrators that wehave in place their ad, it says
well, because I can remember.
Like my my principal. He wassleeping with my guidance
counselor. We all knew it. Andshe used to carry a flask in her
purse and drink on the job. Likeshe was a really she was a stone
out drunk and didn't give a damnyou go into her office, she
(19:59):
already smell like it was happyhour. It was nine o'clock in the
morning. So it just goes to showyou that. If they don't care,
they're going to make it No,because they're just there. for
the hell of it.
Dustin Steffey (20:12):
It's five o'clock somewhere, right?
Will (20:14):
You didn't write it is.
Dustin Steffey (20:16):
But here, let me paint this picture more. So I
have an article written by RhettSchumann. And the article title
is the truth of Fernley HighSchool. Okay, this is the high
school that my daughter isslated to go to. Okay, this was
written in 2021. So it's stillrelevant. Okay. So let me just
(20:38):
read an excerpt from it. Whatwould you do if your child was
being bullied or sexuallyharassed out there school?
School is meant to be a safelearning environment. But what
is protocol when thatenvironment is interrupted? What
is the school administration'sjob in these situations? What if
the school brushed off any andall allegations brought to them
(21:00):
by their own students? These arequestions surrounding a school
in our own backyard, which isFHS. Right? The one I was
telling you about. So thearticle goes on. This is a
formal female that was at thishigh school, okay. 1700 people
signed a petition. And they signit's continuing to be signed
(21:24):
this day, right? Once you signthe petition, you have the
option to leave a comment. Whenyou sign it right. There were
over 85 comments that were puton to that. Okay, some of these
accom comments include onsigning this petition because I
personally dropped out of FHS,my freshman year due to severe
(21:48):
bullying after I was raped, andthe whole school found out and
accused me of lying. I went tothe counselors and admin and
told them what happened. Andinstead of helping, they brushed
it off and sent me back to classwith my rapist. That's one
comment. Here's another comment.
They've failed us. Pretty,pretty brief. Pretty easy
(22:10):
comment right there. Yeah, watchthis. It gets worse. It got so
bad I self harmed and they gaveme a pap, which I don't know if
you know what a PAP is. It'salternative placement education
program, until my mother took meto West Hills, which for you to
know, because you're not fromhere. West Hills is a mental
facility. So took took the kidto West Hills. They didn't want
(22:33):
to deal with me or have otherkids see me like that. So I'd
like to personally thank the FHSoffice staff for my trauma that
I'm still going to therapy fortoday. There's another comment
you're seeing. Here's one Ihated every moment of every day
in this sad excuse for school. Ireported my friend's stepfather
for beating her. Nothinghappened. My other friend
(22:57):
reported a boy threatening toshoot her. They said they can't
do anything. One of my friendswas jumped, and the school
actively fought against her. Youknow, what are we fucking doing?
Dude,
Will (23:11):
you're right, everybody's gonna buy high school every day
and never fail. It never feltthere was a bomb threat called
it every day before secondperiod. It never fucking failed
every day. And it's just It goesto show you like the mental and
the mentality of these kids.
It's growing into a more severesevere cry for help because no
(23:34):
one is trying to help anybody.
They're just masking it towhere, oh, we'll deal with it,
but only when it gets reallysevere after like their fifth or
sixth strike when they've reallydone something bad. So it's
like, who's guarding? Who? Who'swatching who? Like, should we be
watching the teachers should youknow we say hey, maybe I should
(23:57):
go to counseling, you know, cuzmaybe all overworked and
underpaid, but then the kids,they're more overworked than
anybody because they have to doso much, you know, almost
prepare themselves for adultlife. Because after 18 It just
pushes you out and they willgive it they're like I don't
know, man. It's different for mebecause I think I grew up at a
(24:22):
time right to where social mediawas about to start. But you
still had to, you still had towork for dates, you still had to
be accountable. You know, I hadsome good teachers that I still
remember to this day had somebad ones. But it was up to me to
make my own mark because Ididn't want to be another
statistic. I didn't want to beanother black kid who dropped
(24:45):
out. And then I would have tolike go get my GED. So it's like
it's hard to really not put theblame but really give a
definitive answer on what'sreally going on.
Dustin Steffey (24:57):
Isn't it sad?
That what We've come to youseriously.
Will (25:02):
Truly is this really sad?
Dustin Steffey (25:05):
So I'm going to, I'm going to show you something
else to this. This is this isfor because this is going to be
on, on video for us on YouTube.
So I'm going to show a videoreal quick, I'm going to share
my screen so people can see it.
This is at Sid FHS. Thishappened three, three days ago.
(25:26):
Okay, I FHS. So I'm about toshow you what we're dealing
with. We will be right backafter a quick break. Hello, chop
nation. I hope all of you areenjoying the guests and content
we share weekly. Now, I need afavor from all of you. There's a
ton that goes into making itsuccessful podcast. And most of
(25:48):
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(26:09):
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(27:13):
right there is sad, dude. realsad.
Will (27:17):
So you can see the girl she's just she's walking away.
She's probably saying no, don'tdo this. Leave me alone. You can
just tell by her body posture.
And it's oh my god. No,everybody's just walk walking
paths. Not seeing a goddamnthing. Like no one wants to get
involved. Everyone else would besaying, oh, let's stand up.
Let's combat this. But no onetakes a stand for nobody.
(27:38):
Everybody's a fuckingindividual. Everybody.
Dustin Steffey (27:42):
So that's for that that victim that was
getting mauled. is the daughterof someone I'm close to. Okay.
And I know how the daughterfeels I'm not going to exploit
names or anything. But of coursenot she can fight she chose not
to, because the repercussionsare the same. Number one, number
(28:06):
two, this video right here isthe catalyst or moving forward
on what you and I are trying todo right now, which is we're
trying to create a change thatright there is BS, though, that,
like you saw it, there was novoice or anything. But if I were
to turn on the sound, kids inthe background, we're
(28:29):
encouraging the fight. And howdid the fight even start? There
was no nothing to provoke it atall. Nothing.
Will (28:41):
At first, she was just sitting there. And then she got
up and started backing away.
Dustin Steffey (28:45):
Because she knew something was gonna happen. Yep.
Yeah. She knew she smart girl.
She knew something was gonnahappen. And this is what I'm
talking about. That's thebullying part. This doesn't
include teachers that areadvancing on their high school
students trying to have sex withthem. This doesn't include rate
this doesn't include the blatantdisrespect within the schools.
(29:09):
This doesn't include all of thatat all. This accountability
piece right here in theeducation system is lacking. And
it is not okay. And we haven'taddressed the next part yet. We
will the parenting part we willget to but first I want to end
this on the education side. Thatright there is bullshit and
(29:32):
that's not acceptable. That isnot a safe environment for a kid
to go to. To learn
Will (29:40):
at all. That's right. That is correct.
Dustin Steffey (29:43):
That is not okay. Like well, you and I are
grown grown men do you and andwe've been through our fair
share of stuff when we wereyounger, but that shit is not
okay.
Will (29:52):
No, it's not. And it's it's even it's cringing because
you could just see she wassitting there peacefully, just
peacefully She gets up andstarts backing away. And it's
like, I feel very bad for thatgirl. I really do. I feel for
her because I've seen thathappen. But also you see, like,
people will like get up and justtry to like walk off. But she
(30:15):
had nowhere to go because therewas a wall behind her. So she
can go anywhere. And then herecomes that two piece and a
biscuit. So,
Dustin Steffey (30:22):
you know what the response of the school was
for this?
Will (30:25):
Oh, my goodness. Okay, yeah, go ahead, Lay it on me.
Dustin Steffey (30:30):
There's nothing they can do. They gave her ISS
for four days.
Will (30:35):
I asked her establish these OSS for a week.
Dustin Steffey (30:41):
She needs a lot more than that. Like, this is
why I brought up this is why Ibrought up what I did in the
beginning, there needs to be achange. There needs to be some
form of counseling, there needsto be processes and procedures
to help these young adultsbecome citizens within our
society because clearly thatdoes not fly and clearly that
(31:03):
right there to me. Someone likethat is going to be in and out
of jail.
Will (31:09):
Sure, screwed. Fucking screwed.
Dustin Steffey (31:14):
This this is one snippet like this is happening
nationwide, bro. Like, this isone fucking little puzzle piece
of the grander scheme.
Will (31:24):
I get it. And I want to go back to what you just talked
about pain because, say, and Idon't mean to make this sound
like this. But this is my mind.
If she was black. She came hometo my mom and my mom said that
fuck going to the teachers willroll to the parents house and be
like, Why are you beating up onmy baby? What is wrong with your
(31:47):
sons? Do you have any fuckingidea what's going on? So if our
kids will continue to fight,we're going to fight because if
they keep beating her ass, I'mgonna beat your ass and then
sooner or later, it's gonna it'sgonna get squashed could handle.
But how dare you slap a kid?
(32:07):
Call her a fat cow or whatever.
Like you don't do that, likewhat the fuck is wrong with you?
I just noticed she was black,which I'm not saying this. But
it would be handled differently,like white people or black
people. We handle things verydifferently. You're not going to
bully your children. Because ifthat's happened, we're going to
come to you and we're going tobully you. That's just how it's
(32:28):
handled. Like that's handled asadults. So not that I'm saying
that you're not doing that.
Because what you're doing nowdoes is very admirable. It is. I
just know from what I've seenfrom my background, if that
happens to my daughter, or ifthat's happened, someone else
has done it. And she was black.
Yeah, I asked when it got beatena long time ago. Fuck three
strike rule. Yeah, I'll give youthree strikes across your face.
Dustin Steffey (32:53):
And I'm telling you right now, my friend like I
it isn't different from black towhite. Because I'm not scared to
make a house call. I just knowthat I'm a single father and I'm
all paid and has so if I made ahouse call and went to jail,
that's not doing Peyton anygood. Because I will go to jail.
I'll beat the living hell out ofsomeone. Oh, yeah, I know that.
But But I also know I'm educatedand intelligent. So I can I can
(33:16):
really make an impact right nowlike we're doing and that's what
we're doing.
Will (33:21):
Yeah. And I can roll up that degree and just slap a
subject across your face. You'rereally using it? Yeah, yeah.
Dustin Steffey (33:30):
I get it. Did I get it? Like this, this like,
like all joking aside, right?
Like, we are trying to make thisa little lighter. But all joking
aside, this is a big deal. Andthis leads us to the next step,
which is parenting, right?
Parents are more absent now, inmy opinion than they've ever
(33:52):
been in children's lives. Okay.
And it's due in large part tothe fast paced society having to
work more not making enoughmoney, bad, bad dynamics, maybe
maybe you have parents that youhave a dad or a mom that are in
and out of jail, and it'ssetting a bad example, whatever
the case may be. Things stemfrom home life and bleed in to
(34:14):
the school life. However, watchthis before we dive into
anything like opinion, please Nomore. No, no, no. And then
another video No, no, no othervideo but watch this. This is
where I get frustrated. You haveparents that aren't absent in
their children's lives that aretrying to raise them right. But
(34:38):
the kids are influenced by otherkids on where they go. So
anything parenting related isout the damn window. Because
influences influence Okay, soyou can be the best damn parent
ever doing the right things bythe kids. But the kids aren't
Just learning from you, they'relearning from their environment
(35:01):
and where they go.
Will (35:04):
Yes. And you know, when you said that it reminds me of
this movie that came out forthose of you who are born after
2000, it was a movie calledbully came out in like
2001 2002. And it was based on atrue story where a guy was
bullying a guy. And then all ofthem got together and killed him
(35:25):
down in Florida and tried tothrow him in a swamp. So that's
what happens. Like you can bebullied by someone who is your
best friend, your homie, you'rea one since day one. But sooner
or later, you'll get sick of it,and you'll kill somebody because
you're tired of it. And thishappens, it happens every day,
to where you think you got theswarm of friends. And not just
(35:48):
like your home life, but outsideof your home where you know,
people you're with, but you'realways the butt of your jokes.
So sometimes you might get sickof it, you're gonna shoot
somebody. I know, I have plentyof friends like that, that I
grew up with that one of themthat he went to juvie because he
like, beat the living shit outof a kid because he was just
tired of his shit. He reallywas. And he was like talk of
(36:11):
school for at least a good week.
Like we were all shocked when ithappened. And it just goes to
show you that no matter what,even if you do have a stable
foundation, a stable home life,sometimes it's the friends that
you have are not always thefriends that you need to keep.
Dustin Steffey (36:29):
And here's the deal, like I presented in the
beginning, school shootings anddeaths are on the rise. And it
all attributes and is part ofbullying. Most of the school
shooters that are doing theshooting were bullied. That's
bad. It's just bad all the wayaround. We already addressed
(36:50):
that there's a lack ofaccountability, and a lack of
processes in place in theschools. We've already addressed
home life and parenting. Let'saddress the district level. So
district letter, Oh, dude, itis. So I have I have a school
board meeting on Tuesday. Okay.
And here's the deal, they giveyou three minutes to talk and
(37:15):
say what's going on. And youhave to articulate that in three
minutes for them to maybe, maybemake a difference. That it's
it's just a broken process rightnow. And I'm not, listen, here's
the deal. I'm not bashing onadmins teachers are or the
district level right now, thisisn't about bashing on them.
(37:40):
This is about bringing inawareness of something that's
broken, something that's broken,that clearly needs to be fixed.
And we need to come up withsolutions. And we need more
voices, whether it be students,whether it be parents, whether
it be faculty, to voice theirconcerns, so we can get through
(38:00):
this and come up with a new wayof how to educate our kids and
create a safe environment foreducation, how to enable, enable
programs that are put into placefor accountability. And to drive
respect, again, in my opinion,to these young adolescents,
having to learn how to respectbetter to be able to function in
(38:25):
society later.
Will (38:29):
And it's almost you want to a and then you use your three
minutes of us like well, what ifyour child, how would you feel?
How would you feel if your childwas getting bullied, or your
child wants to bully? And evenif you try to put into that
general narrative, it's stillgoing to be a problem because
they're going to justify bysaying, Oh, well, I don't think
my kids do that. The fuck yeah,if your kid is influenced, or
(38:52):
your kid is being neglected,they're going to do whatever
they wanted to, that's gonnacause them to act out in air
quotes. So it's really hard toget through the masses because
they don't want to listen toreason. As well as you know,
understanding coming from, youknow, a parent's perspective,
like my kids being bullied, I'mtired of your shit. We need to
(39:12):
do more. Stop masking it, likeput better, put better agendas.
So you know, things like thisdon't happen. Like we can teach
kids kids can be able to go toschool and enjoy and want to
come to school every day. Not beafraid to stay at home or fake
sick or they'll do a half a dayback. Oh yeah. I don't want to
(39:35):
do this just clock out. Becauseafter a while you get sick of
it. And do you even have liketwo statistics when it comes to
what graduation rates are aftera child is bullied?
Dustin Steffey (39:47):
I do actually I wrote them down. So if we're
looking at graduation statisticsabout 15% of kids nationally,
drop out of school due tobullying and never graduate.
Will (40:01):
Yeah. And then he started working for Amazon.
Dustin Steffey (40:03):
Nice. That's and see, that's the bad part here.
So those kids in indirectly ruintheir own lives because they
dropped out because they thoughtthey had no other choice. And
now they can't betterthemselves. And now, now we're
getting in two bigger situationsthat I don't want to address on
this podcast right now, becausethey're very political like,
(40:24):
like going on to unemploymentand our retention rate of people
and like, there, there arebigger issues that these things
stem from, from kids going to beadults.
Will (40:38):
I don't think that's political dashes more of latency
of what could happen. If youdon't, I won't even say mitigate
if you don't stop it in histracks. Because if you let if
you don't take care of thewound, now while it's small,
while his small to her, you'reable to heal it, and it it, it
(40:59):
clears up there, there might bea scar, but it won't be as huge
as gash, that you just keeptrying to throw a bandaid on,
and figuring it's just gonnaheal, no, you're gonna break,
break the foundation of it set anew ground for. So we need to
stop people from bullying eachother we do, because nothing
good comes from it. Either.
It's, you know, more morefights, you know, more acts out,
(41:22):
and eventually it'll lead todeaths, because that's what it
does, that's all leads to isdeath. Nothing good comes out of
someone being bullied. And I cansay that because I one time I
remember I was a bully, becauseI used to act out because I had
behavior issues I want to say,because I won't say I had the
(41:42):
best upbringing, but I come froma single parent home, where I
just had my dad had, there aresome times where, you know, I
went to see my dad or spend timewith him because he was always
working, trying to raise mybrother at night. And then you
know, I would go to school orjust act out and bully other
kids it took it took one teacherto really sit down and talk to
me, like me actually talking toa teacher, and to a guidance
(42:06):
counselor, the teacher was MissLaura, I never forget her. And
then the guidance counselor wasMiss saysky. So those two, they
really helped me, you know, tryto figure out what was going on.
And then, you know, I grew outof it, I became a better person,
because you don't want to be abully forever. You just want to
go to school, learn and enjoyand grow. So there has to be
(42:29):
some type of intervention, sometype of mitigate mitigation to
where children are able to givea safe haven to where they know
they're okay, they will be takencare of. But teachers don't want
to do that, because they're toobusy trying to sleep with them.
So
Dustin Steffey (42:49):
yeah, the we've brought up so many problems. And
I know we haven't brought upsolutions yet. We'll get to
that. But basically, as itstands right now, we have an
epidemic that's not goinganywhere. And we have a plethora
of problems that are being putonto the plate. We have faculty
(43:10):
and staff that can't buy holdpeople accountable. We have
administration that's barred. Wehave the teachers union that has
their own rules. And then wehave district, right. And then
we have parents who can'tarticulate. And so they go to
these meetings, and they justcome on done, and nothing's
getting done. And then you havesomeone like me who's gonna go
(43:32):
to the meeting, and bestructured and not, I don't know
what's gonna come of it. Butwhat I do know is it's not going
to stop for me because thisisn't a one and done. This is
something that if we're going toneed a change, this is this is
it. This is the start of thelong haul right here. This is
the start of a movement ofsomething that needs to be done,
(43:56):
not only locally for me and whatyou just saw, but nationally,
because this isn't just a oneoff, this is happening
everywhere.
Will (44:07):
And then. And then we wonder why we have so many
people that are introverted orextroverted because of stuff
like this.
Dustin Steffey (44:17):
Yeah, it's it's alarming. So let's, let's round
off everything. And let's talkabout potential solutions. Like
we're not we're obviously notthe be all end all. But we're
smart enough to kind of figureout with what our knowledge is
and what we've been through andwhat we're seeing, what are some
potential ways that we can fixthis? So in your mind, well,
(44:39):
like all at all, open the floorto you first, like what do you
think should happen? What do youthink is the long game for this?
What do you think we need to doto be able to move forward into
something different? What areyour thoughts?
Will (44:55):
There's just so many and It's really hard to say just one
because it could be a multitudeof reasons. If anything, maybe
just, instead of automaticallyjust discipline the kid,
(45:16):
bringing the parent in, bringboth parents in sipo, from from
down, whether it's how, howevermany years, so they all know
what's going on. Because youcan't always keep this in house
and not do anything, you can'tkeep it in house and then send a
note home, or send a text oremail, we're gonna stay UK
(45:37):
because such such No, let themface it. They did it by
themselves. Remember, like thesaying goes was done in a dark
will come to the light. So let'sbring it to light bring the
parents in so they know what'sgoing on. So they can talk, like
really start that, start thatright there. And then somehow,
some way, maybe something goodcan come about it. I think that
(46:00):
could be maybe the easiestsolution. If you really get
parents involved, if you reallycare about children and their
well being. That's my idea, mylogical, white idea.
Dustin Steffey (46:13):
Let me ask you something else, because we
didn't dive into it. And we cantechnology hiding behind the
screen, cyber bullying, all ofthat, like, what role does that
play?
Will (46:23):
It plays a huge role now.
Because you know, when you and Iwas in school, we didn't have
technology like that we had cellphones, but not like this. So
it's not like we can get onFacebook or Instagram, we can
like just talk shit all day.
Now, kids can actually hidebehind screens, but you can
still find them. But there'sgoing to be some type Avenue
(46:43):
some type of outlet to whereit's not going to stop. It may
may stop physically, butemotionally, it won't. So it's
hard to try to fight bullyingonline. Because once a grows leg
is going to keep growing andgrowing. And it's hard to stop
it.
Dustin Steffey (47:01):
I agree, I think the rise of technology. And like
I said in the beginning were twodecades into this epidemic. The
rise of technology has createdmore issues, in my opinion, than
good. I'm not saying thattechnology should disappear. But
I'm saying that we need to havemore responsibility and limited
(47:26):
interactions with youngadolescents on social media. And
furthermore, with some of thistechnology, to be able to help
them mature and use social mediaand other things like avenues to
how you and I use it we use. Weuse social media and technology
to educate people to or in yourcase for you and your podcast,
(47:49):
to give people laughs Andactually, like, help people to
make it through their day. Andthen for my podcast, it's very
much on education, on businessand on investments and on
bringing real examples in tohelp people move further and
better themselves.
Will (48:08):
I just want to interject here for a minute. I've been on
your page, and I have yet to seean investment that is really
lucrative. So you need to dobetter there, buddy.
Dustin Steffey (48:17):
Hey, listen, first and foremost, buddy, not
not to not to do anything meanhere. You have to have money to
be able to invest.
Will (48:25):
I look, but I never said to have money. I just see the
idea that was lucrative.
Dustin Steffey (48:31):
All right. Well, I'll do better on that. Then all
you know, I'm writing that downright now. Duly noted.
Will (48:38):
Yeah, he's not. He's not stop, stop.
Dustin Steffey (48:42):
So here's where I'm at. Because we're talking
about solutions, right? I, I'mthinking about this right. And
for the bully. I feel like whatwe have in place now is what
they want, right? They want toget suspended. They want to not
have to do school they want tolike be they're almost being
rewarded to be a bully. And sowe have to think about
(49:07):
repercussions and putting themin place for like really
teaching like negative versuspositive. Right. So for me, I
don't have a clear cookie cutteranswer. I have ideas. First and
foremost, we have to giveaccountability, like back and we
(49:28):
have to hold people accountable.
That's first and foremost, Ithink there should be some form
of counseling, or maybe a schoolcounselor, you know, that
actually dives into this alittle more. I think there
should be some support programs.
I get it. I understand whatyou're saying I do. And again,
I'm bringing up ideas that Ithink are great and well they
(49:49):
happen who knows it for youyou're saying no,
Will (49:52):
but it's not like that.
It's just saying but you knowyou want to bring in more people
and then you already adding workto them. are over abundant
workload that they have already.
So you're making them do moreand in such amount of time that
hell no, you want to beresponsible for the shit that's
going on now. And then, you knowof a bully saying, oh, yeah, I
guess spend it, then that'swhere it goes, we were just
(50:15):
saying a moment ago to wherethat that dropout rate
increases, because they justgive up like, oh fucking Well,
now for the people who are beingwho are being bullied the
bullies like some of them dropout too, or some of them make it
to Wall Street, you know, likeour president did, we're experts
at it. But that's beside thepoint. But still, I mean, it's
(50:35):
just, you just don't know.
Because even every avenue thatyou tried to take, there's going
to be some type of loophole towhere it's just, it won't work.
Not to say it won't, becauseanything's possible, but you
have to be realistic about this.
So trying to give a teacher moreresponsibility to really put in
the time to try to figure outlike about this is really
(50:58):
difficult.
Dustin Steffey (51:00):
I agree. And I understand the putting more work
on when they're already notdoing the work to begin with.
But we have to, we have to startlooking at what restructure
looks like we have to, there areeducators, and there are staff,
faculty and admin, that is outthere that does care. And that
(51:21):
does want to do things, but theycan't.
Will (51:24):
And we just fire them. And we just have robots teach them.
Dustin Steffey (51:27):
I mean, that's probably where we're heading to
be honest with you. It
Will (51:31):
I mean, it's, it's not a bad idea. But it is a bad idea.
Because the you get rid of theteacher element of it all, which
that's the most important thing,having a person a person
contact. So a robot is now mostinclined to have some type of
(51:52):
emotional attachment oremotional investment when it
comes to teaching. So I mean, Iwouldn't be my top AI robot, but
I don't know. I'm a littleindifferent about it.
Dustin Steffey (52:04):
All right. Yeah, I have no comment. I'm not even
going to make a comment dude on,not at all, not at all off. Here
is, here is what I'm going todo. I'm rounding this off and
ending, I want to bring thelight a couple of things. For
those of you that are listening,that are out there. Maybe you
(52:26):
guys are in school, maybe I havea couple of you that are
listening, that are in schoolthat are being bullied, please
don't let being bullied, silenceyou. Please continue to speak
up, please continue to bestrong. Please continue to do
the right things. Because wehear you. We're here, we're
(52:46):
listening, we hear you. Andwe're trying to figure out a way
to make this better, that it'sit's not going to be an
overnight thing. And it's it'sit's a difficult road that is
ahead for pretty much all of us,right? But we hear you don't be
silenced. Don't be discouraged.
And don't let that take anythingaway from what you are. For
(53:08):
those of you that are being thebullies. Shame on you, and your
time will come. And I promiseyou, you're not gonna like
yourself 10 years down the road.
I promise.
Will (53:23):
It really not. There's nothing wrong with peaceful
protests. There's nothing wrongwith taking a peaceful stance.
But also remember people thatyou still have to protect
yourself, no matter what. So weare we as people, we all have
feelings, we can only take somany punches, whether it's
physical, or mental. But you Ihave to say this, you have to
(53:44):
learn how to stand up foryourself. You got to have some
backbone, you can't keep justtaking and taking and taking it
and walking off. Like evenGandhi got sick of it, he did
something. In that's the mostpeaceful person, I can say that
you can be able to look up andunderstand about his struggles
and what he did. But he stillwas able to fight back and still
(54:06):
be able to look himself in themirror and say, I took a stand,
I did something. So running andhiding all the time is not going
to do anything. I'm not goingagainst what Dustin saying I'm
just adding by saying you haveto learn how to stand up for
yourself. Because if you don't,you're going to be bullied
forever. And people will seethat and they'll take advantage
(54:28):
of that. So yes, if somethinghas happened to you talk to
anybody who can who is willingto listen. But then also, you
also have to do something to I'mnot saying to be physical
because violence has itself anyday. But you know what, it tells
a bully you don't want to bemessed with and you need to
leave you alone. So just take itas you are you want but just
(54:51):
know speak up and speak out.
Dustin Steffey (54:55):
And lastly, I'm going to leave you guys with a
quote that resonates with me forthis app. So, which is, I've
learned that people will forgetwhat you said, people will
forget what you did. But peoplewill never forget how you made
them feel. And that's from MayaAngelou, which is a civil rights
(55:16):
activist. So I'm just lettingyou guys know, like, we are
listening, we are going to makea difference. And the more
voices that back this, and themore people that come into this
old into this corner, we aregoing to be heard and something
will have to be done, becausethey can't just let it keep
(55:36):
going the way it is. And as Willsaid, he is not wrong, I'm not
going to sit here and tell youto be violent, because that
isn't that isn't the play. Butwhat I am going to sit here and
tell you to do is use use whatyour strengths are in order to
protect yourself. So for me, my,my strengths are I can
(55:56):
definitely be physical, but Ialso have an intellect as well,
too. And so that's the strengththat I'm playing off of right
now to make that difference.
Will (56:05):
Definitely, definitely.
And I'm not saying violenceeither people, I'm not saying
that. Just just protectyourself. That's all it really
comes because it's just you, andit's whoever it is. So it comes
down to okay, they're gonna hityou, you go tell, but they're
gonna keep coming back. It'slike, you got to fight back
somehow, someway. So don'talways hide every time go tell
(56:27):
somebody, whoever it might be,whoever. Well,
Dustin Steffey (56:34):
thank you. Just thank you for coming on and
helping us through this. I know,it's it's a little different
pace from what you're used to.
But I also know that it hitshome for you too. So I
appreciate you coming on to cohost with me for this one
because it it's definitely a bigtopic. And it's something that I
think you and I want to drive adifference. And so I appreciate
you.
Will (56:56):
Oh, yeah, man, thank you so much. It does definitely hit
home because like I said,earlier, I've been on both
sides. So I know how it feels.
But when I was going to be inbullied or fought back, I got
sick of it. And I was like, I'mnot going to take this anymore.
I stood my ground after I toldyou know, my teachers, and my
admins and everybody and no onedid nothing. So I took it upon
(57:17):
myself and I'm like, Alright, Ifought back. But of course, I
got OSS, but I was happy aboutit because I took a stand. I did
something about it. And I wasjust happy that it came about. I
wasn't very happy that I had toCigna seclusion, but it was
still it was so good. And thatperson never bothered me ever
(57:39):
again. So thank you so much forhaving me, man. I really
appreciate it. Honestly, I do.
And this fight is not going tostop here. It's not we're going
to make this a global day.
Dustin Steffey (57:51):
We are its influences banding together. And
now it's time to use our talentsand that's what we're doing. So,
again, thank you guys, fortuning in. Thanks for listening.
If you like what you hear andyou're interested in more
because like well said thisisn't going anywhere. Please
subscribe to any of our socialmedias at chopping wood fire and
(58:12):
or if you want to listen to someof Will's stuff, subscribe to
any of his social medias, whichis at sarcasm and orgasms. And
please drop us a line just dropus a comment. Let us know what
we can do what you've beenthrough. We're here we're here
to talk. We like to definitelytalk to people and really help
(58:34):
out and make a difference. Sothank you again for listening.
Well, thank you for coming on.
And this is another episode ofchopping with fire
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