Middle School Bullying Comes in All Shapes and Sizes

As a parent of kids in middle and high school, this is disturbing to me.

Scrolling through Facebook, this photo stopped me dead in my tracks. A mom posted this picture of her son's hands and explained what this "Eraser Challenge" is all about.

Lindsay Rae says: "These are my middle school son's hands. Did he cut them? No. This is the result of another student giving him 'Eraser Challenge' where they rub an eraser back and forth on their skin until it rubs away, then you wash your hands and put hand sanitizer afterwards to see how bad it stings. This to me is another form of peer bullying to kids that just want to be cool, or fit in. Yes middle school kids are ridiculous, but this? This may leave lifelong scars. I challenge you parents to have a conversation with your kids, whether they are the kids doing the challenging or being challenged, this is not OK. This is symptomatic of bigger problems when this kind of self harm is happening, in the name of peer pressure and being cool."

As a kid myself, I vaguely remember this type of peer pressure or bullying if you will. If it wasn't the "Eraser Challenge," it was something else very much like it. Either way, I didn't like it then when I was a little girl and I most definitely do not like it happening now as a mom of boys in middle school.

I asked my 13-year-old seventh-grader if he has ever seen this going on in school, and he said he has not. I believe him. He seemed surprised to hear that kids do this to each other, knowing that it's going to hurt and leave a scar.

He said to me, "Mom, this is so not cool. I would never do this or let someone do it to me."

I asked him to be aware of it and if he sees anything like this going on, he should go to one of his teachers or faculty members.