Porter the Pig's Poor Decision
Written and Illustrated by
Nicole Verteramo
Cora the Cow lives on a quaint farm out in the country. Each day, she does what most cows do. She wakes up, does her chores, and goes off to the Farmingdale school. When she gets home, she does her homework, then goes on fun adventures with her friends.
Porter the Pig also lives on a farm. He goes to the Farmingdale school with Cora. Porter isn't a bad pig, but sometimes he gets into mischief. One afternoon, there were no farm friends around to play. Porter the pig was very bored, indeed. He logged onto his computer.
Porter logged onto Animal Place, his favorite website. On this site, all the farm animals post on their friend's pages, add pictures, and make statuses. Porter came across Cora's page. Then, he made a bad decision. He thought it would be humorous to leave a "joking" post. He wrote "Cora the Cow smells like a barnyard!"
Cora did not log onto animal place that night. The next day in school, her friend Brenna the bunny came up to her. Brenna asked Cora if she had seen Porter's vicious post. When Cora said no, Brenna told her all about it. Cora became hysterical and started crying. Brenna told the teacher, Mrs. Halpern the Hen.
Mrs. Halpern was furious. She gave a long speech to the entire class. She said that all students are responsible for what they write on the internet. If they write a post that is supposed to make someone upset, it is called cyberbullying. It would not be tolerated in Mrs. Halpern's classroom! She said if anyone was feeling guilty, they should go home tonight and fix their mistake.
Porter felt badly about what he had done. He thought the post was funny. Porter didnt think his actions would hurt Cora's feelings. He went straight home, deleted the post, and walked to Cora's farm. He found her sitting under a tree, and she still looked upset. Porter apologized and promised he would never write a mean post to her, or any animal, again. Cora knew he was sorry, and she forgave him.
The moral of this story is that bullying anyone, online OR in person, is wrong. Cyber-bullying is becoming an important problems in school today. Think before you say or do anything that may hurt someone elses' feelings.