Bullying

Article: http://patch.com/new-jersey/brick/why-bullying-matters-one-womans-story-0

Summary: In the article, the author describes a personal account in which she was constantly tormented by a group of boys and she refused to report the incidents. 

Deviant Phrase: "Read them the riot act," expresses the father's actions towards the boys that had been bullying his daughter. 

Deviant Phrase: The author uses the phrase "infected the entire class,"  to illustrate the severity of the bullying. Infect means to affect with disease, but there was no disease. The author is referring to bullying as the disease that affected the class. 

Vocabulary: The term "relentlessly," describes a situation that is unyielding in severity or strictness. The author was relentlessly threatened for six months.

Vocabulary: "Innocuous," means having no adverse effect. The author describes soccer as one of the innocuous things that only a handful of people really know about her. 

Abstract Connection: Even though the author was threatened and physically attacked, she refused to let anyone know. The author made several attempts to inform her parents, but she feared that the teacher would call her a "tattletale." The author mentioned that she was ridiculed because of the clothes she wore. Rachel Crow's music video, "Mean Girls," can relate to the story of the author. 

Abstract Connection: http://www.wsj.com/articles/five-baruch-students-charged-with-hazing-in-frat-death-1442365088
A college student was beaten to his death during a hazing ritual. Imagine what would have happened if the author's father hadn't found out about his daughter being bullied. The situation could have been worse; she could have died.