how where you bullied

[Clinton Iggulden]

Back in junior and senior high I was bullied relentlessly about my weight and being the loner of the class. Actually, my biggest fear during school was people finding out about my orientation. I am gay, and comfortable with my orientation now, but my line of thinking back then was along the lines of, 'if they treat me like this for being fat... they will probably kill me for being gay.' I live in Alberta, and the common joke up here is Alberta is the Texas of Canada... so my thinking might not have been far off. Needless to say; they did not find out about my orientation, nor was I comfortable with myself for a long long time. Suicidal thoughts were common for me during and after my high school years.

Bullying has a long lasting effect on everyone, and I am in love with the new campaigns taking root in the US. The 'It Gets Better' campaign have been opening peoples eyes to the bullying that does happen in the schools, and yes it is geared towards people being bullied for being gay, but the same thing happens to many different stereotypes. One of my favourite videos from 'It Gets Better' is by Rebecca Drysdale for the simple fact she acknowledges that bullying does not only happen to gay people, but to so many others out there too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTQNwMxqM3E

TL;DR: Yes I was bullied, it sucked, it is still happening... people are finally starting to see it is a problem.

 

[ace_of_something]

I wasn't.

I grew up in a town where there were about 50 people under the age of 18 at any given time. When a town is that small people try to be nice to each other. Even kids.

 

[The Man With the Soap]

Mostly emotionally. After my parents died, I became very unsure of myself and a bit out of place to most people. That typically lead to the popular girls teasing me for being sensitive, or causing problems for me whenever I was alone. It became much easier when I started hanging out with my best friends (thank god for lunch switches) though.

Wow, that's terrible. I remember the kid's making fun of my grandfather after he died because they thought "Well he's dead now, so we can insult him all we want!"

I think I bruised one kid's arm badly and almost broke the other's nose before we were all suspended.

If you don't mind me asking, how did your parent's die?

:/

That's a pretty cruel thing to say. But some people really are like that, yup yup. I'm sorry to hear about your loss. My parents died in a car accident with a drunk driver by the way. :/

If I may, I offer my condolences for the passings of your parents (however small they must seem). I take it that you did not go around the school trumpetting the news of your parents' deaths, so not many people probably knew the emotional trauma you were suffering. They probably only knew you as "that weird girl," making you an easy target for their abuse. Another example of how people will always think that they can tell everything about you without ever talking to you. Those kinds of bullies are the lowest to me, because they never confront you directly unless they are backed up by a group of friends. Girls aren't the only ones that do this, but they certainly do it a lot. This is what goes on in school. This is why I can't see any point in going through four more years of college after high school.

It means quite a bit actually, so thank you very much. Yeah. School can be really tough when you are going through problems that depress you or make you otherwise out of place to others. There will always be those people who make others feel bad so they can feel better about themselves. =/

School was wonderful, but it was also horrible at times. I don't have a lot of experience in college. Do you think a 4 year college is just more of the same?

Well, people told me middle school would be different. It wasn't. They told me high school would be different. It wasn't. I'm starting to notice a pattern here, so I don't really think I'm ready for another four years yet. I'm going to do something I think is more worth-while.

 

[Marter]

Pokemon sucks! And what're you - *jabs in ribs* - gonna do about it?

If this counts as bullying, then yeah, I was bullied. I don't take it as such though. It's just teasing.

 

[Sovereignty]

Mostly emotionally. After my parents died, I became very unsure of myself and a bit out of place to most people. That typically lead to the popular girls teasing me for being sensitive, or causing problems for me whenever I was alone. It became much easier when I started hanging out with my best friends (thank god for lunch switches) though.

That's pretty vicious =( Sorry for you.




But while I wasn't bullied (Always been a bigger person.) I do think that it's the social structures currently enforced by all forms of media that create these situations.

Seriously lock these children down and have them supervised at all times til they're 18!

At least then it's their problem <_<

 

[Lynoxus]

All through my primary + secondary school life pretty much, injury, insults, isolation. Problem only got worse as pretty much the entire year seperated themselves from me in an effort to not be bullied themselves.

Oh and the school I was in gave me detentions for getting beaten up, (I live in England where our ridiculous system allows the parents of the children who in normal society would be in jail for 3 months or so for what they've done to avoid any punishment at all) and of course no help at all.

So yea, pretty much the worst thing was the isolation socially.

 

[TimeLord]

I was bullied for (among other things) having an strong English accent and living in Scotland.

 

[SulfuricDonut]

I've never been assaulted or openly insulted, and I don't know if this is even considered bullying but I'll explain anyway.

Considering that I am very shy and am uncomfortable talking to people, the popular talkative girls sometimes would talk to me incessantly just to make me uncomfortable, knowing that I would never actually respond.
(There is no possibility that they actually wanted to talk to me, as I am a very good judge of character and I can tell when people are mocking me. I know how to tell when somebody actually wants to speak with me.)

I found this the worst way I've ever been made fun of because if someone openly insults me then I can be very quick to think up a scathing remark to send back at them, however I have no defence against this form of mocking as such hostile retaliation is rather uncalled for.

 

[Levi93]

Well living in the UK and having long hair made me a target for chavs and other similar scumbags whilst in school >_>

 

[higgs20]

I didn't.

 

[AnarchyUK]

All through my primary + secondary school life pretty much, injury, insults, isolation. Problem only got worse as pretty much the entire year seperated themselves from me in an effort to not be bullied themselves.

Oh and the school I was in gave me detentions for getting beaten up, (I live in England where our ridiculous system allows the parents of the children who in normal society would be in jail for 3 months or so for what they've done to avoid any punishment at all) and of course no help at all.

So yea, pretty much the worst thing was the isolation socially.

Well living in the UK and having long hair made me a target for chavs and other similar scumbags whilst in school >_>

Pretty much the same as this... Had friends in year 7 and 8, but after a massive friend argument we all went our seperate ways, and I ended up friendless and spending my breaks and lunches in the school library by myself. It was weird though as I was part sports teams and had a few very good friends outside of school but in school I was a social pariah. Constantly called 'Gay' for my longish, unkept hair and beaten up or threatened to be beaten up by most of the school nearly everyday, and it was by everyone, hell even the 'new' guys whenever they arrived were higher than me, socially. Girls would pick on me, and make up shit that I was insulting them, or coming onto them, etc, and they would make the testosterone bigots who gravitate towards them beat me up. At first I tried going to teachers (Never worked, as it was always my word against 5+ others), Then I tried fighting back (lost badly everytime) and eventually I just stopped caring about life and just let them use me as a punching bag.

Then GCSEs finished, and I went on a school trip to China (which honestly beforehand i was dreading) and met not only my bestfriend (who still is my bestfriend now) and my first girlfriend. So that when I went back to school for A levels (was combined school and A level department for me) nobody understood this sudden new person who had appeared (in their eyes anyway, personally i was still the social inept weirdo i've always felt like)

Still get 'bullied' now by the same assholes from yr 7-11, but I shit you not they do it while wearing McDonalds outfits... Funny and cliché I know, but 100% true.


Off topic: Woo first post

 

[Zaverexus]

Middle School was terrible because I had been a bit overprotected prior to that and didn't know about things like sex, drugs, and profanity. I learned quickly, but in the time it took to figure everything out I was teased, laughed at, awkward, and miserable. A couple of people threatened violence but only one guy actually tried anything and only got me in a hold, which the teachers so kindly ignored.
But socially awkward miserable phase of life being long over, I'm cynical and tough enough to take care of myself and now knowledgeable enough not to miss these things.
Naivete defeated.

 

[Canid117]

Once got jumped by some guy in class, he ended up trying to suffocate me by holding me by the neck, he probably didn't count on survival instinct kicking in, he let go when I bit him hard enough. Got called into the principal office and told I could have been arrested for violence but that quickly went away when I pointed out that the only way he could get bit that way would be if he was killing me.

How the flying fuck were you in trouble? Were the witnesses all terrified or something?

 

[InnerRebellion]

Well, I was shown a picture of me being tied to a tree, with a shotgun shoved against my back.

Then, teachers began emotionally abusing me. Screaming at me, insulting me, locking me in an isolated room for hours on end, denying me lunch and not letting me go home when everyone else did.

What the fuck?! Are you serious man?!?!?!

Indeed I am, unfortunately.

 

[Dragonpit]

After senselessly showing off in front of the kids in my 3rd grade class, they did not take well to me. For two years after that, all I had to look forward to was much loneliness as they out of their way to spread malicious and mostly false rumors about to keep other people away. (That wasn't all there was to the incident that sparked the bullying, but that was pretty much how it started.)

 

[Levi93]

snip

Welcome to the escapist! I'm supposed to tell you to stay out of the basement or something like that, I never really understood it myself.

 

[wrightguy0]

ah, how we go forth into that tempest toss'd hell and come out on the other end in any functioning order is beyond me but then again my time in school has left me barely functioning, i got it for twelve years, miserable i got it for being odd, for being a loner, for being small, fat, smart, slow, in middle school i became "the Garbage can" i had people tossing their trash at me up until grade 9, some twats stole my math book one day, these were terrible kids, they drove our normally easy going math teacher into such a frenzy that he transferred to another school the next year, this crap came back in grade 11 too, when they tossed a full water bottle at my head, now i hate people, i just cant's get used to being around others, i flinch when people touch me, i've been left a scarred, cynical man

 

[Bravo 21]

Eh, I stood up for myself, got beat up, took my revenge and beat those people up, was great fun, this younger generation needs to kinda toughen up in my eyes (granted Im 25 but I cant help to see this younger generation being emotionally weaker) Its called sucking it up in the end. quote]
I have to agree, bullies usually pick on the weakest links, so if you can prove youself stronger, or more menacing usually dissuades them. At 15, it seems to be working so far.

 

[OrokuSaki]

High School, because that's "rough for everyone" except of course all the dicks in your high school with their magical perfect lives of course.

I understand the tenderness you face with this issue, and for good reason too - but just because someone isn't bullied in high school doesn't mean they have a perfect life or must be a dick.

That is true, but I'm more referring to the ones who WERE dicks and somehow that never came back to bite them. The ones who had a different boyfriend/girlfriend every other day and were never plagued with vengeance or STDs.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Oddly, I should have been bullied, but never was. I'm your archetypal introvert nerd who also has cerebral palsy. I was trolled some but never truly bullied. By high school everyone had grown up. I was in AP classes so I was around the people who rolled their eyes at bullies. I guess I got lucky. Hell, I think people thought I was off limits for some reason. People who tried got berated by someone passing by.