Stop Bullying, Stop Suicide.

[dfiant]

Perhaps this is what countries who don't take bullying seriously should be fighting for. No use fighting for same sex marriage if every gay and lesbian has to endure abuse before they are old enough to get married.

[procrasty]

I wasn't bullied that bad as I was lucky to almost always have people who would help and/or avenge me and bullies knew it or learned it real fast. And while I did catch a lot of flak when I was in East Texas other outcasts stood by me and my family stomped on anyone (and made it known they would, even if they didn't like me themselves) so that I experienced very little fear. It did get awkward at times because some guys gravitated toward me believing the slut rumors about me (I was also a satanist and a witch according to some of the locals), but others thought I was cool for having publicly ticked off the most popular preacher in town, and I even got invited to parties by older kids because of that (of course I never went without my 17-year-old cousin Zack).

I had been locked up when I was 13 and I got bullied there a lot (the other kids were mostly 15 and older and I was the smallest one there), though the adults were far, far worse so it's more of a detail. That was the one place where I didn't have anyone to protect me, and it traumatized me very bad.

Other than that I was merely shunned, but as I always had at least one friend and enjoyed escaping in books anyway it didn't really bother me.

But I saw such horrible bullying everywhere I'd been. I saw jocks torment one boy (I have no idea why they singled guys like him out, but they did like to call them "fags" and "queers") until their victim brought a knife and stabbed the lead jock for which he was arrested and convicted for and sent to some correctional school, but I didn't blame him. The school faculty pretended shock but they knew about it, because I saw them watching the bullying (and I mean like shoving him down and kicking him right in the cafeteria) at the same time I'd been watching it, and they did it repeatedly for months before that boy brought a knife to school.

Oh yeah, just before games jocks would claim several lunch tables and put them together and they didn't care if anyone was sitting there, they'd tell them to leave or they'd throw them out of their chairs, and the office would back them and instead go after their victims who resisted.

The cheerleaders were just as bad, and I want to share what they did that made me hate them before they made the mistake of trying to bully me. One thing they did was deny one girl the chance to be a cheerleader and when the girl's parents made the school let her join somehow she was soon hospitalized after she was thrown in the air and the cheerleaders "forgot" to catch her. They targeted 2 girls and tormented them mostly with words but it was vicious. They spread they caught the 2 of them having sex in the shower which I didn't believe and any girl who had anything to do with them were "possible girlfriends" so that other girls wouldn't get near them, and the 2 even stopped being friends because they didn't want to be the lesbian couple. One stopped coming to school one day and I have no idea why (moved, homeschooled, suicide or suicide attempt, ranaway from home, who knows) and then the other was hospitalized after she tried suicide. While I kept my distance I really hated them along with the jocks for their sadism, and how the school gave them a free pass to do what they wanted.

Well after I came back from being a runaway the school put me in ABC (Adaptive Behavior Class), and though the teachers sucked I became friends with every single classmate (it probably helped that there were only 2 other girls and we were kept separate from the rest of the school so that we usually only mixed with other kids coming in and waiting to catch the bus home). I'm sure I was left alone for awhile because of the other ABC kids, but one day I was off to myself to work on a poem (waiting for the bus) when the cheerleaders came to me and started giving me a hard time for being a lesbian (not that I identified as anything, and I doubt they really believed it).

As I said I already hated them, but they were bothering me and I knew if I didn't stop it then they would continue. And I remember thinking of all I'd faced as a runaway like violent skins, adult men who tried sexually assaulting me, and a large man who tried to kidnap me for a pimp, and I was downright contemptuous about sheltered cheerleaders trying to give me a hard time. So I did what no other girl had done before--I stomped her into the ground. I was brutal as I was trying to be fast before the other cheerleaders tried helping her but they didn't do more than shriek (my adrenaline was intense and I don't recall what they shrieked) but suddenly I was lifted up by one hand by a jock--the cheerleader's boyfriend I found out later, and apparently an important player on the football team--and with his other hand punched me so hard that I was on the ground and couldn't stand up because the world kept tilting on me (he hit me too close to my ear).

Then the jock was tackled by my male ABC classmates and beaten while I recall a couple of them daring other jocks to join in. As that happened the other ABC girl present helped me to stand up and got me on my bus. I saw several coaches and faculty talking to the boys in the brawl (which had stopped by that time) as the bus left.

As soon as I got to ABC the next morning I was sent to the office. The principal didn't care that I had such an intense bruise on my face (among other marks) that I actually couldn't talk without sounding funny and he actually tried to make me feel guilty that the football player who punched me had to go to the hospital and was going to miss the next game, possibly more, and that we'd (me and the other ABC kids) had really hurt the school. I was scathingly sarcastic about the principal not caring after what that jock did to my face and I reminded him of all the brutality the jocks and cheerleaders visited on their victims while he did nothing so I didn't give a damn about him or the school because him and the school didn't give a damn about anyone who wasn't a jock, and I told him what my cousin Zack liked to say: if you poke a snake with a stick then it's your own fault if you get bit. He said I had a terrible attitude problem and gave me in school suspension (all the boys who jumped the jock all got some kind of suspension, too, some in with me while others were suspended out of school). I heard ABC had less than 5 kids left while we were all suspended.

Later, the cheerleaders tried one more time, though from a safe distance. I was with another ABC girl when they asked her if she was my girlfriend as I was an obvious lesbian. We looked at each other and pretended to kiss to show them just how much we cared what they had to say. They freaked (I'm betting the cheerleaders thought I REALLY WAS a lesbian then and didn't want me to get violent again as I might not stop at beating one of them next time :tongue: ).

And so that was that. Near the end of the school year Columbine happened and there was a general assembly that even we in ABC had to go to and the principal urged us to turn in the names of anyone who might be angry enough to do something similar there. As one of the ABC guys said, "Dude, that's everyone I know!" Of course their only concern was about protecting their beloved jocks from nonconformists and anyone else that got picked on. And I found out through the internet that I got on the next school year (though I no longer went to school as I'd runaway from home again) that schools across America were doing the same, cracking down on anyone weird (gay, goth, pagan, geeky) and it was called the "geek hunts." I did good to get out when I could, because as good as the other kids were they couldn't have protected me anymore than themselves from what the adults were doing.

Gods, I'm so glad I don't have to go to school anymore. Life really does get better.

(And I apologize for this being so long, I just lost all track of time while typing this. :redface

wow!you have balls.respect!
i always thought that all the macho ''jocks'' are sissy pathetic crybaby mommas boys who are only cool and whatnot cause their rich daddys pay for their crap and everyone kiss their ass.pathetic excuses for men.
i can't stand conformist sheltered people.they suck and are cliche

[countyboy]

Heres a good quote

[icanuc]

After being a victim of work place bullying and finally having to leave my job, I know whaty it is like. I am still not over it. I have tried to get some help here but it seems with all the laws against it here.....no one wants to get involved...not even a lawyer! Figure that one out. I also took it to human rights and they told me to come back when they fired me.

It has been like 7 years now with no help, has effected my health and well being. It to say the least has had a devistating effect on me both metally and financially. Sold my home, living with an aging parent have a daughter to provide for and she and the rest of the family have suffered along with me.

I feel trapped by this situation!

[Kiid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JAIyO5dDTsI