Brandon sent along this article about bullying. It's an interesting perspective (even though the story is a little dated now), and one I happen to completely agree with. I was bullied often in my youth, and I am 100% sure that the person I am now has a lot to do with feeling I was in danger every day during my time in middle and high school.
I was thin. I was short. I wasn't especially strong. I wasn't into sports. I was into drama. I did mime. And magic. I read books. Oh, and I was white, living in Hawaii, where the animosity toward whites (outsiders, usually in the military or dependents of those in the military, especially) was palpable, and unavoidable. I also spoke English, which made things doubly difficult in Hawaii.
In Hawaii, just looking the wrong person in the eye can mean there's a beating in your future. I'm pretty sure it's the same everywhere. Bullies don't really need a reason to be jerks.
Here's another story about a bullied kid. There were a lot. All my friends. And all their friends.
It's been, oh, nearly 30 years now since I graduated from high school. And I still think about how great it would be to exact my revenge on those people who tormented me way back when. That's how deeply it hurt, and still does.
People sometimes say they like my sense of humor, but there's a pretty good chance I developed my sense of humor as a way to survive. People also say I'm a bit of a bullshitter. I suspect that came about for the same reasons.
Can teachers monitor the interactions of every group of students all day long? Nope. But there must have been some way someone could have asked me better questions, and maybe figured out a way of helping a kid survive without drawing attention to the problem and making things worse.
More than likely, we'll just kind of wait until the next school shooting or other horror to unfold. And we'll ask all the same dumb questions, like "Why?" We all know why. No joke, and no bullshit. We all know why.
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3 comments:
I was bullied by my brother and his thug friends from age 5 till age 13. By the time I got to high school, I was hard to intimidate. It wasn't because I was a good fighter. It was because I had already had the crap kicked out of me by older, crazier kids when I was younger. I had learned a great fighting technique...you just flip out and go psycho. It worked on my brother's friends.
By age 14 I had developed quite a mouth. I could talk a lot of smack to much larger guys and then back it up with genuine lack of fear. Bullies don't like someone who can get back in their face and verbally assault them.
I was never really bullied in high school. I mostly attacked the bullies who were picking on others by making fun of them 10 times worse.
I only got into one fight. This death metal punk punched me in the back of the head on the school bus in high school so hard that I blacked out. Of course, when I came too, full of adrenaline, I lunged at the prick and smashed his head into the bus window like a chimpanzee on PaCP until the bus driver pulled me off him.
We learn something new about you every day, Chris.
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