Bullies

[Celebifly]

I just finished watching Drillbit Taylor, and it made me rally think how bad hollywoodland dramatizes bullies in schools, and that there's always this guy that beats the snot out of kids without getting caught or girls that are rich, snobby, hot, control cliches, and get what ever they want.

I watched DT and thought...highschool was never like that for me. Sure, there were fights, but mostly between rivaling schools. Fights were very rare. Hell, bird bathes were rare. Only time I saw one happen was a girl got lightly splashed in a sink in a guys washroom by guys. Course, all those sinks that you could bird bath someone in were removed by grade 10.
But there was never a label of a school bully. Always just people making of other people. No one was on top, just a vicious cycle. Heck, I even made fun of other kids. I won't lie, I won;t lie I was picked on either. I was picked on my inter life (Until I moved actually last February to a new school. Never got picked on and had lots of friends). But never physical. Heck, I don't even remember people doing anything bad to other kids...no shoving in lockers (Only remember seeing kids shoving themselves into lockers to see if they would fit) or anything like that. Heck, there wasn't such a thing called popular. Everyone knew each other in some way.

But I do know bullying is still out there, just not as dramatized as hollywoodland makes it.
But sometimes, it is.


Once I got picked on so badly in elementary school I didn't want to go.
I wasn't different in skin colour or wore different clothes...I'm a Caucasian blonded green eyed girl that was skinny, but why did they pick on me? I can easily cry. Anything set me off. Even writing this is making me want to cry. So they made it a game - make -insert name- cry. Life sucked.

But I toughed it out, went to highscool, my life was a lot better. Cried less, and less people knew about my 'condition'.
But I was still picked on, not as much, but still was. Because of my childhood scaring, I had troubles finding groups to hang out with.

Than I met Mike. My life changed for the better. Turned 18, ran away with him, and made a new start in highschool. Best. Life. Ever. Never picked on once.

Moral of that? Sometimes running away is good? No...find a place where you fit and will be safe. Mine happened to be a new town.

So basically....don't be a bully. Be nice. If you do see it happen, stop it. And if you're entering highschool, don't think there will be a bully. Chances are there won't be a single person that terrorizes younger ones.

Enjoy highschool. Join Clubs. Be nice. Destroy prejudice.

[Cheezdude]

Media stereotypes everything too much, by exaggerating appearance and personality. Not everyone who has glasses always has a pocket protector or spends all day playing Dungeons and Dragons. I was made fun of for this, being in media club, wearing glasses and all. It isn't right to make fun of people due to an image that media has created.

I myself have had a tough time with being bullied. I moved in grade two, and then it got worse. I quickly got one loyal friend, and found another in forth grade. They've both let me down once or twice, but that's okay.

There's always been a group of people who've been in charge - people have been scared of them. It's horrible how you can let a group make up the rules, and be afraid not to follow them. If they told you to do something, you'd do it, no matter how stupid it made you look. They did it for laughs. And on top of that, they would threaten to beat up people who didn't obey them, or told teachers. They target people who are more sensitive, as Celibifly already said. I had a tough time because I have anger problems, and because in grade 4 I had... a bit of a temper in the middle of class. That didn't end well, me being in detention and constantly teased after. That week was one of the toughest of my life.

I... have gotten into a few fights. One I hit someone with my shoe after he bit me, and the other one was when I raged against the machine.

It's become better with middle school. Now that there's three schools mixed, there isn't the same attention for one person, and there are more people to befriend. More people who are likely to be like you, and like what you like. And I've met my girlfriend, so it's all good.

Also, at our school, Pokemon is discouraged. It was a fad here, and now anyone who brings in they're DS and Diamond are in for it. Dunno why, but that is the one thing that's not wanted here.

[BionicleMandi121]

I can't say I've been bullied much. One girl hated me for some reason in elementary school. At one point in fourth grade, she allegedly had her friend (who was my desk partner at the time) steal gel pens out of my desk. I lost a good dozen or so pens that way. Had no idea where they were vanishing off to 'til my desk partner pulled out a pen that looked EXACTLY like one I'd used a lot and told me her mom had bought it for her. I didn't even ASK her about it, so that kinda made me suspicious. A few days later I let her go into the classroom before I did when lunchtime started, then checked the box I kept my pens in. A blue one was missing. I checked her desk (I know, not too privacy-respecting, but...), and the same pen was stuffed into the back. So that how I found out she'd been stealing my pens. The thefts stopped after I told the teacher about the whole thing.

Two years later, a different girl decided it was a weird thing that I hung out with guys. I had maybe three or four close female friends. All of my other friends were guys. So she and a group of her friends would sort of corner me during snack while I was folding origami or something and repeatedly ask me why I played with boys. I gave them the same answer every day, but they kept coming back. They'd also point at me and giggle among themselves whenever they saw me trying to have normal conversations with boys about things like Nancy Drew. I got annoyed at that once and asked them what was so funny. The conversation kinda went like this:
Girls: * glance at each other* Isn't it OBVIOUS?
Me: ...No.
Girls: * giggle some more* YOU'RE FLIRTING!
I was very. Very. Annoyed.
I mean, we were talking about BOOKS.

Not sure if any of that counts as bullying, but I don't have a problem with anything like that anymore. Not with couples lying with their heads in each other's laps in the hallways in high school. College might be different, but this sort of thing never really did anything other than get me annoyed at people. I'll admit I picked up some grudges. Still have them. But I don't do anything with them. :/

[Celebifly]

I start College soon.....going to miss High school....

Yeah, like Cheez said, how many people have you seen look like those stereotypic nerds with thick glasses, pocket protects, and plaid shirt running around?

A lot of kids wear glasses. I do (now contacts since grade 5)
A lot of kids wear braces (I did, Mike still does! And he's 19!)
I hang out with the 'nerdy' kids wholove anime and do D7D role play, but they don't look nerdy. My friend Scott is the nerdiest man on earth for his age (21 I think) and he's the cutest man ever! And very tall for that matter....or is it I'm short?

But anyway, my point is I agree with Cheez about the media forcing stereotypic for everyone...oh! One more example!
In my english class, there was this Asian girl, and I overheard her one day that people thought she lied anime because she was Asian, when in fact she doesn't.

[Saber Knight]

I have really never had a problem with bullying.

The majority of my close friends are guys as well. I sit at an all-guy table at lunch, basically one of two co-ed tables. No one really bugs me about it too much for the most part. I have had plenty of "OMG! You're flirting with them!" stuff happen though. It's really annoying, but I've gotten to the state where I just ignore it. OMG! They're the opposite gender! Big whoop.

While I'm on the subject, I've also had some weird run-ins with people thinking me and my friend Chris are brother and sister. People have asked us that SO OFTEN, I'm beginning to wonder if we're actually long lost cousins. Well, at least it's better than the "are you dating?" thing. That is just annoying. There was one teacher last year (*shudder*. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE hates him.) who was determined that Chris and I were dating. Seriously. He kept calling us boyfriend and girlfriend. It's really annoying, especially coming from a teacher. Gawd, I hated him. I can't beleive he's moving up to the high school. I really hope I don't get him.

Some of my friends have been picked on a bit before. Nothing physcal, though. We tend to stand up for each other most of the time, though we do poke fun at/tease each other constantly.

There are some girls and guys that hate me for no real reason, though. I say one thing to them and they just glare at me. Not really bullying, though, just random hatred going on there.

Yeah....so that's the limit of my experience with bullying.

[Doodleshark]

I'm not sure if this counts as bullying, but like a quarter of the people at my high school are total jackasses. Almost twice a day someone taps my shoulder for no reason and then act like nothing happened. There's this stupid clique of girls who frequently giggle at me and tell me to go to class during lunch break. And then there's this group of assorted racial minorities who are in some of my classes and think that they are "gangsta" that frequently are jerks to people for no particular reason and then accuse the people they annoy of being racist when the victims tell them to f*** off. People in this group frequently bug me by following me around whilst loudly shouting the N word, and pretend to be gay and hit on me. And as I've already said, whenever I tell them to f*** off, they accuse me of being racist. It's like they feel that being a racial minority entitles them to bug the everloving crap out of anybody who has the poor, sad misfortune of being born white.

But there's this one guy in particular who really creases me. He's this loud, spiky blonde-haired retard who's locker is right frickin' next to mine. He tries to steal my lock, asks me for a dollar whenever he sees me, yells random nonsense at me like "NINJA!!!!!!" or some other retarded crap, and he loudly interrupts me with this random nonsense whenever he is in the vicinity of me having a conversation with anybody else. I have no idea what he has against me (or any of my friends for that matter), or why he thinks that he's entitled to be an loud, immature prick, but he really gets on my nerves.


I usually deal with most of these people by insulting their intelligence, which usually causes them to storm off. It might be hypocritical, but I'll do whatever gets them out of my hair. God.

[Astral Omega]

Wow, bullying; a subject very close to home for me.

As Celibifly said, bullying is hardly ever physical violence- mostly cuz of laws against it and everything and I guess if you end up with bruises, it’s evidence… but it’s usually the words that hurt- the emotional abuse. That’s really hard to show on screen, however so that might be one reason they stick to stereotypes in movies.

Stereotypes are easy to portray. Reality, however can be so much scarier.

My entire Primary school life was hell!

Well I can’t say ENTIRE primary school life… really only 4-7 (Primary in Australia is 1-7, high school is 8-12).

The first day I moved to a new school in year 4, I met a nice girl on the bus. We started talking and hit it off immediately. By the time I got to school, she was pretty much my best friend. (I don’t really remember much from years 1-3…)

I was stoked when I found out she was in my class as well! Unfortunately, she was the most unpopular girl in the school and I had become her only friend.

This meant that I was automatically unpopular by association. I ‘smelled’, I ‘lived at the dump’ – it was always the same crap; mostly from the same small group of people. When I started to hit puberty and get pimples, I was ‘pizza-face’ and all the connected names.

And it wasn’t so much that that hurt- that small group were stupid with the same words and no matter what comebacks I come up with, they didn’t stop. I knew I was better than them! It was the fact that the people that didn’t actually tease and my friend and I (my only friend) just stayed away from us, didn’t talk to us. If we a group were sitting at the end of one bench, and we sat on the other end they would get up and move.

My optimistic side tells me that that was probably a good thing sometimes- we had that power! But it really hurt back then. I got such a thick skin though, never letting git show.

I even tried ditching my friend for another group on advice from my parents; but that didn’t even last a day. It broke my heart even more to now that I could never fit in with these people. They knew about things that the ‘normal kids’ knew about and could talk about that, and they hated my best friend. I could never do that.

I ended up hugely self-conscious, reclusive and really, really lonely. Even after 5 years of high school, with more friends and people who share the same interests and actually care about me, I still find it difficult to talk to people and make friends. I’m always afraid that people are only PRETENDING to like me (because I’ve had that happen so many times before) and I purposely act like a bit of a noof (partly because it’s fun and partly) because the fear of embarrassment caused by people thinking I’m an idiot when I’m not trying to be is paralysing.

These are serious issues that are never touched on in the movies/ television. They find it easier to stick with what they know, stick with something that’s easy to do and that the writer can stay distant from. “That’s not real so I don’t have to feel so bad about it.”

Perhaps if they showed bullying for what it REALLY was, something could change. Maybe showing the lifelong impressions that can be made by a few simple words and actions on an impressionable child will shock people and make them think.

I mean, a kid wouldn’t cut another kid’s leg off knowing that leg can never grow back…maybe if they knew that serious bullying was the emotional equivalent…

Okay, so there’s my sob story… sorry I had to inflict that upon you! EVERYONE BE NICE TO EACH OTHER!!

Hay, I just realised I had this button ~~~~~ YAAAAY!! I didn’t think I had it… I am happy now^^ okays, shutting up^^

[Josiah]

Um...homeschool FTW?

When you're homeschooled bullying isn't much of an issue (aside from this one kid at a camp once). Never really ran into any bullies in college either (plenty of idiots and jerks though).

And yeah, the geek stereotype isn't very realistic. I mean, I went to a computer college and no one looked like the stereotypical geek and hardly anyone looked like the stereotypical gamer.

[Simsmagic]

The only time I've ever seen stereotypical geeks was during Spirit Week. There was a lot of participation. I didn't participate, but thankfully, I received no "Hey, nice costume" comments from what I normally wear.

[Saber Knight]

As I mentioned earlier, I really tend to ignore bullying.

For example, if someone comes up and insults me, sometimes I'll come up with a witty retort and other times I'll just say, "That's nice." It REALLY ticks them off, and they usually don't bother insulting me anymore. There's also, "Wow, that's the best you can do?" or "Wow, guess what? I don't care." If people don't think the bullying is bugging you, they tend to stop because the whole purpose of bullying is to bug you. At least, that's how it's been for me.

[terra5]

The extent of my bullies have mainly been, "U LIKE CONNOR, DON'T U?!?" or, as a Devient from the norm, "OMG SUNNI SAID THAT U AND HIM WUR DATING!!!!" I really have only a small problem with Bullying, and that just because I'm tagged as, "That crazy girl who carries around Paperclips and stabs people with them." It doesn't really help That I generally find other people stupid, and I openly say so. And out of my twenty friends at school, only two of them are girls.

So of course there's the comments about me "Getting Around". Really, you people are in eighth grade. Aren't you a little young to be saying things like that?[/u]

[Silver]

PAH-RIVATE SCHOOL FTW!

Maybe not as 'FTW' as Homeschooling, since there are other people involved in Private School and supposedly, 'hell is other people'... but still a nice step up from public school, it seems. From Preschool to eighth grade, Silver did not once experience or witness anything that would qualify as bullying. Sure, there were some jerks - you'll have that in any group - but jerks were mostly jerks to each other anyway.

Here's why. First off, uniforms are an amazing thing. Sterotypes based on what someone wears don't exist. If you don't like someone, you don't like them for them. And when each class is as small as seven people (<3 my eighth grade class), you know everyone so well that you've either found their redeeming qualities or have just gotten used to them. The whole 'Christian' theme helps too, because the teachers don't just sit by and watch kids get picked on, as tends to be the case on television. No, the teachers would get right in there and say, "Would JESUS tease other kids on the playground?" ...Except, they wouldn't say exactly that, but it would be funnier if they did.

Ah, but the good times never last, and my dinky little private school only went up to eighth grade, so... high school people suck, but if you ignore them, they get bored and their short attention spans lead them elsewhere. I'm on good terms with everyone in the anime club, and that's enough for me. There are no bullies among the nerds.

[Doodleshark]

My school's anime club consists of people gathering in a classroom twice a week during Lunch to watch friggin' Naruto. Boo!

[Astral Omega]

Here's why. First off, uniforms are an amazing thing. Sterotypes based on what someone wears don't exist.

It's a nice theroy, but even the state of a uniform can be something that one can be picked on for.

Rich families are able to afford brand new uniforms all the time. They are always top quality and in pristine condition.

Ones that aren't so well off can only afford old, second hand uniforms of lower quality and end up tattered after time.

But of course it doesn't really happen as much in a private school because if you can afford a private school, you can also afford decent uniforms.

Unfortunately public schools often have people of many types of incomes attending, so there is still that divide.

Also, public schools are a bit less strict with uniform standards, so the stereotypes can show through HOW you wear the uniform.

[PoikSpirit]

Mmm... Bullying. Funny thing about that. I was bullied, apparently more than I knew, but I kind of ignored them, or didn't notice that they were rude. Somewhere along the line they must've gotten bored. Now, I've almost never done anything bully-worthy without apologizing or making sure the person was okay with it first. And it was never anything past a joke or sarcasm among friends. But my biggest regret is that I never did anything to defend those bullied.
It can't really be helped when I don't see it happen, and I guess I did stand up for my best friend in 6th grade. But the Special Ed kids were picked on daily, and I later learned they were physically abused, and I never really noticed or helped.
The teachers never helped either. Our school had a "zero tolerance to bullying" policy in which one could be suspended or expelled for assault of battery, but the teachers never caught anyone so the whole idea was for naught.
The only bully I've ever truly known, outside jocks being jerk, was another one of my friends. In fact, I was his first friend when he moved here. After he met his second friend he started making fun of me and pretty much everyone else. We haven't been friends since. But I later talked to him and he completely denied that he was even being a jerk.