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Old 03-26-2008, 05:48 PM   #5 (permalink)
ngdawg
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Location: on the back, bitch
I was verbally bullied from 7th thru 11th grade. I was called "Piranha" because of my crooked teeth, "Tarantula" and "Daddy Long Legs" because of my long skinny legs, "Pizza Face" along with other horrid remarks took up an entire page in my 9th grade yearbook. I was threatened time and again to get beat up, was purposely tripped and fell face first into a snow bank during an 8th grade excursion, much to the delight of those around me. Girls would write fake love notes from guys in my class then get in my face about the "joke".

My son began enduring the same crap starting in 4th grade. Like me, he was tall and wore glasses; unlike me he was years smarter than his age, a teacher's favorite. By 5th grade, he snapped, beating one of his tormentors over the head during lunch with his full lunch bag. The principal was near tears talking with me, afraid my son would end up like "Those boys in Columbine". In sixth grade, two boys, one of them the bully my son hit a year ago, jumped him on the way home from school, kicking and beating him.
I confronted both kids and their parents, then called the school. They were given in-school suspensions. When one bragged about his actions that got him there, he got the shock of his life-everyone told him he was a total asshole. One kid, who in his own right was considered a bully and had his moments with my son early on, told him if he ever laid a hand on Daniel again, he would personally kick his ass. The mother of one of the sons promised her kid would never hang with the other again. She lied.

I am tears writing this. No kid deserves this. In meeting the parents of these kids, though, I can see where they get the idea that bullying is the way to go. The fathers are bullies themselves, the mothers are wimpy or think their kid is the reason the sun rises.

Schools proclaim "zero tolerance" then make excuses like those in the article-"He deserved it". No, he didn't.

All I could do while my son went through it all was be his advocate and tell him that some day, those same kids will be pumping gas into his Mercedes or serving him burgers and fries. I used that line trying to console other kids who'd been tormented during my days as an aide. At least it got them to smile.
How pitiful that there are only a few bullies and so many wonderful kids, but it's the bullies tearing them down instead of vice versa.
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