I have a bad experience bullying. I, for some reason, was always just a target. It followed me all the time. In intermediate school, I became the target of a group of kids who thought it was funny to take your backpack and throw it in the trash can on garbage day. Yes, that really happened. They did more, they liked to rip up homework, vandalize tests when you went for bathroom break, and throw ice when it started to get cold out. Another kid, who to the best of my knowledge wasn’t friends with the group, also wrote a poem about me dying for his class. It was put on the hallway wall for a year.
My teacher, other teachers, the guidance counselor, and even the principal walked past this kind of abuse every day and didn’t even bother, because the intermediate school had a “code of silence.” That translates into taking the abuse silently. But the problem was it was hammered so completely into our minds to never, ever open our mouths that we were scared to talk to our parents about it.
So after intermediate school, I figured that the middle school would make things change. It stopped most of the physical attacks on me and my property, but the psychological warfare kept coming. If anything, it got worse. I finally got my parents’ go-ahead to get a Facebook. I was so excited; it was such an achievement for me. I was so happy, but then things turned sour when they found my account. They didn’t have to even see me to torture me, and it led to incredibly intense verbal attacks between me and them.
It got to the point that I stopped using my Facebook, I avoided anyplace that I’d seen them before as though it had the plague, and I simply stopped going out. I went to school, went home, checked Facebook, sometimes had a verbal exchange, do my homework, and go to bed.
Even though the middle school didn’t support the “code of silence,” they did nothing to try and help bullying victims. My one friend claimed to me that he was going to commit suicide (and lord knows he tried), and it took the school two weeks to get back to me about it, after I put down under an urgent problem. That made me lose confidence in the school system, I just stopped talking about things. The guidance counselors and principal did nothing to help, and I got in trouble for a verbal exchange, not the person who started it.
My school district disgusts me in how they deal with bullying. We’re ranked fairly high on the best districts in the state, and most of the teachers are amazing. But enforcing the rules, getting the people who did it as opposed to letting the abuse continue, is a failure. I say this with all honesty, but I’m amazed at how there have been no suicides yet. Lord knows I hope there will never be any.
My teacher, other teachers, the guidance counselor, and even the principal walked past this kind of abuse every day and didn’t even bother, because the intermediate school had a “code of silence.” That translates into taking the abuse silently. But the problem was it was hammered so completely into our minds to never, ever open our mouths that we were scared to talk to our parents about it.
So after intermediate school, I figured that the middle school would make things change. It stopped most of the physical attacks on me and my property, but the psychological warfare kept coming. If anything, it got worse. I finally got my parents’ go-ahead to get a Facebook. I was so excited; it was such an achievement for me. I was so happy, but then things turned sour when they found my account. They didn’t have to even see me to torture me, and it led to incredibly intense verbal attacks between me and them.
It got to the point that I stopped using my Facebook, I avoided anyplace that I’d seen them before as though it had the plague, and I simply stopped going out. I went to school, went home, checked Facebook, sometimes had a verbal exchange, do my homework, and go to bed.
Even though the middle school didn’t support the “code of silence,” they did nothing to try and help bullying victims. My one friend claimed to me that he was going to commit suicide (and lord knows he tried), and it took the school two weeks to get back to me about it, after I put down under an urgent problem. That made me lose confidence in the school system, I just stopped talking about things. The guidance counselors and principal did nothing to help, and I got in trouble for a verbal exchange, not the person who started it.
My school district disgusts me in how they deal with bullying. We’re ranked fairly high on the best districts in the state, and most of the teachers are amazing. But enforcing the rules, getting the people who did it as opposed to letting the abuse continue, is a failure. I say this with all honesty, but I’m amazed at how there have been no suicides yet. Lord knows I hope there will never be any.
Post a Comment
Be the first to comment on this article!