Monday 18 April 2011

On Bullying

Bullying is bugging me.
I mean, it always bothers me, but it's at the forefront of my mind lately.
I was bullied. Not beaten up on the way home, but excluded. I went to 9 different schools, and was always the new kid. It took everyone less than a week to realise I was also the smart one. Mostly people talked to me when they needed help with something. Otherwise, I was always the last one chosen for everything.
What bothered me more was the bullying at home. From family.
My mothers is a bully. I remember her pointing out my wayward eyebrows before I paid any attention to them.
I remember her telling my sister (who is one of the prettiest people I know, and has had the boys chasing her since she could walk) that she had footballer thighs.
She's said a lot of other things, but I've moved on from that. The memories still hurt, but they are just memories now. I don't live through it every day.
A boy named Blake Rice is living in fear.
In the flash floods in Toowoomba his mother and brother drowned after telling rescuers to save him first.
He's currently in a cast because he broke his collar bone running away from bullies. A group of teens chased him with sticks.
He's only 10 years old and he's been receiving death threats every day since he went back to school.
Why? He's being teased because half of his family died and he survived.
A lot of this is coming from people older than him. He and his father are planning to move because of it all.
I will never understand this. I don't want to.




#SOCsunday
This is my Stream of Consciousness :) Head over to Fadra's site to check out her ramblings :)

7 comments:

  1. Ugh. I hate stories like that. I try to pretend that they don't exist. But it's amazing how words stick with us. I believe (and still do) that my mother has always been jealous of me. I think it's where a lot of her comments have come from. And I was also the outcast in school. Too smart for my own good, dammit. It's taken me years to feel good with myself and now, I like me. Feels good.

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  2. It does :) I'm glad it only took me until I was 20 to feel okay with myself, but it took a lot of cutting people out of my life.
    I like you too Fadra :) Is there any such thing as 'too smart' once you're out of school?

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  3. This stinks. I wonder how many people are bullies and have no idea the kind of impact that they are having on other people's lives?

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  4. My daughter isn't even 2 yet, and I think about bullying. It manifests in such horrible ways, I can't even imagine my kid being on either side of it...

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  5. I think it's crazy how much effort schools and governments go to trying to prevent drugs and alcoholism, and bullying is mentioned, and discouraged, but I've gone to teachers and been told to just ignore it. To not talk to those people. I think it can have just as damaging an effect on people. And just as long lasting.

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  6. Oh my goodness. What a heart-wrenching story.

    Bullying has gotten way out of hand. I think it started when "those in charge" thought children should be allowed to "express their thoughts." Only they forgot to make the same consequences we all had as kids.

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  7. Absolutely. If I ever hit, or even yelled, at my sisters or a friend, I got smacked back. At least sent to my room. It seems that now there are no consequences for bullying, until they're all grown up and it's a gaol sentence.

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