Aiko Namika (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} aikonamika) wrote, |
I was teased pretty badly throughout elementary school, and the first year and a half of middle school (the really annoying part was that it was four different schools as my family moved around). The biggest problem was at my middle school, where the guy's parents were major investors in the new building that my small private school had recently acquired and were rebuilding to fit a school as opposed to a business. They were investors, and they were the designers. Like hell they wanted to do anything that would offend the kid's parents.
The one thing that saved me was because my mother refused to let the school get away with it. She kept after them, and pulled out the magic word of "harassment," and they realized that she was perfectly willing to get them into trouble. They made the guy stop his bullshit, which helped me grow a spine in return.
I was even luckier during high school - I went to a Quaker school then, and though there was still some element of bullying, it was a hell of a lot less common than other places, and the faculty were quick to step in if they caught a whiff of it. It helped that it was a tiny school (my senior year there were 170 students, including the middle school) and it was partially a bording school, so the faculty mostly lived right there on the campus. Combine the close proximity with the Quaker values, and the campus life there was particularly charmed. The one bully who went after me was stuck with only verbal bullying at points when the teacher wasn't around and that stopped quickly when I finally lost it in the middle of class and yelled at him before storming out.
That teacher actually apologized to me for not catching it sooner.
Unfortunately, situations like my high school are ridiculously rare, and the students that do get to live at places like that live rather charmed lives. I was still seperated for "being different," but considering how weird and out there a lot of people were, it was usually my own choice so that I could spend time with other people who were "different."
...and wow, that is probably rather random and incoherant. I apologize. I saw your post and felt that I needed to say something, because it's a topic that has affected my life in a major way (including the fact that it's made me scared of physical contact unless I completely trust the person or I'm the one in control of it [or both]).
The one thing that saved me was because my mother refused to let the school get away with it. She kept after them, and pulled out the magic word of "harassment," and they realized that she was perfectly willing to get them into trouble. They made the guy stop his bullshit, which helped me grow a spine in return.
I was even luckier during high school - I went to a Quaker school then, and though there was still some element of bullying, it was a hell of a lot less common than other places, and the faculty were quick to step in if they caught a whiff of it. It helped that it was a tiny school (my senior year there were 170 students, including the middle school) and it was partially a bording school, so the faculty mostly lived right there on the campus. Combine the close proximity with the Quaker values, and the campus life there was particularly charmed. The one bully who went after me was stuck with only verbal bullying at points when the teacher wasn't around and that stopped quickly when I finally lost it in the middle of class and yelled at him before storming out.
That teacher actually apologized to me for not catching it sooner.
Unfortunately, situations like my high school are ridiculously rare, and the students that do get to live at places like that live rather charmed lives. I was still seperated for "being different," but considering how weird and out there a lot of people were, it was usually my own choice so that I could spend time with other people who were "different."
...and wow, that is probably rather random and incoherant. I apologize. I saw your post and felt that I needed to say something, because it's a topic that has affected my life in a major way (including the fact that it's made me scared of physical contact unless I completely trust the person or I'm the one in control of it [or both]).