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Many people have been taking the offensive against bullies ever since the suicide of the teenager that left a note saying that he was unable to deal with the bullying any more (no names mentioned). Currently it seems that we are in the "aftermath" of this incident. All throughout time there has always been bullies terrorizing people, and in my opinion bullies will always be around. It doesn't seem right, but in my opinion that is the reality of it all.
I can remember back in school for me that there were bullies that picked on me, mainly because I felt it unnecessary to fight back. After a while people started to respect me for not fighting back. In my mind set which I had in school, I knew that people bullying me could get worse if I fought back. Also I felt that the bullies were picking on me to see if I would start giving out their names to the teachers/principal, I got a bit more respect from other people when I didn't do that either. When I got into high school the bullying did continue, although I had some friends that would defend me if need be, the bullying did continue.
There were times that the bullies tried to physical cause me to fight them. The bullies did find out that I wouldn't fight them in an offensive way, however I would fight them in a defensively way. The fight that stands out in my mind the most, that I fought back in (only defensively) there were 3 bullies there. Two bullies held me from behind (one per side of me) while the 3rd bully was able to punch freely. These bullies ambushed me outside of the bus before I could get on at the end of the day, and the fight lasted 15 minutes. These bullies also must have just been looking for a reputation for them at the high school. The fight started off with them ambushing me, holding me still while the other attacked. All 3 of the bullies were shorter than I was at that time (I was 6' tall compared to them at 5' 9"), and the one throwing the punches couldn't hit my face a lot, due to the extra height. The people on the bus I was going on, were all laughing at the person, which ticked him off. So that bully started hitting my ribs & stomach area, which he was hitting constantly because the 2 holding me stopped me from dodging it (or protecting myself).
Five minutes went by and the 3rd bully thought it would be good to drag me closer to the road (in front of the bus) so that people in front of the school could see that he was winning the fight, so they did. The bully continued his attack, 2 minutes later blood started coming out of my mouth. The bullies thought I was done for and the 2 behind me started to loosen their grip on me and allowed be to get some air. The 3rd bully thought he would finish quick so he decided to do a running punch; he backed up (approximately 10-12ft) and started to run at me.
He got around 5ft to me and he got "clothes-lined" over the nearby railing by my brother. The bully was "showboating" too much and got tagged. The 2 that were holding me thought that they could still hide behind me while my brother was there, however they didn't count on the fact that I still had something left. The 2 tightened their grips once again, while one grabbed me by the throat to threaten to choke me. I yelled out to my brother to clothesline me, and he went for the charge. The 2 bullies thought that I was nuts/serious, just as my brother got close enough, I "buckled" my knees so that it would be just dead weight that the 2 bullies were holding. It caught the 2 bullies off guard and they dropped me onto the ground, as my brother "clothes-lined" them both. Both of the bullies received a concussion from the fall, and the one that went over the railing had a big bruise on his arm and a bruise on his leg from the railing he went over. I had a couple of bruises on my ribs, few on my face, and a small cut on my tough when I bit it to make it bleed.
Although it seemed that the bullies outnumbered me, the thing about defensive fighting is that it doesn't have to be a physical defense from you personally when you defend yourself. I saw my brother coming from the school so I dropped a little (and bit my tongue) to seem like the hits were doing a lot of damage. I knew that if my brother saw the fight he would attack in his way to defend me. I may not be a defensive fighter physically however mentally & strategically I am a defensive fighter. Now I still do not through the first punch, I may not throw any punches, however I will defend myself if necessary. I have no training for defending myself however I do know how to block things and how to wrestle a bit (the stuff I do with friends). I still will not fight if I a have a choice however many people will try in the future to see how far they can push me to get me to fight.
For me I found that not doing anything to start a bully from attacking me was the way to go. Now a days it seems just doing that will make the bully to attack you too. However the monitoring of every person that has a form of bullying in their record may just instigate a bully to attack people too because people would be doing a form of prejudice to the bully or bullies of an area. Back in my time of school things were settled without the law, without the schools, and without the parents being involved. For me, and the people I dealt with, it all dealt with respect, it seems that people in the schools now seem to have forgotten that single thing that could cause the bullying to die off a little.
Bullies will always be around the schools, communities, and parks/play grounds. There is nothing that anyone can really do about it except take any power that bully has and turn it against him or her. It doesn't matter if there are laws passed to stop them from doing what they do; they will still do it because there are always loopholes in everything. If there is a law that is passed that a person can tell an official that someone was bullying them and the bully would be sentenced for it, the loophole for that one is that if a bully is to attack someone and the person fights back the bully could say that he was defending himself against the other person. This defense has been used in the past and most likely will be used again in the future. The schools could be monitoring students that have been known to act like a bully to others closely, however if the bully is attacked by 1 or more people just because he was a bully at one time, and he defends himself, the attackers could say that the bully was at it again and have him take the fall for something he didn't do. If things are done to stop bullies, people really have to think about it hard to see how to stop something like that happening too.
I know that the death of the teenager did make many see the bullying in a different way, however every single last person knew that there was bullying going on in that school (and in every other one), and nothing has been done about it. Every single parent, teacher, and adult of any kind has been bullied in his or her life, and if they say that it's not true, they are lying. Everyone knows that bullies do exist however they feel that it isn't his or her responsibility to have his or her children prepared to deal with it properly. They all expect that the schools with take care of it, or his or her child will come to them with the problem of the bully. The thing that everyone is forgetting about is the simple fact that the children will do exactly the same thing as the parents did, they will not care about the problem and hope that it goes away on its own. If this same process continues, the problem will have more power than everyone is willing to emit to. Most of the time when a bully succeeds in bullying a person the bully will try to something to someone that is a little worse, and after time these are the same people that are in jail for murder or worse. When people realize this as the truth, then there is a chance to have the bullies taken care of before it gets worse.
You could say in its own way that bullying is a form of terrorism. Bullying is terrorizing someone or a group of people, which is the same thing as a person doing terrorism. Everyone wants the terrorism to stop altogether, however are not willing to look at their own children, schools, etc. to see if they can stop here first. To say terrorism is wrong and put up with what goes on in the schools today, or what goes on outside of the schools with the children is just another way to have a form of bullying go on. Although the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001 was terrorism at its finest, it doesn't mean that the President of the United States has the right to attack every single country in the Middle East for the attack, especially when he can't stop the terrorism that the United States does to itself (robberies, murder, etc.). All the President of the United States is doing, in my opinion, right now is showing that he is a bully that is retaliating after caught off guard from an attack from another bully. If the war continues with the way it has been going, that is exactly how people in the future will see him as.
There has been a lot of talk about the tolerances about bullying. Some places have started to enforce what they believe in is proper to stop the bullies from bullying people around. This all started because of a teenager that committed suicide and left a not that said that he couldn't take the bullying any more, also didn't name the bully he was talking about. I can honestly say that it is good that there is an attempt being made to stop bullies, however the reality of the whole thing is that people have always known that there were bullies around. In every generation there is at least one bully per classroom. The bad thing is that no one did anything about it then, and they think that they will do it now to ease their own consciences from not doing it before the teenager committed suicide. You can just think what I think of those people.
For those who came from smaller communities, it was usually the people in the schools that are repeating a grade for a 2nd or 3rd time that are the bullies. Everyone would know who he or she is, but no one did anything about him or her. I can honestly say that a couple of the guys that I have met up with in high school in grade 7 were repeating that grade. They were the bullies of that class and they were also the type of people that you didn't want to meet after school either. Right now those 2 bullies that I am thinking of are currently good people. They are still the type that you don't want to piss-off, however they have turned out to be good people after all. After the 3rd or 4th time of repeating grade 7, one of them dropped out of high school, and the other continued in high school and completed it. People have been saying that if bullies aren't stopped when they are in high school, that the bully has a good chance to become an armed robber, or something like that. The 2 guys I have been talking about didn't change their ways until they got girl-friends that weren't interested in bullying people around, that is when the bullies stop bullying people around.
Bullies only really have the power over people when either no one stands up for himself or herself or when people are paying attention to the bullies and want the abilities to control others like the bullies do. If you take either or both of those things from the bullies they are powerless to the rest of the people. There were many people throughout school that thought I would be the perfect person to pick on because I wouldn't stand up for myself. When I was in elementary school I found that the bullies were more interested in making people "cry" in front of everyone than doing any physical harm to the person. So in elementary school I found a way to block all emotions (mental barriers) that I could express at any point. When the bullies would come to me, after I started to block my emotions, they didn't have the ability to make me cry any more, so they tried to get me to fight them. When a bully loses an ability of his/her power over a person they will be frustrated and be finding another way (without thinking) to get his/her power back over that person. That day I went home with a cracked rib and a black eye. The school only suspended the person for a couple of days and then he was back again, the problem was that it wasn't a true punishment because at that age you are looking for a reason not to come to school. So all that the school did was give the bully a break from school so that the bully could think of a new way to torment everyone, and also to get back at me for not bending to his will (so to speak).
No matter how much people say that they are putting less tolerance on bullies, there will always be times that even the tolerances will be adjusted to allow some things go. Even though there shouldn't be any adjustments to that specific policy, there will be and cases of bullying will increase once again. Many schools that are in small communities do not have the proper resources to be able to have the bullying in the school to end. With the number of cuts that go throughout the schools now, trying to do anything about the bullying just gets lost in the shuffle. There is also the fact that the school boards have decided to combine certain high schools into one high school. In small areas one high school may have a grudge against another high school. A school board that deals with both schools has decided to combine those 2 high schools and also one other high school into one big high school. Now the thing that should be a big concern for the school board is the fact that 2 out of 3 of those high schools have been having a grudge for a long time, and the question is how can they truly say that it is safe to combine those high schools when they don't like each other as it is while they are apart. This just spells trouble right now, unless they are playing to have security at that school.
When I was in high school, there was always a little hostility towards another high school that was near to us. We always took our hostilities out on each other during a soccer or basketball game. We tried to keep it in a secure spot so that neither side went too far. A couple of months ago the current generation going through the high schools took the hostilities too far. One girl from one of the high schools beat the hell out of one girl from the other high school. Later on in the week the 2nd high school had a retaliation to the attack by the 1st high school. The 2nd high school had 16 people (with brass knuckles) attack the girl from the 1st high school and her boyfriend. In my opinion, that has gone too far and should never had happened. I understand the retaliation however doing the brass knuckles is too far. It is bad enough that the people were outnumbered, and half of them could have done the job just as easily without the brass knuckles included. A fight like this has just taken the hostilities between the 2 high schools to a new level, and the school board doesn't see a problem with joining them together. I think they need to look at the situation one more time before going ahead with any plans.
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