Make it stop....Full stop! (Bullying in Schools)

Member Name: charlie1979

Product:	Bullying in Schools
Date:	03/10/08 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None!

Disadvantages: Far too many!

I like many people who will read this review was bullied as a child and it has affected my confidence as an adult. I do not however dwell on the past and believe it was just a part of growing up. My confidence has improved as my adult years have gone by but as a child I was very quiet and shy.

My bullying started at primary school and was the typical bully boy and his sidekick scenario. The bullying started when they found out my parents had a nice house (which they worked bloomin hard for!) and I got all the usual spoilt rich kid taunts (which I certainly wasn't!). I didn't stand out as a child and was a pretty normal looking kid but the bullying got worse to the point where I would be constantly tormented by these two boys and spent a lot of time on my own, trying to hide from them! The sidekick however would not come near me without his alpha male freind as he was too much of a wimp!

The day this all stopped was the day I got my first 'boyfriend' at primary school at the tender age of 8......ahh bless! After that I started to make new friends and was hanging out with quite a big crowd and I felt safe. They never bullied me again.

Off I went to middle school, leaving my childhood sweetheart behind (is that the smallest violin in the world I can hear plaing?)! Many of my new friends went to the same middle school so I was happy and felt protected. It was hard going from being the oldest in the school to the youngest again!

All was going well until I decided to sit on the back seat of the bus on the way home, little did I know that this seat was for the senior years! The kids started yelling at me to move but I was sick of being told what to do by bullies so I stood my ground. I came away from the situation with a black eye but I felt proud of myself for standing up to them and my confidence started to improve. What was big and clever about a lad hitting a girl four years younger than him?! His parents must be so proud!

I was fortunate enough to win a scholarship to a private school for the second year of middle school and suffered no bullying for the rest of my school years. Bullying was simply not tolerated at that school. The problem was that this was that I stood out like a sore thumb at the bus stop in my uniform and the bullying started again. My father used to have to sit and wait with me in the car at the bus stop until the bus arrived so I could jump straigt on to it to avoid the other kids. My parents would never have been able to afford for me to pay for this kind of education had I not got a free place but this didn't stop them judging me! I felt safe at school though and was much happier.

I feel lucky in a way when I see what kids go through today. With all the modern technology you cannot only be verbally bullied but also via your mobile and the internet! Kids nowadays also resort to violence and physical abuse more where when I was a kid it was mostly verbal, "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me"!

Unfortunately bullying will never go away in society and children can be very cruel. However bullying is rife in adult life and in workplaces too. My childhood experience enabled me to stand up to people and I will not tolerate anyone being unreasonable to myself or anyone else now.

I suffered in silence in primary school and didn't talk to anyone about the bullying. To this day I still find it very hard to talk about my feelings and tend to 'clam up'.

I feel it is important for a child who is being bullied to talk to someone. If they do not feel they can talk to their parents there are so many helplines now where the kids can get advice.

I am not a parent myself yet but I have three young nieces and the thought of them going through what I went through would break my heart. Bullies need to be stopped and be made to think about the consequences of their actions. The only way to do this is to ask for help!

Schools do everything they can to stop bullying but if the child does not talk to someone they will not know it's happening. Unfortunately teachers nowadays seem to have little time for the individual and probably don't pick up on the warning signs.

Although bullying will always be a part of our society I do feel it can be controlled. If I had not had been bullied I probably wouldn't have become the peron I am now so in one respect I believe it has made me a better person and it prepared me for the big wide world!

Summary: It's not big and it's not clever!