6th grade year is when it started...I was 12 years old and I was really smart, everyone called me a nerd or a ugly kid. Anyways as any kid would i took it harsh and really just started believing it myself and then this girl, her name was Sabrina, she comes up to me at lunch. I was alone and she asked me why i told her because nobody liked me and why was she talking to me that why shouldn't she be with the cool kids. Even though i was being a little harsh she understood why. She helped me everyday at school and helped me to stick up and don't allow those bullies to get to me because i was really smart but i wasn't ugly ! So later i started standing up for myself and then the bullies were scared of me i don't know why i mean they bullied me all this year and now that i stood up they were scared ? Ha it was really funny but i also realized that its okay being smart and if they call u ugly don't believe it because in gods eyes we are all his BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN !(: 

Throughout my life, even till this day, people bully me. People say nasty things, and do terrible actions, like pushing, punching, choking and more. I was too, always the different one, the one with the long hair, so I cut it short. The one with the weird voice, so I put on an act, with the weird teeth... Short, skinny, flamboyant, because I where glasses, because I was open with people, accepted gays, straight, and people in between alike. Joined the GSA. Still because I was an artist, because I was into drama, it continued. Whatever I tried to do, to make myself happy, others would look down at me, talk down to me, because I didn't fit in. So what I'm wearing pink or wearing a corsett, wearing makeup, painting my nails, coloring my hair, listening to Electronic Dance. I stopped caring what others did/do to me, as long as in the end, I have my friends, that happened me get through everything, my art, my music, and on. Sorry for the rant. I remember crying the night I got home, after being chocked by a guy 3 times my size, because of the fact that I was being silence for the day, for my GSA group. Remember being punched in the face while in science class, just because he felt like it. Spit on, while walking in between classes, slapped behind the head.. Had my cell phone stolen from me on my way home, while talking to my dad on the other line.. Over time (at that time, I thought), I learned there was no one going to do anything about it, so just show my love, and be peaceful. That at the end of the day, even when I would think of suicide... I stopped to think, there is a reason I'm here. Life has more meaning to it. I'm 23, in April, 24, and even though I may hear nasty things still till this day, like look at jaws over there, or whoa look at the ugly looking skinny guy, I think about what made them that way, I put myself in their shoes. I think about whether or not they know true peace, love and respect. I want the world to be unitied. That day will come if we work together. No more, drinking till I don't feel pain, popping pills till I'm numb, or going out of my way to forget. I spoke to people. My friends and peers. Till I found someone. The best part about this project, is that someone, is all over the place, right here, on this site, on this project. We will find peace, and unity. We are finally free. If you are reading my words, go no further for help, because you are finally home. If you every need someone to speak to, [email protected]. I'm here, and I'm pretty sure, the rest of us here are too. With tons of Peace, Love and Respect, let's Unite. P.L.U.R. - Luis Perez

I was bullied nearly my entire educational career. All the way from 1st grade to 9th. People would pull me backwards by my huge backpack and push me on the ground, calling me "turtle." Girls would take out pencils and stab me. Guys would stick things in my hair and laugh when I didn't notice. They would steal my schoolwork and shove me when they walked by me, and call me "emo bitch" because their torture eventually led to me cutting myself. 2 years ago I decided it needed to stop. I stood up to people. Made new friends. Told my friends about what was going on, and they protected me. Now I'm considered one of the most respected seniors at my school because I can openly talk about my past with bullying and self harm. I do everything I can to help. People message me all the time asking how I stood up for myself, how I stopped cutting, where they can get help, whether or not they need it. And I'm happy I stood up for myself, because if I couldn't stand up for myself, how can I now stand up for everyone else? Stand for the silent, and speak for the broken.

I was the target of several adult bullies when I was a divorced mother with two children ages 9 and 12, and then again by one when I was 57. At first, I had difficulty understanding why these people were harassing me, because I never experienced being bullied in school or at home during my childhood. When I looked back, I also saw that I had the same difficulty understanding why my first husband (the father of my kids) was abusive towards me, because I had never experienced abuse at the hands of my parents or any other family member. I had taken on their blame, thinking that I did something wrong or mean to warrant their threats and aggressive behavior towards me, not understanding that they did not have any right to be mentally, emotionally and physically violent towards me. It took me a long time to understand that I didn’t DO anything to merit such behavior from anyone, and to build up my self-esteem, reclaiming my pride. I could go into detail here about what happen, but it has moved from being a source of pain, self-doubt, shame and guilt to one of a story far in the past which happened to another person I barely recognize anymore. Living with Parkinson’s disease is quite enough to deal with, so I don’t punish myself for merely doing what I had to do at that time in order to protect my children and to keep what was left of my family intact. My children are happy, strong and healthy physically, mentally and emotionally now as adults, and that is what is important to me. After the last adult bully who thought that I was an easy victim to take his rage out on because of my Parkinson’s - not understanding the battle I had already gone through in facing my own morality – vain attempts to scare me, I know what bullies fear the most: losing control of the situation and of authorities, especially of the law. The Housemates from Hell moved out rather quickly after I called in the sheriff.

when i was in 1985

When I was little, I was naive about the world. I did not know many things, I'm serious I had no idea what an iPod was till I was in 5th grade, let alone ever heard a bad word spoken in front of me. I met this girl named Rebecca around 5th grade year, I've had come back from a new school to return to my old school, and people would tease her sometimes saying AKA the Lunch Lady just mean jokes about her and names. I remember saying a couple of them and well they made me uneasy until I could not stand it anymore and talked to her. You know what was funny? We became fast friends and she stood up for me while I stood up for her. I would get easily offended and I tended to be an emotional person, so one small joke that was mean would set me off into tears, she would always stand up for me and make the people stop. I lost many friends because of that, but it didn't matter since I had Becca, my one true friend I could count on. Then Middle School started and people started to taunt us more. Saying stuff that we were gay and disgusting and all of that. Some guys would pretend to "date" Becca by making lewd jokes about her. Even a teacher laughed about it and said they should try harder! But then everything changed when we met a young bi-sexual boy named Colten, two girls who were "step related"to me, Jessica and Desiree, and finally Samantha. We became a tight close group and let me tell you we defended each other no matter what. Colten was our baby brother and we protected him as much. He would get bullied a lot just because being bi-sexual! So you see say one bad thing about him and we defended him like a mother bears as he would call us. We would get called many names because of that yet neither of us refused to back down because of that. Even our teachers didn't want us together! They would separate us saying younger years couldn't be with the older years, (since Becca, Sammy and me were older) and saying ridiculous things like that! We complained to other teachers but they said rules were rules until I looked in the Rule of Conduct and found out what they were saying were lies, it turns out other students hatched a plan to get us separated so we wouldn't talk to each other. Yet we still broke that rules and ignored the teachers when they would get mad. The last and final year was when things went to far and when we all snapped. Becca, Samantha and I were outside since all the grades had "free time" since we were taking a break from our exams. I always carry my bag around me with two water bottles and I had barely gotten a small tube of hand sanitizer. When we went to lunch, (I always drink water) we ate and talked and I took a drink from my water (a huge swig). I noticed it had a funny taste to it and shook it off and kept drinking. Thats when Dez noticed the bubbles and she told me to shake the bottle. When I did, we all looked in horror as we saw the water turning bubbly when you wash dishes. Right when I was about to say something, I immediately ran outside and started vomiting. The teacher then saw, got mad and took me in the back of the kitchen and told me to throw up there. No trash can, no toilet, I was forced to throw up all over the floor much to my embarrassment. When I was finished my sweet friends had called my mom since the teacher didn't even bother. I went to the Doctor and the Doctor said I just needed rest and sleep. When I came back to school the next day, my mom came with me and was livid. I had told her what I thought and what my friends said. That it was a couple of students who put the hand sanitizer in my water bottle and were laughing before and after I drank the water. They questioned many kids even my friends until they landed to  me. I told them it wasn't my friends and it was two girls who were next to my bag. The teachers all looked at each other and said that was exactly what my friends said. The two girls got off the hook for a "harmless prank" yet it didn't matter to me. I was proud of my friends for standing up for me and the bullying somehow "mysteriously" stopped. *Cough Cough, our parents. But I'm grateful for my wonderful and dear friends and parents for standing up for themselves and me.

When I'm on my 5 to 6th grade, i don't know when it start or who the one that started it, suddenly all the boys on my class fell disgusted by me. If they accidentally touch me, they will scream and running and pass my trace to other boys and they all running around while saying something that included disgust, plague, my name and other stuff. As a kid with working mom, i can't tell my parents how i feel, i always cried at night to remember that i will go to school again tomorrow. I have friend though, girl friend that always play with me. There 7 on us. My friends always tell me to fight back and stand up to myself. When i arrive at the school, i don't put my bag on my chair yet until the bell ringing, because all the boys is in the front of class, so i don't want they start running because my appearance, so i play with my friends with my bag on me. When on Junior high, some of the boys have the same school with me, they still act like that, but fortunately not every people follow them. This event have a big influence of my life, because i never felt pretty or at least normal, i have a very low esteem. I have believe that no one will ever like me or i don't ever dream that i could marry someone or to be loved.

But now it all change, even with a lot of drama and emotional war, now I'm happily married and a mom of one adorable child, i have husband that love me no matter what. He love me with all my flaws. With all that experience, i promise not to let my child or anyone will ever felt the same i do.

 

I grew up being tormented daily.  I never really knew why kids picked on me; the reasons varied.  From kindergarten to the 9th grade I suffered and witnessed various forms of bullying, not just from students but from teachers as well.  When I was in the third grade I was in gifted and talented.  My class was so cruel to me that I couldn't make good grades and I would take any excuse to stay out of school.  It stressed me out to the point that I was actually sick from it.  I had to drop out of gifted and talented so I could transfer to a different class.  The bullying got worse 7th-9th grade when I transferred to Barton High School.  My first day on the bus I sat by myself reading my bible when an older boy targeted me.  He asked me what I was reading and when I responded he proceeded to imply that I was satanic.  After that just about every person in school would call me Lucifer, Lucifer's daughter, Satan, and other variations of this.  Something that I said about the one year anniversary of 911 was twisted and in the 8th grade they added terrorist to the list.  At some point the kids found out that I was suicidal and a group proceeded to yell "suicide" at me while I walked back to class from lunch.  It was hard.  When I was younger I would cry a lot but the older I got I started to use their taunts against them by frightening them.  Sometimes scaring them seemed to be the only way to get them to leave me alone.  One day in the 8th or 9th grade a group of kids were harassing me so I threatened to kill them.  Of course I didn't mean it, but it scared them badly enough to go to the principle.  When I told Mr. Bagley what had happened his response was that maybe they picked on me because I had dark hair and eyes.  Nothing was ever done about the bullying or about my threat.  I came back home to visit one year after I dropped out of school and my friends insisted I had to do something about my little sister.  She is a larger girl and has a body odor issue, instead of speaking to her or her parents a teacher stood her up in front of the class and sprayed her with air freshener and air fresheners were hung from her desk.  Mrs. Hargraves was one of those teachers who always went a step too far.  She was a teacher that loved to publicly humiliate and bully students.  I had watched her do it many times to my friends when I had her.  Mrs. Macintosh talked all of the senior cheerleaders and a number of the senor football players into viciously harassing a 7th grade girl that she had adopted at one point.  Mrs. Bagley had an entire senor English class wanting to kick my ass because I didn't care for the Holocaust book we were reading.  She told them that I said that the Jews deserved it.  My little brother dropped out of school at Barton and got his GED because he couldn't handle the bullying at the hands of students and teachers.  Nobody ever did anything about the bullying.  None of these teachers were ever punished for perpetuating it. 

When my brother and I were kids, we tried to enjoy school as much as we could, despite the boredom. We would sometimes play together at recess if my friends happened to not be in school for whatever reason. Around the time I had started 2nd grade and my brother 1st, that's when the problems started. Not for me so much as him. One day, as our mom was helping us get ready for the day, he came to her crying, begging her to let him stay home. She asked him why, but he was too upset to say anything, so I went to school by myself. As I went to lunch, I decided to sit with his friends, since mine happened to not be there. They asked me why he didn't show up, but all I could tell them was that he was upset about something, I just didn't know what for. "It must've been that 2nd-grader," one of them said. I asked them what they were talking about. "We thought he was going to beat him up yesterday. You didn't see him holding him against the fence at recess?" I said that I had no idea that even happened. When I went home that day, I didn't tell him his friends told me what happened, and he didn't ask. Nothing of that caliber happened to either of us since then, and it took my brother a long time before he even told our grandpa about it. He even made one of his essays about the effects of having self-defense classes as a part of our high school's P.E. curriculum. There are times when I feel bad about not knowing that he was bullied so bad that he was afraid to go to school, but then I remember that it only took one time to change him into what he is now.

Many social websites that are used by my piers and I have no boundaries. For example on Ask. FM I was harassed and called names and rumors were spread. I only went to my closest friends and they were very supportive. It was almost to late. I didn't see the point in having those accounts if all that was going to happen on there was rude comments that were tarring me apart bit by bit. So I stood up and stopped the source and you can too.