I live in rural TN and it's not a normal thing to see a group of Indians like my family walkin' around and doing everyday things in the middle of a mass of white Christians. I think it was because of my darker skin and slightly different facial features that the boys in elementary school decided was enough to pick on me. They called me a butthole (not the word butt though) and said that the reason I was so dark was because I came out of my mother's butt(again,the word butt was not used) instead the "normal"way. 

In middle school, it got worse. Because we had matured and learned about the different religions and cultures of the world, Christian girls would seek me out in the bathrooms and tell me I would go to Hell for not believing in the Lord and that reincarnation was a bunch of bullcrap. They said that if it did exist, I would die and come back as a rodent that they would run over. I told my parents and immediate action was taken. Of course, the school's teachers and principal all turned a blind eye because they thought that it was ok.

I couldn't take it anymore....seeing my parents stressed over my problems and the fact that I just couldn't fit in had taken its toll. I considered suicide multiple times(trust me when I say more than twice a week) and slept with a knife in my hand in case I just decided to do it. Then, as if someone could hear my pain...a boy at school started treating me nicely and we became very good friends. After eighth grade, we both applied to a magnet school and got in. Things since have been looking up for me and I hope I can say the same for the future. 

Thank you for reading my story...because I decided not to commit suicide, and learned to block out the bad things in life, the few rays of hope in me has not died. I want to say that all it takes is a smile or wave to lift up someone's life and even stop them from taking their life.

It began when I was 6 I had gotten my hearing aids because I have a hearing loss of moderate to severe. At around age 12 I was called a retard. Now even today I get bullied even more because I'm a lesbian. I got called Faggot about 10 times this year in school I am now in 7th grade and I was called a bitch I really don't know why. That is my story

I once had a friend and she used to be one of the nicest people I knew. After a few years she started to change. She'd call me and anorexic bitch and other names. Soon I was at the top of her "Kill List".

A friend and I had gone to the school councellor about this because we were starting to get scared of the girl. The councelor said that she'd talk to the girl. Yet she never did and the girl escalated into physically abusing us.

Finally I had told her off and she started to avoid me and my other friends and only verbally abused us in a lesser manner.

This continued for weeks until she just reverted back to normal and acted like nothing happened. She's still cruel to me at times but it hasn't gotten to as bad as it was in earlier times.....

I'm about to become a parent for the first time and I'm excited and nervous about the life my son will experience.

I was, like alot of the folks here, bullied very badly when I was between the ages of 12 and 15.  I was 'different' and 'sensitive' and 'awkward'.

As I got older and thought I left the bullying behind, I entered into a marriage where I became the victim of domestic violence.

It wasn't until I was in my early 30's where I said - 'no more'.  When I finally left her and started my new life.

Maybe if I hadn't been bullied, beaten down, so early in life, I wouldn't have gotten trapped in such an abusive relationship later in my life.

If you see a kid being beaten up, regardless of where you live, it's assault!  Call the police!  Whether you're a parent, student or teacher, bullies need to realize that there are consequences to their actions.

I was born and raised in Michigan’s Detroit-Metro area for about 13 years of my life. In sixth grade, I moved from the big city of Utica, to the tiny village of Farwell in Central Michigan. This was one of the biggest, but most crucial changes in my life. Farwell was a very small, everybody knows everybody town and it was almost impossible to get out of the house without seeing somebody that you knew. For me, the small town made a huge positive impact on the school system and the sense of community that you felt walking around town. Unfortunately, I did have to play the role of the “new kid” and that was something that was very foreign to me. Being a new student, I instantly gravitated towards the first clique to accept me, just so I wouldn’t feel left out. Around the age of 13-14, I weighed a lot more than the average teenager, and that new group of friends reminded me on almost a daily basis. Everyday I would hear jokes cracked about my weight. Since I didn’t want to be exiled from the group, I began joking around with them, making fun of myself. “If you can’t beat them, join them” I told myself. Until one day, I realized that maybe if my own friends didn’t like my body, then I shouldn’t either. This led me to lose weight in the worst way possible, I just stopped eating. Every day I would get by, barely eating anything. Eventually, as this process went on, I lost about 20 pounds. Being okay with the weight that I was at, I began eating again, becoming stable with my eating habits. From time to time, I get asked the question, “If you could go back, would you do it all over?” The simple answer is, no. What has happened to me in my past defines who I will become in the future. Taking my experiences and roadblocks that I had to overcome in Middle School, I realized that there were kids all over that deal with issues like mine on a daily basis, and I wanted to put an end to it.

My senior year, I decided that our High School needed change and I wanted to be the voice for our student body. All in the same year, I ran for president of Student Council, Class Council, Band Council and Vice President of National Honor Society. I ended up winning all of my elections. Later down the line, the National Honor Society President resigned and I took over. I was one of the only students to ever have that many presidential titles in one time while going to Farwell. In the meantime, I still saw bullying happening everyday in the hallways, I watched people walk by, letting it happen, almost as if they didn’t care. Seeing this, I teamed up with our school’s Liaison officer and put together a presentation on Bullying and Suicide Awareness, we decided to present it in front of the 500 students of the Middle School, and the 500 students of the High School. After getting such a positive response from this, a couple different school districts caught wind of this and asked us to present in front of their student bodies as well. We realized that our message was only lasting for about a week after we gave our initial presentation, and it began fading in the minds of the students. We wanted something that lasted, that kids could get involved in, so we adopted an anti-bullying group named, the Power of 100. The concept was aimed at the fact that if one person can stand up to bullying, why can’t 100? Our motto was, “It starts with one, but continues to grow.” We began rallying students, making posters and brainstorming ideas of what we wanted to do with our group. We were contacted with an idea of an anti-bullying video that we could produce for our students. We received a very positive response from this, we were contacted by a couple newspapers who did front page articles on us, our presentation and our video. We were also contacted by numerous teachers and students all over the United States who saw the video in their own classrooms. We took this positivity and produced another video on Elementary School bullying and have received about 25,343 views so far. It gave hope that there are people out there that are willing to help, you just needed to find them. Don't be afraid to tell your story and get others to back up your mission on making this world a better place.

The entirety of the education system is now bunk and in the toilet. If children were actually learning and interested in their education, they wouldn't spend all of their time torturing each other. 

Bullying is a mentality that our society often encourages. I know this because I often see the same attitudes and actions in adults. Bullying is defined in various ways, which makes it hard to point-point by the victim. The most striking definition is that which bullying occurs because the individual who bullies comes from a place of unmatched power and influence. 

This is why some bullies are teachers. This must be why some bullies are parents. This must be why some bullies get straight A's. This must be why some bullying is ignored. This is why no one has respect for the victim and everyone looks the other way.  

We exalt power and influence in this country. We want our kids to be powerful and influential, but at what cost? Why can't someone be exalted for being different, for not looming, for not gossiping, for not being cruel? 

American claims to be a Christian nations, but it is full of out-of-control blood-thirsty, angry youth who are discouraged from common sense and doing the right thing. Fix the problem at the source. The bullies were once bullied too, and they cope now by bullying. It starts at home.

 

People who have nicknames and are bullied are the ones that think they have no one that no one loves them but that ain't true many people that get bullied or being called names are the ones that are cared the most by friends and family. The kids that are think they are walking on tight ropes at night thinking what would happen tomorrow or the next day whether or not they could survive. Each day they come home they lie to their parents and family on how their day was. My life is just nothing but sadness as I see the kids that get bullied. What's your story.

#Don't be a bully be a HERO

The causes of bullying

Torturer

Name Calling

Pain

Heart Broken

Sadness

Threatened

Life of no happiness just sorrow that they can't handle.

Bullying is no good to kids that look weird, funny, smart, especially one that have great imagination, and weak. They are the ones that get picked on every day filled with pain when they come home the ones that bully are the ones don't think of why they do it instead they do it to look tough in front of the cool kids their is a student that had surgery and people don't hangout with us. The hallway in my school are like a battle field for them once you walk by you see some one being hit or being called mean names. The only thing that could happen is if we all kids stand up for the ones that get bullied and let them be the most important people in your life. My name is Anderson Nguyen and I'm 14 and I see how it feels to be bullied and this is just the beginning of my story and whats your story.

#Don't be a bully be a HERO

I never really noticed bullying in my area while i was growing up, i am 25 now just for a time frame. It seemed to me that most everyone got along enough to just leave each other alone. My school was very "clicky" so I honestly never saw bullying.

It was not until I grew up that i realized how stupid that statement seems. I honestly think that if I could go back in time and be able to watch my classmates from the outside I would see bullying. I was widely accepted in most clicks just because I was really into sports but also in band, and also a bit Gothic so i had friends everywhere.

I feel like this sounds horrible, by the way, and know i feel bad that i never took the time to notice the bullying that was probably  happening right under my nose.

Recently bullying was brought into the forefront of my life. My younger cousin and his family all moved to the Sacramento area, after living in Oregon for his whole life. He had always gone to a private Catholic school, but the location of their new home meant the nearest one was about 1 hour away, so as a family they decided he would enter the public middle school just down the street. He would call me crying about how bad his day was, and that the teachers AND the Principal would do nothing about the names, taunts and "innocent rough housing" (the principals actual words) the other boys were doing to my cousin.

It got so bad that my cousin was often "sick" and stopped going to school, and the principal had the audacity of calling the police to do a welfare check on him assuming my aunt and uncle were dead beats. After hearing my cousins and my aunt and uncles story though, they were informed that this policeman's daughter was pulled out of that school and moved to that private catholic school an hour away because of the lack of control the system had on the bullying.

Ir all turned out well in the end. The policeman went to the private school and see if they had an openings my cousin could take, they didn't, but given the circumstances they allowed him in anyway not wanting to have their inactivity cause harm. He is doing much better and is the happy little guy I have known since infancy.

Being bullied in the 5th grade changed the rest of my life forever.

I was a talkative, energetic child who loved life, up until the 5th grade when those whom I'd called friends began being "mean" to me and singling me out. Ah, the innocence of a child's mind, when you don't know what "being sensitive" or "having self-respect" mean, but you can certainly feel its full force and are extremely confused. One can be totally unaware that sometimes people can be very hurtful to you and it's not your fault. For me, I internalized it and was convinced it was my fault, that there was something wrong with me. I developed an insecurity complex that I carried all throughout my adolescence and teen years. I spent an entire decade convinced that I was irreversibly flawed. 

I can't pinpoint exactly how things began to turn around, but a lot of it was having faith that this could one day be reversed. I read a LOT about self-help and self-improvement. I experimented with drugs that widened my perspectives on life. I continued to learn and expand, despite my depression. I stayed committed to trying to enjoy life despite whatever my shortcomings were. Sometimes people helped change me, friends that cared for me would support me and give me their two cents. 

There are two most important things that I can confidently say have been the biggest pillars in my change; self-acceptance and blind faith. Faith is inherently blind; it's what's left when all the "facts" tell you all is hopeless and you probably should kill yourself, but you have some inexplicable faith in yourself that things will get better because they just have to.

Self-acceptance -- I cannot stress the importance of that. That was all I needed to hear from an adult in the 5th grade: The only thing that matters is you liking yourself. If someone doesn't like you, it's their problem, not yours. Loving yourself is the most important thing a human being should do. 

Acceptance meant realizing that maybe this all can't be reversed but, and  here's the magical part, that's freakin okay. I don't have to be perfect. But I am perfectly fine because I am me. The inherent value that all human beings have. It's like the beginning of a branch that leads to other branches of rewiring myself to that emotional growth that was stunted -- I am beginning to find my inner child again. 

To anyone who is currently bullied -- I cannot offer specific advice. You can fight back, you can embrace your weirdness and create some strange field of being so weird that you don't care about being bullied anymore (which I think is the best solution). Just believe that you are valuable and appropriate to life. There's no amount of logic that can prove that you don't deserve to be here. You don't have to belong to any specific group, or behave in a specific way. ENJOY how different you are. 

The more scars you have, the more you grow.

You have no idea how cool that'll make you later on.