I have two sons both from two different relationships so my boys live not far apart in the states, Dean the oldest is 24 living in Austin, Texas and Victor "Chips" is 22 living in Denver, Colorado.

They grew up together whenever they see each other on holidays and vacations with both their moms so I rarely ever see them, I lived in Alaska, and so it is like a million miles away.

Dean was telling me his story about his dealings with the school bullies and believed it or not it was also the school teachers who bullied him too.

Yes, it was mind boggling thinking about what Dean finally admitted last year that he was being bullied by a number of his classmates for years in and years off and never complained to anyone including his mom.

More so, his school teachers giving him a hard time, like giving him a cold shoulders, ignoring him, unfair school grades and passing him over to someone else that he should have been deserved.

He is the top school students with a school of over 1000 students and never had any problem learning because his mom Helen is a high school math and music teacher in another school district not far where he is attending so he is always alone in that school. I never understood why he was not in the same school with his mom is beyond me. He studies with his mom at home after school so he is a wiz in math and music.

Dean is a bit stubborn about asking for any help from someone other than his grandpa George or his mom, he admit that he learned to deal with his own problem to himself so that explained a lot of personal pictures and school pictures shows he never smiles and always had that worried look in his face.

He never discussed or ever thought of asking for help with his problem with the bullies to anyone to this day, he said he wasn’t the only ones in school being bullied, there were many others.

Dean said he never got into a fight with anyone from his school but he wondered why his school teachers gave him a hard time, he said he never talked back, never said anything mean or offensive to anyone or any of his school teachers.

Dean having grown up into a Lutheran Christian family, he always displays his best behavior in public including the school bullies and the teachers. He spent a lot of his teen’s years being in the church bible study group and served as a summer bible camp counselor so he has a busy teen life.

Today, Dean is now 24 tells me that he is glad it was behind him, he says he still have no idea why this has ever happened but he ignored it and did the best he can on the day to day school activities.

 Dean is a junior artichet & inspection engineer who just graduated two years ago and working for his grandpa George construction business here in Austin and have his girlfriend Anna together for 5 plus years and looking forward to start a family of his own.

my daughter is 9, she is also adopted from China and has Cleft Lip & Palate. She has been bullied ever since preschool. She has been hit, kicked, pushed, cLled names and cussed at. My daughter at 6 years old came into the housr ine day crying and told me that she watedto die because  the little girl that i thought was the nicest one told her in front of a group of kids including my niece and nephew that we weren't her parents and that she didn't have any family because she was adopted and not even her bio parents wanted her. These children have stripped my daughter of her self esteem, self confidence and everything else and it is very sad to see her or any child to be treated like that. She has just.had her 10th surgery in the past 7 year, she had bone grafts done and bone taken from her hip and the first thing she said when she aeen herself in the mirror is i dont want to go back to school because the kids are going to pick on me and i am hidwous looking

I was 10 when I was bullied for the first time. I don't know why but suddenly my friends didn't want to be seen with me. I was overweight and suddenly that mattered too. I was 12 when people started knocking books out of my hands. I was 15 when I ate lunch alone in a closet for the first time. I was 16 when boys started pointing at my body in gym class and laughing. Girls would smirk or giggle at me in the hallway. Random boys in the hallway would come up and ask if the could "titty F$@k me"  laughing as they walked away. Girls would call me fat, weird, would look at me like I offended their eyes. I thought about ending my life constantly. I felt hopeless every day was was a void of nothingness. I hoped every day as I drove to school that another car would crash into mine. I barely made it out of high school. I felt horrible at college though, I thought every person I met would hurt me, would hate me, would think I was worthless, weird, fat...But I made friends, my success was recognized, I dated an amazing successful man who had his own terrible struggle with bullying and we now stand together to help raise awareness about mental health and bullying. 

When I was in Jr. High School first year as a six grader in Sitka, Alaska a small fishing town of 3300 people in the 70's when I was approached by a Hugh blond hair, blue eyes, very huskie eight grader.

He has a chubby face and a very smirk looks in his face eyeing on me for something and he targeted me for a reasons I never knew to this day, he has a glaring stare in his eyes like he planning to do me some harm.

He approached me and verbally threatening to beat me up saying he is going to beat the crap out of me as soon as he sees me alone on the street; he remains repetitive repeating the words whenever he sees me in school throughout the school year.

My Jr. High School building was fairly brand new when I attended the school and I have a lot of friends who I grew up with that I pal around since kindergarten and some of them saw what this guy said to me and that was the time my friends shy away from me for a while and we got back together they wanted me to report this to the school principal but I couldn't do it.

I really took it seriously because this guy is like a complete psycho being obsessed with beating the crap out of me, there was no way I could not even put a dent into this guy even I did my best to fight back, I had absolute no experience fighting with anyone so I have no clue what the pain would be like after if I ever get beaten up and it raced through my mind a lot wondering about it.

This guy I described is like 4 times bigger and heavier than me maybe over 310 lbs. and about 6 foot tall, it's like I am up against a Hugh professional wrestler to a tiny kid with nothing but skin and bones, I ‘m 88 lbs..  My arm is like a shoe string arm not flabby or muscular but no fat on my arm just have a little bit of tiny muscle.

I am an average sixth grader small like everyone else in sixth grade, I entered a new school and it is so different kind of experience than what I learned in fifth grade in another school building in the area.

I wore a prescription glasses and a hearing aid, a behind the ear type since I was born partially deaf but barely legally deaf so I still can hear okay even without the hearing aid.

For an entire year in school I was constantly in fear every day that I am in school and even going to and from school by foot from my home and never need to be on a bus I had to be on a look out for this guy and so many times he approached me in school constantly reminding me what he is going to do using his hand gesture and other times, verbal threats.

With this in mind, I was really alone in school, reporting or talking to an adults like my parents, school teachers or any adults even my older brother was never in my mind and could not figure out why to this day why I never ask for help, I think it was very embarrassing to me to seek help from someone else.

One day I won’t forget the incident being the closest of being beaten up, that was the time I walked my dog to the school’s swimming pool outside and I was approached by this bully and his buddy who took my dog’s harness that I was holding and this guy positioned himself ready to fist fight me, I looked at him like I was surprised but I quickly grabbed my dog’s harness from his buddy and walked away fairly fast, so I was very fortunate that I wasn’t beaten-up.

The next school seasons I was in seventh grade and he is in High school in other parts of town and never had to deal with him anymore.

Now I am looking back at this and I am glad it didn’t go the way I thought it would go in being attacked by this bully.

I did found him on Facebook recently he is living in another state, he is now morbid obese and looked very old in the pictures I found, I still really don’t know what his problem to this day or why he wanted to beat me up and I have no intention of ever asking him, but perhaps that is a just profile of a bully.

I am now a retired Alaska law enforcement officer who is now working for a family owned Cable TV company in Alaska and have two grown sons living out on their own and am very happy all that it is behind me.

What I Learned from all this that this is a temporary problem, the bullying incident is a temporary problem that will go away and to some, it may not be unforgettable, I put it behind me and moved on in my life.

My son vincent is a bright red headed very willful child full of of spirit and eager o learn about how things work in the world. Vincent is 7 and in second grade. Vincent is autistic, he has Aspegers. 

  His life changed so much this year. his bully started last year with two children both special needs themse;lves but not autistic. At the end of first grade we finally were lucky enough to see one of those boys leave.

  Here comes the start of second grade, happy ready to start a new year. Two weeks into the new year, it starts all over. The taunting, the shunning, the physical pushing, hitting, throwing of cedar. Everytime my son tried to play with his then best friend, thias boy verbally or physically attacked him.

 The district got this boy a one to one, still no good. My son ended up in the hospital with severe stomach pain the first time for three days. No physicals finsings except stress due to his autism and the bullying.

  Back to school more meetings, it was calm for a while and then it started it up again. Vincent told me at 7 tat he wanted to die because of this boy. his life would never be the same. He was nothing just like the boy said. he was not funny like the boy said and so on. So, now my son was on crisis watch but Astor childrens and this child remains in the classroom happy and doing his thing.

  Twon days later the child tells me son hes going to kill him, then laughs and says hes kidding.  two days after that my sons is in Westchestr Medical Center for six days with massive stomach pains, an NG tube is his nose, iv fluids no food for 6 days an endoscopic and colonscopy procedure done with several biopsies.  My son suffered tremendously and he looked so sad and so lost. he had to go to school every day and face this and not be happy ontop of realizing that he was different from other children.  Finally after sevral talks last month, the district removed the child from his class and OMG no more stomach pains imagine that!

  This is so ridiculous that it has to come to a child suffering so much physical and mental pain beofre anything happens. What would the district have said if my son really did leave this world so early. thank God we are very intune parents and called crisis on him at his early age. Thank God Astoer  did not take it laightly. Now my son is slowly starting to smile again. he has stopped hurting himself so much at home, his head banging is calming down and his scratchinbg of his face and arms is also calming down. That too started when the bullying did. thank God for people like you, who do these projects. Bullying is not part of growing up. It has gone way too far now. parents need to take charge of theirchildren and realize that their childrens words and actions can hurt and can kill others.

   Dawnmarie nasi

Ever since I was in grade school, I was constantly getting bullied: verbally, physically, and mentally. My birthmother had ran off on me, my sister, and father. My parents had finally divorced at the age of seven. Ever since then, I had become seculded and closed off. I had travelled a lot and had to restart schools were i was bullied over and over again. My father had remarried four years ago and made my life easier. After transferring to my current school, I had promised myself that i would be known as me;; a caring, kindhearted person whose past made her stronger. I am a survivor of bullying and I hope that this is proof that life can get better.

I have been a victim of cruel and harsh bullying from 6th to 8th grade and if I hadn't of moved to a different state after 8th grade the bullies and bullying would have followed me to high school! There are ALLOT of stories I could tell, but the one that I can't and mostly likely will never forget is what happened to me on Valentine's day my 7th grade year...I went to school like normal, headed to where all my "friends" were sitting like I always did before school started. Walked over to my friend Candy to say HI, this girl, Sarah comes up to me and says, "Hey ass face no one wants you here! Go home!", of course me being me she scared me to death so I left them alone. I just sat by myself a few feet away from them, apparently that wasn't far enough though. Sarah came over to me, told me to stand up; I did and the next thing I knew I was on the ground again, my face was bleeding and I was very out of breath! I had never gotten physically assaulted until that very second! But it didn't stop there, since I didn't get back up fast enough for them, this random guy comes over, picks me up and throws me in the boys bathroom dumpster! I have been thrown into that dumpster so many times before I could have put an address on it!! After that the day was pretty quiet other than my usual name callings by some other people.  Got on the bus after school and I get called "rat face" by someone else and once the bus takes off I get random crap thrown at me, you name it: ABC gum, trash, toilet paper, shoes, books, pencils, pens, a cell phone. They threw anything and everything they could find and when they ran out of crap they asked the bus driver if he had anything they could throw at me!! It was a good thing my stop was always first!

I have always thought to myself why I didn't become a bully myself after going through all that for 3 years. My answer is always the same, it's not who I am! I've always been the peace maker type, always trying to figure out the nicer way to handle things, that's why I created my Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/makeadrifference it's my way of getting back at the bullies by saying they helped make me a better person! Feel free and check out my page if you want!!

I was 11.  Just 11.  Had grown up in a small, southern town where we knew everyone.  I was no different than the other kids.  Then, my family moved to the Midwest - life changed instantly.  I didn't know I had an "accent"; didn't know I was "fat", "ugly" - but, apparently I was.  The 3 neighbor boys made sure I was reminded every day.  They would yell names at me  when I was inside the house....suffice to say, life was almost unbearable.  Almost..but I survived.  The next time we moved, to the East Coast, I was determined to be me, to be accepted for who I was, regardless.   I learned the importance of tolerance....understanding that being different doesn't mean being less. Over 50 years later, I am strong in my self....teach others that they are also.

High school we had the bully who did not graduate & was bigger & older then most of us in that school. He would walk the halls during & in between class & bully some of us kids when no hall monitors were around. I was walking to class a little late one morning & he came up to me said some really stupid mean things & pushed me to the ground. He laughed & tried to spit on me as I was getting up. I did not try to fight back so every time he saw me he would say things to me & push me around in front of the other kids... I remember thinking to myself that I would see him again someday after school was over & get back at him then. Years went by but low & behold I saw him standing on a street corner looking sad, homeless, & alone.... big puddle of water at his feet. What perfect timing, I had him. But I found myself feeling sorry for him. I realized he was paying for his life's mistakes. Without saying a word aloud, I wished him well & drove on. The funny thing. I felt good for not taking advantage of the situation that day. Godspeed bully. Godspeed.

My son was physically bullied last year being choked, pushed and punched.  The principal would not help because he said no one saw anything.  No one saw!? this went on for about four months.  Finally, I phoned the school board, PTA and superintendent (thank god for her) who finally listened to me, and took care of this.

Moral of the story... Keep talking, keep telling.  Keep finding someone who will listen!

Do NOT stop until you get results! Tell the media, your PTA, school board, and everyone until the bullying stops!