I have always been in tiny private schools where there was a family like atmospere, and I never have experienced real bullies.  Sure, there were a few nasty kids who said some hurtful things, but they never said anything or did anything like what I saw in the movie. Nobody wanted to kill themselves. I have been very fortunate, and I realize that most kids go through real hell. I want to reach out to those who have been bullied, so I can help others.

Oddly, my experience with bulling was when I was 56!!!   My boss at a Catholic college, which expressed the virtues of diversity, was a horrible bully to her entire staff.   She targeted me because she thought I was weak.   Almost half her staff reported her behavior but nothing was done.   Almost her entire staff was afraid of her and her negative and volatile reactions to the smallest question or act.   She used mind games against me and her staff just like the bullies on the bus do.   I finally reported her and no investigation or follow-up was done.    I left my job.  I could not take the stress of her behavior any longer.  But now, I am going to report her again the president of the college.  I am not going to let her get away with her behavior.   She never exhibited her bullying to students or her supervisors -- just her staff who were at her mercy for evaluations and their jobs.   The weakest people in her eyes.

No matter what age  ----   LET THEM HEAR YOUR VOICE!!!!!!!!!

From a kindergartner to now, I've always been bullied. From being called fat and ugly and slimy as a kid, to your to big, your too tall, your fat, and getting hit on in school. My life for me and my parents have never been easy. In 6th grade after my dad died, I tried to kill myself because I felt like nothing in the world can be better, that life wasn't meant for me and I wasn't meant to fit in. Now I'm in 9th grade and I don't feel any different. Growing up in Jennings, MO where the only way to fit in is to wear long weave and mini skirts is sad. I am never going to go that low though

iIt all started right before the first day of 7th grade i really wanted these shoes and me and my best friend both wanted them so bad. She ended up getting them right before me. The Friday before school started i saw her and my other really good friend at the mall and she was waring them and i asked her where she got them from and she  said journeys' and before i left she said "Kayla don't get the same pair!" But i did as left the mall i texted my friend and said i got the same shoes as you i am really sorry i loved them and they had my size. SHe was so angry with me and all my other friends started texting me saying "why the heck would you do that?!?!?" and "come on Kayla you know she had the same pair??" I was really hoping it would blow over by Monday but i was complete wrong. That first day of school was the worst first day of school ever i walked in my middle school (waring the new shoes) not knowing what to expect and none  of my friends would talk to me and i asked why and they said that "well we never really liked you and you have been really mean lately" and that was it they weren't my friends. But i knew there was another reason because i was a lowly friend i did everything for them they meant the world to me. SO i had survived most of my first day and then lunch came i had no idea where to sit because i had basically isolated myself within my group of friend. But now they were no longer my friends. SO i just thought i would sit where ever my twin sister sat. WEll she sat with them so i had no where to sit o i sit alone with some of the girls who lived in my neighborhood. That was one of the longest days of my life but finally in was over and i got to do it all over again. the weeks went on and i got closer to some of my old friends we were on and off and i made some new fiends with some people that went to my elementary school and i played soccer with some of them when i was little. But it was like a roller coaster once things got better and i felt on top of the world things would go down again and i would lose my friends. So i did the unthinkable something i never thought would ever do i started to cut like all the time everyday everywhere. Arms, Wrist, Thighs,belly,hips ect.  I would come home everyday crying from getting tortured at school and my twin wouldn't care she was still friends with them and eventually even my new friend decide to leave me and go hang out with my old friends and i was all alone again. So i would cut even more and i would because i was sad and then i would mad at myself for cutting and it would be like a never ending cutting cycle. I wouldn't cut so that i would leave scars but just enough to feel pain. SO i was about half way through my 7th grade year of ups and downs and my parents found out that i was being bullied because i would come home crying everyday but they didn't find out about my cutting yet. So at this point of the year i did the some of my friends back and it was going pretty good and then i got called in to the councilors office and she asked me if i cut and i said yes and they had to called my parents and it was horrible i felt so psychico and different and no one new what i was going thought no one understood why i was doing it and honestly i didn't really no ether. So things were going good but me and the girl who i got the same shoes as were still not friends and on top of her going to my school and being mean she deiced to come to my dance studio to and she is an amazing dancer. So she was in all of the old girls groups and i wasn't. At one of are competitions after everyone found out about the cutting. I was telling one of my good friends about everything that happened and she found out and started crying i dont know why but she was. One of her friends pulled me out of the dressing room where she had been crying and told me to stop being mean and to be nice and stop talking about her friend like that. acting as if i was the bullier and she was the victim ever though it was the other way round and i wanted to show her my cuts so bad and be like "Honestly the girl in there is crying right now but who's the real victim the one who is bullied everyday????" But i didn't. So the night went on i left early didn't talk to anyone just stayed by myself. Eventually because of my cutting my parents wanted me to go to a therapist which was my worst nightmare and made me feel even more crazy. But i did to make my mom and dad happy but i only went 3 times because i hated it so much. So now it is the last two weeks of school mostly everything is good i am doing good it was i pretty good moth and all hell breaks loose . At this point i have most all of my friends back and then for some reason i lost them all again i was heart broken and i wanted to die. I wanted to die so bad but i wasn't going to because i knew that it was going to have to get better and it eventually did by the end of the summer and i am so happy i didn't kill myself because i would have mist out on so many good times. So for anyone who read this i just wanted to let everyone know that it dose GET BETTER!!!!!! this time last year i wanted to die and kill myself but now i couldn't be more happy i have amazing friends who i can trust a great loving and supporting family and god. thank you for reading follow me on insta @kaylammorgan

There are a group of girls that are at my school that always like to start rumors and most of them are a bout me and it really hurts my feelings and i would go home depressed just abut every day i was so depressed that i didnt talk to anyone

when I was in elementary school I was picked on all the time because I did not speak English very well, and I was short I also look like a white person but i'm a Mexican the dark skinned Mexicans did not like it I still have stupid people tell me i'm not Mexican enough hahaha what the hell does that mean? I ask them now but they have no answer. when I got into the six grade I was scared that I would be bullied for ever so I went to the high school and found the biggest bully there and beat the crap out of her, I never had to fight again and all the kids that were bullied in my jr high school became my friend we were the pot heads, nerds, band kids, short ones, dark ones, light ones, I had soooo many friends everyone in the school knew me I even hung out with some of the teachers one in particular he was my hero! I will never forget him he taught me math, and kindness. I grew up to be a ranger in the army. I just want ever kid out there to know IT GETS SOOOOO MUCH BETTER! school is so brief I just seems like forever!

I think that it is very important to stand up to bullying. I have been bullied alot through my elementary years, had my shoes thrown into the trash, my head slammed with a dictionary, hit in the chest (many times) and what not. You would think it's only boys that do these kind of rough and violent things, but girls do it too. And they did it to me for years. Always being the smallest, shortest girl in class, I was considered a FREAK. I had some very close friends that treated me well, but no one else ever seemed to like me. From 4th grade to 5th grade, I was bullied every single day by two girls who gained endless fun from doing this. My mom and I talked to the principal about it, and of course, they got away with it, and she did nothing. I remember feeling so worthless thinking, "What kind of person is just treated that way? There must be something wrong with me...." And so on I went through my life, thinking I was worthless and useless until I started to realize that lots of kids are bullied. Perfectly normal kids, like me. No, wait, correction- there is no such word as "normal". If anyone ever tells you something like, "your not normal", the truth is, NOBODY is normal. If you think of it everyone is a bit weird! :) everytime I think of this, it makes me smile. Just know that there is always hope, and everyone is unique and special! This is why I think the bully project is important, to stand up for those who are bullied, to be an UPSTANDER :)

One day, my friend and I were talking. We got in a big fight about how she bosses me around or shes always rude to me. I told her we should not be friends anymore and that it is best if we go seperate ways. Well, she got her friend, (who I thought was my friend, but apparently was not) involved who did NOT like me. She called me really rude names and said that she did not actually even ever like me. She kept harrassing me and I was miserable. I was crying my eyes out and I had nobody to go to because my parents were at work. I sat in my room crying for hours. I started to believe the things she was saying about me and I started to hate myself for it.

She eventually apologized. I forgave her, but I will never become friends with her again; and I will not forget what she put me through.

All in all, I learned a very important lesson through that. Your real friends will accept you no matter what, and as you grow up, you learn who your real friends are, and not your fake ones. Never let one person cause you so much pain. Stand up for yourself. Talk to someone. Do not ever go too hard on yourself, because the most important opinion of yourself is yours. 

For me, bullying began in the first grade and continued all through school, to follow me in my adult relationships and career environments.  Examples of my early bullying experiences were emotional abuse in the form of ugly, derogatory name calling and teasing- until my peer tormentors got their wish and made me cry. 

Physical bullying came in the form of being kicked in the ankles, having rubber bands shot into my eyes, and having one boy smash his workman's steel lunch box into my skinny little knees.  I remember having my itty -bitty girly chest sharply pinched, and having my fragile, bird-like ribcage punched viciously.  There were many, many other abuses that were just as devastating and humiliating to the heart and soul of a tiny little girl who was way too sensitive and only weighed thirty pounds soaking wet. 

I'd like you to imagine it is YOUR little sister, or YOUR daughter, or some other little girl in your life that YOU love having to endure these kinds of tortures every day.....for twelve long years.  These thoughts don't make you feel all warm and fuzzy, do they?  I know these thoughts STILL make ME feel scared, depressed, sad, and I grieve for the losses that can never be recovered.  My childhood.  My education.  My sense of personal safety in the world. 

Needless to say, I managed to barely obtain an eighth grade education and diploma.  This is because all of my time was spent preoccupied with surviving the torments of bullies rather than focusing on getting good grades and playing games like hopscotch and dodge ball with my friends.  I didn't care about homework and being on honor roll.  I didn't care about anything, to be quite honest.

In addition to suffering at the hands of my peers, more dysfunction came in the form of parents who did NOTHING, and teachers who did NOTHING.  Comforting hugs and support came by way of everyone's favorite Irish priest.  This jolly and friendly young priest was the ONLY person to see my suffering.....and insidiously took advantage of my pain.  It goes without saying that for the most part, life in general was a living hell for me for many, many years- and it did not get any better when I finally became an adult.

Because of the bullying of others and lack of support from the adults in my life, I had zero self esteem and hated myself intensely.  It was with a sense of relief and sheer luck that I managed to find my first long term boyfriend.  At first he was merely jealous and possessive.  To a girl like me, what should have been considered "red flags" only meant that he really loved me.  Because I craved a sense of belonging and love, I once again fell pray to an abuser of a different kind. 

By the time I had been with him for five years my first boyfriend had punched me in the head and mouth, thrown me into walls and drunkenly tried to strangle me over the hood of my own car, and fired his 9mm Bareta past my head as called me names like "brain dead" and "fat ass"to further terrorize me and erode my non-existent self-esteem.

I left him three days after Christmas after surviving five years of violence.  Three days after I left him, I became involved with another violent man.  This man is my son's father.  This man made the first one look like a walk in the park.  With my son's father I was repeatedly sexually harassed and physically assaulted.  Many times I had my head smashed into walls and door jams, as well as had my head pounded into the ground when I was eight months pregnant as he sat on my swollen belly.  This man head butted me into unconsciousness when I tried to stop him from stealing my hard earned money on drugs, and tried to bite my nose off as I tried to take my share from a jar of coins that we had saved together.

After surviving eighteen years of constant violent assaults, I finally came to the conclusion that being homeless in the streets of San Francisco was better than facing another day in a relationship that left me often contemplating walking into a fast moving Muni Bus, or eating a bottle full of opiates that I used to dull the incredible emotional pain and chronic depression.

Finally, by miracle and through strength of will, my life began to get better once I was finally on my own.  After moving into own apartment, I decided I needed a career change to reduce stress and burnout from the hospitality industry.  I registered with a temporary staffing agency in order to find the perfect fit.  It was my second temp-to-hire assignment at an advertising agency in downtown San Francisco that offered me a position as full time receptionist.  This offer was made after a MUTUAL "audition" on the part of  both parties.

During employment negotiations with the hiring manager, I adamantly and clearly stressed that I did NOT want to serve as a customer service agent when he informed me that my role as receptionist may eventually go in that direction.  I adamantly and clearly explained to the hiring manager that I had just left an award winning hospitality/sales career, and I no longer had the ability to tolerate the inherent negativity and stress of having to "service" "cater to" and "placate" people.  I did not feel it was appropriate to share the traumatic personal details of my private life.  I simply told the hiring manager that I had HAD IT with demanding, negative, aggressive, hostile people with a sense of entitlement.  The hiring manager replied by saying that "it was good to know"and offered me the position of receptionist in spite of my intense and obvious distaste for the "service" industry.

For about a year and a half my new job was wonderful and I was very, very happy with the company.  With exception of a few gossipy, snobby, toxic employees, the staff was warm, friendly and professional and made me feel like a valued member of the team.  It seemed as though I had finally found my niche, and I easily saw myself retiring with the company. 

My duties were to be available at my desk to answer a very low volume of calls, and to greet the occasional walk-in client.  Side work was light data entry and general office support, a small amount of filing and watering of office plants.  It was also my job to make sure coffee pot was full  and to clean the refrigerator whenever it got too nasty.  In essence, I had found a stress free, low-key, casual working environment.

Aside from the highest salary I had ever earned, the best part of the job was that I was told by the hiring manager upon hire that I was free to use the internet whenever I wasn't working on a task for someone else.  He stated that my main focus was to answer phones and whatever small task that randomly came my way.

Since I was free to use the internet during my free time, I took great pleasure in researching subjects that fascinated me for reasons of personal understanding and growth after my experiences with violence and trauma.  I also tended my gardens on farm on Farm Ville, and had a quite nice little piece of virtual property.  I assumed that everything was copacetic because I got a decent raise AND won an award for Miss Green Thumb at the annual Christmas party.  Imagine that.....ME actually getting an award for having fun on the job!  That had never happened before........

In retrospect, I believe that the toxic personalities at work simply did not understand the terms of my employment negotiations- and is the main reason that they slowly began to turn on me.  In looking back, for some strange reason, these bullies clearly disrespected my lowly rank on the totem pole so much that they felt ENTITLED to hold me to standards that they failed to live up to themselves. 

My workplace bullies felt ENTITLED to ask me for their help- yet never once said please or thank you. They certainly weren't smart enough to be grateful to the ONE person who cheerfully did all the crappy tasks that were a part of their job description that they didn't want to do.  They were never, ever smart enough to get the fact that I was receptionist and therefore NOT a member of the media team, or traffic department, or the mail room clerk.   For almost two years cheerfully packaged and sent off their samples, sent their faxes and all of the other mundane things they didn't have time to do because it might interfere with their coffee/cigarette/lunch/shoot the breeze/gossip time.

To be sure, these bullies are incredibly stupid if they thought their former cheerful and pleasant receptionist was dumb and clueless.  What they didn't seem realize is this receptionist was THE hub of covert communications.  She's the one who heard and saw asinine and juvenile behavior that should always be left on the playground. 

These bullies are also astoundingly dumb in not realizing that this cheerful and pleasant receptionist was privy to the all the nasty, backstabbing gossip about fellow employees, the bad mouthing of the VP, the condescending attitudes towards the Big Man himself who made it possible for ALL of them to earn a living and buy their fancy houses, cars, shoes and trips to the snow with the whole gang. 

My bullies were also too stupid to remember that this receptionist screened ALL the personal calls, mail, and other private information of her fellow co-workers.  The NON work related calls from preschool teachers, personal debt collectors, calls from friends, boyfriends, girlfriends; and my personal favorite- the calls from bankers to discuss impending foreclosures.

As if all of this toxic and juvenile behavior was not enough, MY particular workplace bullies are THE worst of the worst in that they are also RATS and SNITCHES. 

• I distinctly remember being told "send it in an email" when requesting office supplies- then getting snitched on when I asked the courtesy be reciprocated because I was busy and wouldn't remember. 
• I distinctly remember an obnoxious, misogynistic, cottage cheese thigh'd snooty traffic director nosing UNINVITED through the detritus on MY desk- as she looked for this or that.
• I also remember snoot face coming round to MY side of MY desk to lecture down at me- then having the nerve to RAT on me because I took offense to HER invasion of boundaries- so was abrupt and curt in order to get her to leave MY personal space as soon as possible.

None of these bullying behaviors bothered me much, and I kept my mouth shut because I'm not one to go running to tattle like a child.  This is because I had long ago learned to ignore bullies, and to take ignorance and hypocrisy with a grain of salt.  Mainly, I ignored this toxic behavior because for the first time in my life I felt good about myself and was proud of all that I had overcome.  I was in a good place in my life and not about to let a few wormy apples spoil the barrel. Able to ignore the workplace shenanigans and mind my own business, I realized that the only thing that was missing was someone to love and share my blessings with.

My wish for love came when my best friend and soul mate contacted me out of the blue in the middle of February of 2009.  My soul mate was the childhood best friend of my older brother's.  Within a few emails, I realized that I had always been in love with him and that he was the one to set the bar that the others failed to measure up to.  We immediately began making plans for our future together.  This included a trip across the country with my son to where my love was living.  It was a miracle to find that even after a thirty year absence, my love for this person was unconditional, absolute, perfect.

It was during my trip back east that I also began having excruciating migraine headaches.  These headaches lasted for about two months and included vomiting up the green toxic poison that had been lurking at the very bottom of my soul since I took my first beating in life.  It took a stroll down memory lane to conjure up my worst pain, and it was finally time to purge- I guess.

Eventually, with proper medication, my headaches got better.  But, not before things began "breaking loose" inside my head.  I could literally hear popping and snapping inside my head.  I attribute this to long buried memories breaking free and coming to the surface of my consciousness.  Life long buried memories of terror, physical pain, and abuse on all levels that had been covered up in my day to day struggle to survive a violent existence. 

With my reconnection with my love, I began to make connections between the abuse of my childhood to the abuse of my adult years.  My world and everything that I had believed had been a lie, and a fantasy to protect myself from the pain of knowing there were people that I had loved that had merely seen me as nothing more than a human garbage can.  I went into crisis mode and this began to impact my work.

So as not to lose my job, I began seeing a therapist so that I could somehow resolve my past trauma, and not lose what had taken 40+ years of blood, tears, and enormous pain to build.

Unfortunately, when it rains- it pours, and I was contacted by a classmate that I had not seen since I was ten years old and in fifth grade at the Catholic school that had been a living HELL.  Considering that I had not seen this person since I was a child, all manner of things began to occur to me.  Was he a past bully coming to take up where he'd left off? was he another victim of abuse by the priest and looking for/offering support? or, worse, had he been a coerced as a child to be accomplice to my own abuse?  I really, really had no clue or memory about this person, so it was with considerable unease that I began to obsess about his motives.

My therapist advised me to take three days off so that I could deal with the new input, and the delayed onset of PTSD.  By the end of the third day of my medical leave, I called my supervisor to announce my return.  Sadly, I was told that I was being terminated for not being able to keep up with the demands of not only my full time receptionist job, but my second job as full time customer service- a role that I had made clear upon hiring that I NEVER wanted.

My supervisor said that "it had taken so-and-so one full day to catch my work up."  ONE day.  I still am confused about that.  It took another employee ONE DAY to catch up on my work.  My supervisor seemed to forget all the recent myriad crappy media tasks assigned by others completed by deadline by ME.  He did NOT take into consideration that in meeting these other deadlines.  That my own work had to be put on the back burner.  That ONLY one day is NOTHING compared to all the work I did while others were taking their daily multiple lunch/cigarette/shoot the breeze/coffee/gossip breaks.  Or the work that I did for them while they were talking to their friends, wives, mortgage brokers and preschool teachers on company time. 

The hypocrisy that stands out most is the one employee who was out for six weeks for back surgery- an employee who surely had more than ONE DAY'S worth of work to catch up on.  Oh, wait, that's right......I did her work for her while she was gone so there was NOTHING TO CATCH UP.

I use this forum to thumb my nose at the "local boy" media supervisor who kept asking "is it done yet?" every five minutes and told me "I'm too busy to help you" even as he grabbed his coat to take one of his multiple coffee and cigarette breaks with the rest of "the boys."  I thumb by nose up at the snooty, gossipy traffic director who snubbed my cheerful "good mornings" until I finally gave up greeting her loud-mouthed fat a$$.  I thumb my nose at the scrawny blonde, "beige personality" media assistant who rolled her eyes and made me feel like an annoying kindergartner every time I needed to use the loo and she had to cover for me.

This story is long, and painful.  However, it is necessary for me to tell so that I can get over the anger and pain of being bullied yet again in my last place of employment.

On a positive note, I want to thank those who were actually very nice and professional, and went out of their way to treat me like a valued team member.  There is Kyra- who was always friendly and has a great sense of style.  There is Peter- who said "please do NOT ever leave because you make things so much easier around here."  I want to thank everyone else who treated me respectfully and as a valuable team member.

I want to give a special thank you to the logistics assistant with her compassion and understanding when she wished me well as I was taken by ambulance after tension and jumpiness aggravated my herniated disc to the point of needing the equivalent of two shots of prescription heroin in order to relieve the pain.

Lastly, I want to say to all of my bullies:  May you NEVER have to feel the way that I have been made to feel by you and others.  I would not wish my experiences on my worst enemy.  Nobody deserves to be bullied......not even YOU.

P.S.  Al- I told you what would happen if you gave me customer service duties.  There aren't many people cut out for that kind of a$$ kissing.  It was a perfect job for boring blondie and you should have kept her there.

PEACE!

I moved to a new school in 1st grade. I didn't fit in- I wasn't from their small town, I could already read well, and colored inside the lines. The bullying started and didn't stop until I graduated last year.

I was pushed in lockers, thrown to the floor, verbally abused, pushed of the playground, pushed into garbage cans, and much more.

The teachers and administrators were aware of what was happening, but because the bullies were popular and on sports teams, I was told to suck it up.

Some bullying even occurred at the hands of some teachers.

I was always told "It gets better," but it never did.

It got worse when I developed crippling depression and anxiety. My peers would play off of what would hurt me.

I tried to kill myself, but failed.

My 'friends' didn't want to be seen with me and left me, and I was alone.

I ate lunch in teachers' classrooms because no table would take me in.

Then kids realized I was smart and wanted to use me for that. They would threaten me to do their homework, let them copy my tests, and when I didn't things got worse.

The only life lessons I got from these experiences are that you can't trust anyone, and the people who claim they will help you  are lying.

Those who are willing to help you and care are one in a million, and even they might leave.

It left me bitter and emotionally crippled, but it also has made me think about going into teaching so that I can help kids like me; kids with no one who just need someone.