Hello fellow readers! My name is Cheyanne Jackson. I am 15 years old, live in Texas, and I have a strong love for the sport I call All-Star Cheerleading. 

Before I tell you my story I would like to point out that yes I do know that there are stories out there that are worse than mine, I do know this but I share my story for one reason and one reason only. That reason is... 

At the time I was 14 years old. I am writing this in the month of April 2013. My story takes place in February/March of 2012. I have been doing All-Star cheerleading since I was 4 years old. It has become my passion, my dream, my way of life and I wouldn't want it any other way. When I moved back down to Texas the summer of '08 I started at a new gym a year later. I did individuals at this gym which is a minute and 30 second routine. After I would run this routine full out I would be out of breath very easily. My mom took to to the doctor and they told me I had athletic induced asthma. At the time I didn't think much of it because honestly it wasn't that bad. My 7th grade year I started at a new cheer gym. This gym was a little tougher than what I was use to but I was able to handle it. My first year there was amazing. It was like my second family. I didn't want to be anywhere else. Well until my second season there.

My asthma started to get A LOT worse to the point that oxygen wouldn't get through to my arms and legs and they would become weak to the point I would drop stunts or fall out of tumbling passes because I was not able to support the weight of myself let alone my flyer. It was bad. We would run routines full out multiple times and that would get to me.

When I have trouble breathing I don't like to be around anyone and I like to be outside with fresh open air. So after we would go full out and our coach would let us get water I would grab my inhaler and run out the door to catch my breath. My asthma had gotten so bad that one night I went to the hospital.

This is where it my story starts... One night at practice I was having A LOT of problems breathing. I was dropping stunts continuously because my arms were weak and I could not hold the weight and I would get yelled at by my coach. Well about halfway through practice I couldn't take it so I headed for the door with my inhaler to get some air when my coach (who was working with someone else at the time) turns around and stops me before I could get out the door. He stood there yelling at me telling me I didn't need to go out there that I was fine, telling me that I was only doing this to get attention from my mom (which I might add I am an only child living with a single mom, I think I get enough attention) and to get back to my team. As an athlete I did as I was told even though I knew what danger I was getting myself into. 

I got home that night and my mother and I agreed that I couldn't go back. It hurt both of us to say that because we both strongly believe that once you start something you finish through but when it came down to my health there was no way I was finishing this. I want you to keep in mind that my mother sent a copy of my doctors note saying I needed to use my inhaler when needed to my coaches and emailed them back and forth trying to figure out something we could do about this issue before we decided to quit.

When the next practice night came I didn't go. I sat at home and cried. This was my sport and I did not want to quit. I did not want to let my teammates down a week before a competition. But I knew I had to. I later found out that on this night my coach (also the owner of the gym) got all the athletes together and talked about my leaving. But he did not just talk. He acted out a dramatic scene stating that it was me when I said I couldn't breath. He then said to my team that they did not deserve someone screwing them over like that. After this long rant about me he then said that everyone should bash me on facebook. Well they did. I did not see any of the post but I have heard about them from my mom and other people. 

I share my story because kids out there are getting bullied by other kids while there are kids getting bullied by coaches. I had a 32 year old man refuse me of my inhaler, call me stuff, make fun of me, bash me on social media all at the age of 14 because I have a health problem. I am not the only person who has been bullied by their coach in the cheer world. We have talked to so many safety organizations and everything and nothing has been done for what happened to me. I can't even face the people who were once my teammates in fear of what they will say. I use to cry every night missing it or hurting over what happened. I took down anything that had to do with cheer in my room. If I read a post that had to do with cheer I would instantly break down.  

It is a year later and I am doing a lot better. My asthma is still pretty bad but we are going to try a few new things. As for cheerleading I had taken this season off and will be starting back this May/June with one of the top gyms in the nation. Nothing still has been done about what happened to me, and I still fear I will run into my old teammates, but I am stronger. Something soon will be done about what happened to me. My story and many others will be shared. Bullying is not just in schools or on social media. Its in the sports as well. 

I was in 5th grade and my teacher gave me a nickname Abigail and Abigail was a cow in a book I read.After that I got called Fat, Ugly(ect). When I was in 6th grade i got depressed alot and stuff and I think why did my teacher give me that nickname.

I remember when I use to have a close friend, and we were really close and a new girl came to our school, and she hung out with us once and she seemed pretty cool. She stopped, and she hung out with these other girls, and a couple of weeks later they started telling her that they didn't want to hangout with her because of all the drama she caused. My friend and I didn't know if she was like that or not, and we let her hangout with us.. A few weeks later, she started drama with us. We didn't want to be rude and tell her, " We don't want to hangout with you anymore. " We just let it go, thinking it would get better. 

We were for sure wrong, I went to my friends house for the night and me and her would joke around and all that stuff, like normal pre teens would do.. I didn't stay over night because I got sick, and I didn't want to be there while I was sick, so I went home. 

On the Monday, it was school, and the girl who was causing all the drama told me to stay away from them, I was a horrible friend all that stuff. So I stayed away that whole week thinking everything would soon get better. I was wrong. 

The girl, who started everything was named Kendra. Kendra thought she was better then everyone else because she ran marathons and here's me. A chubby girl who can't run that much without getting out of breath. She started making fun of me. Everytime I would walk into the classroom she'd yell " Ew " or say something under her breath and stare at me. She'd always come up to me at school and corner me, making me so nervous. I told my Mom knowing it was the right thing to do.. But in a way, it wasn't.

My Mom voulenteered to watch the Kindergarten kids at lunch, and supervise my Classroom. Kendra found out. That day, she followed me into the school and screamed at me. I knew that Kendra didn't have an amazing life as everyone thought and I yelled at her back saying, "AT LEAST MY MOTHER CARES ABOUT ME!" Making Kendra cry. I obviously felt bad, but in a way I didn't because she would do the same to me. 

While my Mom was at the school Kendra still did the same thing, saying stuff about me staring at me, and when ever I tried to make a friend, she'd go over to them tell them I was a lesbian and that they shouldn't hangout with me. By that time, I had no one.. I went home crying all the time knowing that I didn't want to go to school anymore. I'd fake sick just to stay home. 

I went to the Principals and teachers about my problem, and they didn't do anything.. The teacher I had didn't like me, and we had a supply Principal because mine was having health issues. 

Kendra would have everyone nag on me, try to make me feel bad all the things I hated. She'd call me fat, greasy, ugly. Everything that made me believe it. 

After all of those issues. I started singing. It made me feel better about myself and I wrote my feelings that turned into songs. I still sing to this day. 

The bullying went away and no one wanted to be her friend. My friend who was friends with me before her came back to being my friend and Kendra had no one. I felt bad. But in ways I didn't. I haven't been bullied since. 

I have always been a overweight girl. Every since elementary school I have been called names. Of course at the time I would just laugh with them because at the time I never really knew what they were talking about. Then as I hit middle school and understood when people would sit there and call me cookie dough and maybe you should go eat another cookie. I knew that I overweight, I didn't understand on why people had to rub it in my face. As I entered high school I learned to stand up for myself and joined sports, choir, theater. By getting involved in my school, I didn't have to deal with a lot of what I was going through. If it wasn't for my friends that I have now, I don't know where I would be.

I came out as bisexual when I was in the sevnth grade. I was in a new school with new people. I was always alone. Kids would push me into lockers and threaten me and I was afraid all the time. I eventually was lucky enough to find a group of kids just like me. We're the kids that everyone labels 'loners' or 'freaks' and sometimes even 'worthless'. We seem to get bullied all the time or we're treated as if we don't exist, but we have each other. We all called out for help at some point but no one really listened. We just got lost in the crowd and became just some more kids who have gotten left behind because schools think bullying is just "kids being kids". My sister is a freshman in high school this year and is forced to do online schooling because she was bullied for being different. I'm now a junior in high school and I'm still occasionally bullied. So are most of my friends but We're stronger now and we're going to make a difference. 

I remember being in kindergarten and pretending I was having a baby. I have always had a pot belly. Never been fat, or at least what my idea of a fat person is, but I hold everything in front of me. I'm 5'2 and weigh 145 at 23 years old. I spent years being told by my peers that I was fat and I carry that still. Many people asked when my baby was due, or would just flat out say I was fat. I was in show choir in high school and was one of the smallest girls in the choir so I was often in lifts. I had the same two guys as bases for all 4 years and one spent all 4 years telling me how hard it was to lift me because of how fat I was. I look forward to the say that I no longer hear their voices echoing in my head. I take what happened to me though and try to stop it from happening to anyone else. 

One of my closest friends was a victim of bullying. It went on for almost a year before she told any of us. And after she did we all did everything that we could to help her. But it didn't seem to be helping. She started to cut, and became anorexic and then became bulimic. This resulted in her being put into the hospital. After that she seemed to be getting better. But the littlest thing could set her off again. And no matter how much we tried to help her she didn't seem to get better, but she knew that we were always there for me no matter what. She ended up transferring schools, so we don't talk that much anymore. But she should know, and hopefully does, that I am always here for her and so are all of her old friends.

My daughter is a faithful friend. She is the kind of child that will be there for you through anything. However she is also on the autistic spectrum.
Just a few days ago her "friends" asked her to come over and play. She went to one friends house and no one was there. She called them and they told her they had moved to another friends house to come on over. So she headed over in the rain to the next house. No one was there. So she proceeded to call them once again. Again they told her they were somewhere else. She went to go find them there. Finally i received a phone call to come get her. I found her in the middle of the road, rocking and crying because they had sent her on a wild friend chase. She had to take a hot shower to warm up.  This is not the first time she has been bullied. She has been thrown over a fence injuring her side and foot because she wouldn't leave her " friends" house when they asked her to. She is incapable of comprehending facial expressions, and body language , and it is very hard to get her to understand sarcasm because of her disability. These girls know exactly what they have done. They are not true friends. To take advantage of anyone is one of the lowest things i think a person can do. To do it to a person who is special needs is even lower. She is a faithful friend and would be there for someone through thick and thin. She is smart and beautiful, and deserves better than a bully for a friend. The bullying stops now.

So I just finished watching "Bully" about 10 minutes ago. I can't put into words, or really describe how bad it made me feel. How angry it makes me that schools aren't taking responsibility, acknowledging that spirits are being crushed and erased by bullies.

I was bullied. Going back to "that place, that time" is a little hard for me to do. I will say, like every other victim of bullying, it was hard and it hurt. The message that I want to convey here, as I'm sure many have done, is that it gets better! I made it through school. I did as my parents taught me: go out and do something that you love, that you're passionate about. Well, I did that.  I then met a girl, not even a year out of high school and we married a little more than a year later. About 4 years later we had a beautiful son. I love life. I love my family, I love my job. I'm successful. I'm not successful because of money, job or material things. I'm successful because I'm happy. When you graduate high school it gets so much better. Because you realize you can do whatever you want and have the power to create your own happiness. Whether that's college, military, a trade, family etc.

Many people, many times, told me this as I was going through school and getting bullied- although it provided little to no solace. This was because the minutes, hours, days, months, school years just dragged on... at a painfully slow pace (for me anyway). As I look back on it, it seems like it lasted only a minute. I survived it, somehow. As I reflect, my spirit was broken and was made to feel bad about myself. But I never lost hope or faith.

Our son, a fifth grader, is now being bullied. As a parent, for me, this feels worse than what I went through in my days. Because you so want your child to be happy, to be loved, feel safe and know peace. He doesn't speak up much because he's afraid of being labeled as a "snitch". He feels it would only get worse if we tried to address it with the school. Without him really knowing, we sat down with the principle and counselor and tried to work on these issues. At that point, for us, we realized that the "school" doesn't recognize these as problems. Only normal situations of "kids being kids". Our son does describe other situations of kids getting bullied, harassed, embarrassed and most of the time, if not all of the time, a teacher is there. Doing nothing, except for turning a blind eye. I see my son's spirit getting crushed and he's made to feel bad about himself.

So again, the message I wanted to convey is that it gets so much better. It won't be like this forever. I hope that more and more is being done about bullying everyday. I hope that schools take a strong stance. I hope that politicians will take a stronger stance and advocate. I'd love it if Mrs. Obama would put as much effort and political power into bullying as she does with child obesity. I hope all of these things. I'm going try to make things better for my son and every other child out there. I'm going to join all of the projects that are trying to do something about bullying. I wont stop until a Zero Tolerance Policy against bullying is put in place in every school across America. Zero tolerance!

Hey everyone! My name is Jamie. My story starts here. I've been bullied for a long time. I still get bullied but, it hasn't been as bad lately as before. I had people pretend to be my friend and then start things about me and mentally/physically hurt me. I tried to commit suicide twice. I starved myself and tried to take diet pills before, too. before, I used to be a little overweight, I'm not anymore but, it was hard and everyone would make fun of me and ask me when the baby was due. A group of girls even started a rumor that I was pregnant and when I missed two days of school, I came back with the rumor that I got an abortion. Things just seemed to always get harder and harder. But, I have a purpose on this world and I won't ever let anyone rain on my parade. I have to know I am great and that nothing can beat me. You have to know that too. You have to surround yourself with people you trust and love. You have to smile, smiling is the best thing to do. And, I'm always here to listen, forever. Tough times don't last, tough people do smile.