I was bullied myself. I was a depressed kid. The 'emo' one who always stood out. I was an easy target because I took everything to heart. I was a cutter, and I still am. Everyone knew how emotionally weak i was and it made my life hell every day. Every day, kids would come up to me to mock me- "Oh no! I have no friends! I'm gonna go cut myself!." There would be kids in the hall that would slap my cuts on my arms and say "Oh sorry, did that hurt or is that just 'The pain you feel inside' showing on your face?"

I saw myself as overweight. Whether or not I am or not is up to anyone. People tell me all the time that I am. But at the same time, people have said I'm not. I had an eating disorder, E.D.N.O.S (Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified.) Mine, in particular was a mixture of anorexia and bulemia. After lunch I'd get picked on "Oh hold on guys, Taylor has to go puke." or "Hey, Taylor ate today, maybe she's just accpeted being fat."

I had other differences too. I was a toe-walker. And i never talked to anybody. I'm was in all honors classes so that made me a nerd. People picked on me for anything they could.  One day, on my way home from school, I was walking alone and the boy who had been bullying me showed up. He ran up behind me and beat me with a fallen tree branch that he had found.

That night, my mom came home and saw the big bloody welt on the back of my leg and she called the cops and filed a report on the kid who had done it. I didnt want her to, because I prefer not to make a big deal out of things, but she did. So the next day him and a bunch of his friends called me a snitch and everything else they could think of. His girl friends stopped talking to me like girls do. It was awful.

I still get picked on, to this day. I still have my eating disorder and I still get called 'emo' and 'goth' and all kinds of things. I don't want this for myself or ANYONE else. Bullying needs to stop

Throwing up and starving yourself is not the way to live. Ever since I was little I have been bullied because of my weight. Since November 3rd 2013 I have gained weight and now, 4/5/13 I am 5 foot 6 and weigh 163 pounds. I used to be 5 foot 6 and weighed 125 pounds and dropping. My weight drop started end of January 2012 and lasted until beginning of April 2012. I hated my body. I used the most unhealthiest way to lose weight. I starved myself and when I did eat I would just throw it back up. I lost 30 pounds in one month. And 40 in total. I dropped from size 11/12 to 6/7 in one month. I went to a mental hospital twice and a treatment center once before i fully started to eat again. I cried when I started eating again and started to gain weight. But now I am living healthier. I still get bullied everyday, but after I have tried to end my life 7 times, UI can clearly see that someone up there clearly wants me to live. Even if I am suffering the best and wises thing I can think of is there's always tomorrow, I can learn for my mistakes, and just for today I will survive. So instead of bagging on my bullies, I thank them. I thank them for making me a stronger person and helping me figure out how to defend myself. Some advice. Every day when you wake up... Tell yourself "Just for today I will survive this mayhem"

Since elementary school I have been bullied because my dad is Arabic. Kids started picking on me because I was the youngest and the shortest one in class. They used to tell me all of the racist jokes that their parents used to say about me and my patents. I had a teacher that kicked me out of class because of my ethnicity. The only reason I got through school was because of my best friend. I cannot imagine how kids deal with all of the abuse on their own.  

I have been the victim of bullying ever since I moved into my house in the second grade. throughout elementary school, the other kids picked on me because i was quiet, and I toe-walked so that made me weird. every new kid in my classes was apparently told by the other students not to hang out with me because i was social poison. I had people run their bikes into me, push me down, hit me, and spit on me. At least I can say that the elementary school I went to actually did something about these incidents when they happened. Once I got to middle school, it was a different story. Not only did the school really not do much when these things happened, the bullies found that they could use the administration to torcher me further. All that I really had by the time I hit middle school was my one friend, and my reputation as a great student, and these kids knew that I had decided that as long as I had that, I didn't care what they did to me, i wouldn't let it hurt me. The kids began making completely false reports with the dean's office, and so many times, i nearly got in trouble for things that I didn't do. I remember so many times over the years sitting in that office or talking to a teacher, or religious official and being to the point of tears trying to explain whats really going on with this. By the time I had reached high school, things had settled down to just the occasional incident of the false reports as well as many comments about me being "mentally retarded" because toe walking was a sign of things like autism and some of the students found out they could use that fact against me and call me that, despite the fact that I made mostly A's and B's. it got to the point where I felt like If I didn't get the higher grade and prove myself to them that I knew that I would be called names like that. I got a break from it all in 10th grade, however since I had to get surgery to correct the condition of my toe walking and some of the students felt bad after finding out that I physically couldn't help it towards the end, others I guess no longer saw me as the weird one. By 11th grade, however, the bullying had picked back up, all culminating in the ultimate offense against me when a young lady at my school had been caught with prescription drugs, and all she had to do was tell the dean that I gave them to her and the dean believed her. she had two of her friends put in fake witness statements, which was apparently enough for the school system to decide to start the expulsion process.  The only evidence against me were three witness statements in which the stories seriously did not match, despite the fact that where they said it had happened there were several cameras that would have definitely caught it if I had really made the transaction that I was accused of making. The case could have been stopped at the dean, or the principal, or the superintendent, but no one chose to speak up for justice and say that there just isn't enough evidence to do something this serious to this young lady, but none of them did. I saw a copy of the evidence that was presented, and the witness statements were it. My bullies had succeeded in their goal, and the lack of any real action on the school boards part is why they did. At this point, i am taking different avenues to finish high school and get my diploma, as well as now trying to spread the word to the best of my ability about this sort of stuff. I got a lucky break in the end, but not all of the students do. i am now in a wonderful school where the people who work there care about nothing other than the students and providing them with a safe and productive working environment for getting their diploma. I am now just 2 months from graduating.

My daughter was a victim of bullying in first grade they called her fat for many years as she was hitting puberty. She was in no means fat.... As her mom I had noticed her not wanting to eat and or eating little she wouldn't eat her favorite foods so I asked her why .... At first she told me she wasn't hungry and she thought she was fat. I asked again who told you that? Her reply was all the kids. My heart was overcome with fear what was I going to do to get her to believe she wasn't fat? Thank God for her faith inn me and others along with American Girl who published ....The Care and Keeping of you,   How to Stand Up For Yourself And others! ( MANY THANKS TO AMERICAN GIRL and All Others who assisted me in quick action) We went right up to the school the next day and talked with the principle and she got down to the root of the problem and she also supported My daughter  to start a non bully club. We have a non bully group open to the public on Facebook. She is doing well now and  together we take a stand to stop  bullying! 

In the 8th grade, which was not long ago, i decided to come out to everyone in middle school. My friend said not to, but i didn't think i needed his permission. So i posted it on facebook. The next day was pretty normal, nothing to big. I decided to tell everyone, since i'm not friends with everyone from school. Boy was i dumb? Anyway, not to many made fun of me except a specific group of guys who were obviously not straight. I hate it when people act straight but are secretly gay. It was the worst year of my life. The principal knew and i got in trouble for telling a kid. I got ISS (in school suspension) and it was horrible. Some teachers knew, but that didn't matter much. Everyone decided to go to a specific high school the next year, so i went to another high school instead. It was actually decent. The school had a Gay Straight Alliance, but it failed during the end of the first semester. During the second semester i tried to bring it back up again. That was a big failure. So i stopped all together. I dropped out not because of bullying, but i was just getting lazy. I'm planning on getting my GED within the next few months. That's my story.

I,am a bulling survivor. I,am lucky I, got out of the situation before it got worse. I, was being bullied in a place I, thought was a safe haven. reported it several times and they ended up taking the bully's side so I, removed myself from that so called safe haven and am now happy and safe. I, want to thank The Bully project for this site. Your site helped me escape.

In my first year of highschool, I made one of my lifelong, closest friends, by helping him out with someone who was constantly harassing him in the cafeteria. He wasn't saying anything back but I knew the words were hurting- enough was enough. I wasn't mean, but I did take the guy's tray, and moved it to another table basically telling him to get lost.

The thing is, I'm from a native reservation where I was bullied in public school because of my weight (I was a chubby kid ok? haha) so I knew what it was like, and I don't wish that sort of mental/physical anguish on anyone, ever. I had the opportunity to speak up and I did, and I will continue to do so every chance I get. 

My name is Holly. My son, Aidan, has been the victim of physical bullying on quite a few occasions. In September of 2012, not long after the beginning of the school year I received a phone call from the school nurse telling me there had been an accident on the playground and Aidan had a few scrapes on his face but he was ok. We picked him up from school that day and I wouldn't have called what he had on his face scrapes. He had really bad road rash on his face and a huge lump and bruise on his forehead. Aidan told me that at recess a boy, Emmanuel, was holding his arms behind his back. Aidan didn't like the confinement and was trying to get away so Emmanuel pushed him and smashed his face against the playground macadam. The following day I approached the principal about the situation and he assured me that he would take care of it. Well his way of taking care of it was calling a bunch of kids down that witnessed the incident who were all friends of Emmanuel of course and questioning them about what happened. Everyone except my son agreed that it was an "accident" and so Emmanuel was never punished in any way. He just got away with it. Oh by the way, miraculously not a single teacher on the playground that day witnessed any of this so questioning them was pointless. Now my son is not an angel, he's rammy and gets himself in trouble sometimes. He was suspended from school for 3 days for taking a neon green mini squirt gun to school to show to one of his friends. I understand the theory behind the punishment, but really? A 2nd grader with an obvious toy needs to lose 3 days of education? About a week ago, Aidan came home and told me that he was put in the "recovery room" aka in-school suspension for elementary students, because some kid named Hunter punched him in the face and then lied to the teacher and said that Aidan punched him instead. Once again, no teacher actually saw anything happen, so just believed the heresay and punished my kid without any evidence. Wednesday of this week, Aidan comes home with a big lumped up bruise on his arm. He tells me two boys were fighting before free breakfast and pushed him into the middle of their fight and Aidan got kicked in the arm by one of them. Aidan told the teacher of the boy who kicked him about what had happened, yet again nothing was seen by a teacher, and the teacher told Aidan that the boy would lose recess for the day for what he had done to him. My main question here is why is it that my son gets suspended for 3 days for taking a squirt gun to school which didn't hurt anyone in any way, but he gets physically abused on 3 separate occasions and the other kids involved get a slap on the wrist and told don't do it again? Plus, on the 1 occasion Aidan actually gets punished for someone else hitting him! Then my second concern is why there is never a teacher around to witness anything. When I drop my son off at school, I am trusting the teachers, counselors, and principals to be taking care of and protecting him. Afterall, IT IS THEIR JOBS!!!! Where are they when these incidents occur? And why don't they do anything to stop the incidents from occurring again? I'm at a loss. I don't know what to do anymore. I'm going to keep on fighting for my son though because he doesn't deserve to be bullied like this. No one does and if me fighting helps stop even one child from being hurt again, then I'm doing my part in the fight against bullying. STAY STRONG EVERYONE!