Hi, my name is Tania, I am a mom to a son who has been bullied due to his sexual preference. We live in a small town in the mid-west, you know the type of home-town, everyone may know your business before you do, lol... Well, that is us.. We are an all white community, farming is the main source of income here and nothing out of the norm to most, ever happens here in this small town.. You can count like clockwork when the morning farmers come to town for their coffee,, everyday, over an over and over.. so, you get the idea of our home town. A beautiful place to live, wonderful people-for the most part and my family is here. My son Jake is in the 10th grade this year, A-B student, involved with choir, band , speech and theatre.. Great student and a wonderful son. Jake has been bullied for his sexual preference. Many of his days consisted of chants down the hallways at school, "Fag, Faggot, Fag..." having drawings of penis on his locker, being threaten, scared to get off the bus in the morning and walking into school because he was scared that he would be beaten in a locker room,,, and then finally death threats. He has endured so much and this is just from this year alone, not including the comments posted on Facebook or Twitter.. I almost lost my son, twice,, to suicide. I thank God everyday that he is here with me,, my life without him would be lost.. It was at that moment at the School Board Meeting, after addressing the Board Members- school did not do anything let alone the proper paperwork, it was then that I knew something had to be done.. I started a Facebook page, for my son in mind however geared toward the community.. By the time I had posted the page, I had 400 members,, I posted the Laws of our State when it came to bullying, the schools obligation as well as the requirements that need to be fulfilled by them or all schools at that, I walked around town an posted my phone number in case anyone who was being bullied and felt they had no where to go, could call me ANYTIME. I made orange ribbons (free to the community) to wear as well as ribbons to wrap around tree's to show support, held a candle vigil as well as monthly anti-bullying meetings... all out of my pocket,, to ensure that this is not tolerated and to leave my son as well as others alone.. I started receiving letters from people that were former students (one from a gentleman age 60), former students who are now in college and current students reaching out.  I write to everyone of them as well as I have contacts that will be of help. I read letters of students that felt suicide was the only way and now with this page that was started,,,,, it gives hope. A place to come and have people support them an not judge.. My son Jake, he is doing so much better,, stronger and more important, proud of who he is... I am a mom that works 50 hours a week, take care of a home, active kids in school and I have my page... I have given my word that I vow to protect and continue to raise awareness... If you are have someone that is bullied, stand up,, I can help with getting you started, advice of what I have done..Don't get me wrong, we have six kids, we are not wealthy by any means,, but I find a way through donations and scraping,,, a lot to make this happen and the ENTIRE time, I think of my son Jake... I love my son and all my kiddo's so much,, even my husband :)..   You are welcome to join our Facebook page, see what we do and get ideas if you are wanting to be involved an raise awareness.. 

Tipton Against Kids Being Bullied (Facebook Page) or twitter @Momagstbullying    Also, here are some links... Thank you for reading... 

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/Tipton-Mom-Fights-Back-Against-Bullies--170401666.html

http://www.bullyville.com/?page=story&id=5444

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20121008/NEWS02/310080021

http://thegazette.com/?s=tipton+mom+fights+aainst+bullying

I was and still am bullied. I've always had problem with my weight and people tend to make fun of me for it. They lead me to being bulimic. They call me fatty or perfatti (my last name with the word fatty combined). Ive came down with depression and ive cut for the last 3 years. Sometimes i think what it would be like if i wasn't here. would it be easier? would anyone miss me?

I was bullied in Elementary school. It started in 4th grade. My hair got cut really short. They would tease me because my hair was shorter then the rest of the girls in my class, school for that matter. I was constantly being called a boy, now i remind you i was like 8 so it bothered me alot. i lost alot of friends because of it. i had 1 real friend. he still is my friend today. Anyways it got worse my 5th grade year when they would say that i was gay. i had a boy take the book i was reading and ran around the room with it and wouldn't give it back and when the teacher came back into the room i got in trouble for being up. I tried telling her that i was just getting my book back but i still got into trouble. Then in 6th grade i had this girl who treated me like i was nothing. we had to go to the counselor many times but it never helped. I brought my diary to school. i kept it in my binder. well that was a big mistake because i left that binder at one of my "friends" desk and he got my diary out  and gave it to this other girl and they read everything that was in it. They told everybody everything. It was embarrassing considering i was 11. I would go home and cry everyday for those 3 years because it was an everyday thing. When i got into 7th grade it died down alot. I learned to just ignore them over the years and i realized that one day ill be out of this place. Nothing they said really mattered. Forgiving them was the hardest thing because they made me feel worthless, but i did it. Im no longer bullied. So i guess as the saying goes it does get better but it just takes some time. Now when ever i see someone being picked i take up for them because i dont want them to go through that. it was awful.

I will tell you all about how I used to be bullied. But first I want to give a shout-out to all the brave kids facing bullying every single day. I'm a college student, and I've seen that bullying doesn't stop when you leave school. But now that I'm studying drama, me and my fellow students can take the message of anti-bullying to schools and make a difference. Even if we touch just one life, it's a start.

Never give up! Love to all you guys!!

I was picked on in Elementary because I have severe ADHD. I am very hyper and can be very talkative at times. Students knew how to push my buttons. After removing myself off of Medication I learned how to control my ADHD better. Still to this day you can see signs of it in my Hyper Activity but my Anger control is much better. After Elementary school I moved into the Junior High School where the bullying from students was not as bad. There was some but it was not everyday. The main problem was that when the School found out that i was no longer on Medication for ADHD and they were not happy with that they targeted me. Everything I did was considered a Anger outburst. I would tap my foot while listening to the teacher to focus my brain and i would be wrote up for it every time. After a little bit we realized what was going on they were trying to gather enough probable cause to have me court ordered back on medication. It never made it that far. Half way through 9th grade I dropped out of school and relocated to a new town. I remained out of school the rest of the 9th grade year. Upon returning to school we were served Truancy Papers and had to appear in court. The Judge after a couple court dates Dismissed the case. The School was no longer in control of me. I went to Alternative Learning Center were I graduated a little late but that was ok.
I was bullied more by School Staff than I was by Students. This is why The Bully Project is something i am taking to heart and will be dedicated to whatever it takes to end bullying.

I was picked on a bit in elementary school. My mom was severely bullied in her school so she is this 100% protective person. She would go to the school take the kid aside and warn them to lay off me, and they did. One time however, she went to the school to find this one kid, and a teacher kicked her out for trespassing, she didn't care, she went on her way to find this kid.

Once I hit high school, I was never picked on, I was accepted, and could care less what people thought of me, but my friend Anna in senior year started to get harassed by the popular party girls. For no reason. And she was this tiny beautiful girl, a threat.

I first met Anna in the 4th grade, she was the new girl and I desperately wanted to be her friend. She paid me no attention, until 8-9th grade. I became very close friends with her during that time, we had a lot of laughs together. But at the end of 10th grade to 11th, she changed. Not only did she got blonder, skimpier clothing and started hanging around parties, but she completely stopped talking to me and my other friend, as if we weren't good enough for her. There was no explanation, and she just ignored us in the hallways. I didn't start becoming her friend again until she started getting bullied.

It started at prom after party, this one girl was trying to start a fight with her, verbally assaulting, threatening to physically hurt her. Everyone including her best friend was standing behind Anna allowing her to take on this abuse by herself, Anna is no fighter. I got a big adrenaline rush, and marched up to this girl and told her off. She took a few jabs at me but left anyway. Mind you I was afraid because she was about 8 inches taller than me.

Then school started and the girls were as vicious as ever to Anna, calling her names across the hall, making fun of how short her kilt was, names in the cafeteria, I wasn't present in any of these situations, but I was told about them and got very angry, I questioned Anna's best friend about it,and she said 'stay out of it'. This girl was the type that needed to be liked by everyone, so there was no chance she would stick up for her friend.

Then it was the senior trip to cabins at this beach. The girls were rude still to Anna I comforted her as much as I could. The girls then broke into my cabin, took my clothes and roommates clothes and put them on, took pictures making fun of us and put them all over Facebook, I believe they are still on there today.

They stole Anna's phone while we were there, they hacked into her Facebook and posted private text conversations between her and her boyfriend who were having issues at the time, hacked into her msn, changed the pictures and statuses. It got so bad that she needed to have the police involved who monitored her Facebook, since the girls were leaving such nasty messages and the main girl was threatening her life. Eventually in the next few weeks, the principals took action, not only did they ban the main bully from our graduation ceremony, but she now has a record with the police, and Anna was finally left alone.

Anna and I don't talk anymore which is too bad because I feel like we could have been great friends after all I did for her, this was 4 years ago, she doesn't talk to her best friend either. But I often wonder what it would have been like if all the bullying wasn't happening in the last month of our senior year, what if it was freshman year, and Anna had to deal with this bull for another 3 years like some kids do? How would she have dealt with it then? 

We have to stand up!

It all started when I was in year 5 I would get pushed over and kicked one of my freinds wear getting bulled and took his own life  I had sucided thoughts mine was hang jumping of a building watchd bully and it was sad to hear kids take ther life 

My daughter has been having problems with this at school and it seems like the school staff will do nothing.  My daughters father died in October 2012 and a boy at school was calling her and her friend a whore and asked her " whats a matter daddies girl, don't have daddy to run to anymore", so she left play practice because she was upset and she got kicked out of the play and not the other boy. The play director went on to write an email to another of the school staff downing my daughter through the whole thing. What are you going to do when the teachers start on your child and no one will listen!

Hi, I'm Mykel and I am 15 years old. In May of 2012, my father was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. I've never had many friends, but the friends I did have, I did not tell that my dad was terminally ill. I felt like I would be seen as an ''attention seeker''. I did have one girl that I was sort of friends with and she would always complain about how her life was so awful and her parents were mean to her and how she had it worse than anybody. I had known her for a few years and her parents gave her everything. She went to church, where her mother works and she was given anything she wanted whenever she wanted. I did not tell her about my dad, but when she would complain, I would quietly say that she didn't know how bad some other people had it, that her life was perfectly fine compared to others. I ended up distancing myself from her because I couldn't take listening to her complain about it anymore. When I stopped talking to her, she was mad and went at told everyone that I was being so mean to her. School let out, and I was not speaking to anyone over the summer except my two friends I was really close with. I spent everyday at the hospital with my dad, and stayed home to help my mom take care of him. On August 10th, 2012, I watched him drown in his own blood in my moms arms. My whole life was falling apart right infront of me. The next day, she texted me, telling me I was a b**** and that I was saying things about her and that she was going to beat me up and that I did all of these things. I texted her back and said "Now is not the time please leave me alone", and that was just the start. I went back to school the next week, and she was in my Biology class. She sat right behind me and talked about me where I could listen to it, I could hear it, calling me stupid and ugly and weak. I asked the teacher to be moved but she made it still where I could here her bashing me. No one would sit near me. I get looks in the hallways, Im pushed by people I dont even know, all because of how I dress and look. People call me "emo" and "cutter" because of how I dress, and she doesnt make it any easier. She tells people that I cut, that I am mentally unstable, and for what? What did I do to make her treat me like this? It's been almost a year now, and she hasn't stopped. I thought she would run out of steam and things to talk about, but she hasnt, and she wont. I had a friend tell me that they were with her and some other friends, and my friend Chy said that I hadnt been at school because I hurt my leg skating, and the girl said "YAY! She's in pain!", and when I heard that, I lost it. I was crying to my mom, begging her to let me stay home, so that I could stay away from all the people who call me names and push me around and give me looks. I want her to know what she has done to me, the depth of the pain that she has caused me. Ive hurt enough, my hearts been ripped from my chest only to be stomped on more and beat on. I can't take it anymore. Maybe, if I still had my dad, and things were back to normal, I wouldnt care that people did this, but I do. I don't want to hurt or feel sorry for myself, it makes me feel selfcentered, but I dont know where to go anymore. I dont know how to make this stop. I wont give up. I wont stop fighting this. To anyone who has read this far, dont chang yourself for others. That's what they want, for you to be like them. Difference is frowned upon in todays society, when it should be praised. Difference is good. Dont change for anyone, because whoever you are, you are perfect. Youre beautiful in everyway possible and dont let anybody, and I mean ANYBODY, tell you different.

Being bullied is one of the worst things that anyone can go through, it tears your life apart and pulls you away from society. You loose the sense of feeling and become distant from the world around you. This is my story.

It all started when I was younger, I had a very rough upbringing as a child so when I started going to school I was much different than the other kids. I didn't know how to fit in, I was always different and I never really used to understand what people were saying to me.
Since Kindergarten, I learnt how to fake having friends around me. Even though each and everyday I was getting treated like a whole different person, I was smiling like everything was okay. Through years 1-6 the kids at my school weren't too bad and each and everyone of us got along.

As high school started, I moved to an all girls school. Thinking that the girls I hung out with in the earlier years would sit and play with me so I wouldn't have to make new friends. Not even a week into starting school my bestfriend turned on me because the girls who she was hanging out with didn't like me, so she pretended she didn't either. They tried to figure out ways to get rid of me from their group and would constantly tease me about everything I said or did. Even though I hardly slipped any words.

It continued going on and on for years, I was left alone and was forced to sit by myself where I couldn't be seen. When people walked past me, they would push me over and think of ways to make fun of me.
This continued through year 7 to year 10 and in that time I had cut myself over 200 times and attempted suicide almost 6 times. 
After moving schools to start college, I learnt to not make friends because I knew that I was such an easy target to hit.

I just don't understand why.. Each person I come across seems to think it's okay to treat me differently or push me as a 'joke' and not seem to care or reaslise what they are actually doing.