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My Story and Advice
Posted: 12/3/2015
I was bullied pretty badly in high school. There was one kid in particular who would try to make me feel inferior in every way he knew how. For example, he would throw stuff at me constantly, flick me in the head, punch me, wipe whatever he picked out his nose on my shirt, call me ugly and stupid, mock me and of course – tell me he would beat me up if I ever fought back. It was like his daily mission.
And it was my daily mission to just get through the day. What can I say, it made my world very small because that was my sole focus – just surviving. Everything else fell by the wayside. Unfortunately, that included any form of social life. So not only was my world tiny. It was very lonely. Looking back to that time – which was about 11 years ago – my biggest mistake was not bringing anyone in to that world of mine. I was too proud (and embarrassed) to get help. I would rather not face the fact that I needed help because in my mind, that would mean that the bully won. It would also mean that I was weak.
Let me just say this – bullying someone is a weak choice. The only reason they come after you is because they think you won’t do anything about it. Does that make anyone strong? Absolutely not. Be stronger – reach out to a parent, a teacher or friend. Anybody. Simply admit that you are struggling and need help.
You can put it like this, “Somebody who is weak and trying to build their self esteem up has chosen to do that by putting me down. The only reason they are doing that is because I am nice and I haven’t done anything about it yet. Well I am through putting up with this. I have basic human rights that they are violating to feel better and that it is just not okay. How do I handle this the right way? I don’t want the pain cycle to continue and become someone I don’t want to be."
I will close by saying this – I am okay! I am not just surviving. I am enjoying my life. I graduated from college with honors by the way (being stupid was lie…it is all a lie) You don’t have to wait to live though. Do something today.
By: Daven
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Dash’s Steps to Stop Bullying
Posted: 11/19/2015
By: Dash
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Football Team
Posted: 11/12/2015
I am on the football team at my high school. If you aren’t a starter on the team, you were usually the one getting picked on in the locker room. When I first started I thought I was going to have fun in it because I’ve done football all my life and wanted to continue on in my high school career. When I started I was one of the smaller guys on the team and the coaches didn’t see me as much, but got a secondary position. After the first week there I started getting picked on in the locker room because of how small I was and shouldn’t be on the football team; that was when I started not going to practice. I was scared that if I went to practice, then I would be picked on again and not be a part of the team. I didn’t want to tell my mom because she would be mad if I quit football because it costed her $150 to put me in that sport. So I just waited after school and didn’t go to practice and was on my phone watching YouTube. The only time I actually played was at the games to show my mom that I was still on the team so she wouldn’t get mad at me. So I am questioning whether I want to play football next year because my freshmen year of football wasn’t the greatest and just started here and got the bad look at it. I want to continue football because I’ve played the my entire life, but could now be at stake just because I was bullied.
By: K.C.
The Outcast
Posted: 11/10/2015
With pain she looks at the world in fear
Broken apart by the ones she held near
An arrow to the soul
A dagger to the heart
Her hopes and dreams starting to depart
You can only see the dread in her eyes
No cuts on her wrist?
Take a look at her thighs.
What once was a girl
Full of hope
Full of light
Has now become an outcast
A shadow in the night.
This is a deep poem. I just wanted to share something that I wrote, with you. This kind of explains my life. Please, remember. You are UNIQUE. They are bullying you and talking bad about you behind your back, because they are jealous. THEY ARE BEHIND YOU FOR A REASON! Because, you could change the world, you could make a difference. I don’t know you, but I love everyone who is reading this. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL INSIDE AND OUT.
Just, be true to yourself, go ABOVE and BEYOND.
By: Mackenzie
New York Riveters’ Madison Packer Stands up to Bullying
Posted: 11/10/2015
Though Madison Packer of the New York Riveters hockey team has never personally experienced bullying, she became aware of the effect it could have on a child’s life when she began working with a suicide awareness and prevention organization after the suicide of a close friend. Madison has since made it her personal mission to help prevent bullying by talking about it with the children she coaches and visiting schools to discuss ways to stop it.
In October 2015, Madison held an online fundraising campaign for PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center using Twitter. Madison encouraged her fans to Tweet and share photos using the hashtags #StopBullying and #MakeADifference, promising that she would donate for each one. As a result, Madison raised nearly $300 for the National Bullying Prevention Center.
By: Anonymous
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Kindergartener on the Bus
Posted: 11/6/2015
On the first day of school, I sat by my big brother. An older girl switched seats and sat by me. I didn’t want her to sit by me but she did. She pinched me. Ouch! A few weeks later, she sat by me again like she always did. She pinched me so hard that it left a bruise. My mom saw the bruise. My brother was sick the next day so I cried about having to ride the bus. I felt scared. Then my teacher said that my mom was going to pick me up. We went inside the building and I told my teacher what was happening on the bus. My teacher helped me stay safe. I still think about it. I learned it was bullying a nd it’s okay to tell an adult.
By: Lydia, age 6
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You’re Not Alone
Posted: 11/6/2015
All my life I’ve always felt less-than because that’s how my bullies made me feel. Every time I’d look in the mirror, I hated what I saw. I tried so hard to fit in. To stop all the "you’re ugly" "you’re fat" "ew". I started ditching class with the cool kids to be excepted. I started wearing clothes that got me dress-coded to look "hot". I started to not do my homework to be "cool". I wasn’t being who I was. And the harder I tried the harder life was. I woke up with puffy eyes from crying myself to sleep. Until, I met some amazing peopl e. They were kind to me, they appreciated me for who I was, they didn’t even notice my flaws. Those are the people you have to be with. I know how it feels, I care. You’re not alone.
By: Gia
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How I Got Bullied in School
Posted: 11/5/2015
When I went to the public school I was bullied from the time I was in Pre-K until my last year there which was 2nd grade. I even got kicked out of Pre-K for hitting the kid that was bullying me. Everyone used to call me names like "Germy" and make fun of me. It felt kind of like being killed and then revived again for them to start all over. Every time I told a teacher or an adult at school they told me ‘That didn’t happen" and then I got in trouble for telling. My Mom kept calling and going to school but the Principle and Councilor just told her that I was making it up, and that nobody was bothering me. Finally my Mom and Dad took me out of the school and put me in a public online school. Now I love going to school every day and I have all A’s which is really awesome, since I kept failing at the regular public school because I got tired of everyone not being nice. You see, I have a high I.Q. but I learn way different than everybody else because I have a behavioral disorder called Oppositional Defiance Disorder or O.D.D. and I can’t be still, so I was always interrupting the class, and that made everybody tease me more. Anyway, my name is Jeremy and I am 9yrs. old and that’s my story.
By: Jeremy
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Gift of Self Confidence
Posted: 10/30/2015
Haven’t we all been bullied or been a bully at some point in time? I am often asked what inspired me to write Monday at Jelly Roll Dog Park and am quick to respond with the standard answer- “bullying is all around us” or “my mission is to introduce the concepts and terminology at a younger age in a way that small children can understand.” But bullying hit me hard in the first grade.
To provide a little background, I attended a small Catholic school in San Francisco’s East Bay. I was a child struggling with the effects of neglect and abuse from a “trusted” babysitter. It was a fragile time in my development. At daycare, I learned that conforming was critical to my survival and at school, I became a focused student and high achiever as a form of control. Often dubbed “the teacher’s pet” because of my adherence to the strict rules enforced in the former nun’s classroom, I became a target for bullying.
At lunch, the “Three M’s,” who consisted of two boys and one girl whose names began with the same letter, would taunt me by stealing components of my lunch, playing keep-away with my chips or sandwich and later destroying them. For those of you who have ever experienced neglect, you understand that there is something very personal about stealing someone’s food. I was called names, tripped and even teased that I may have had AIDS because I was so thin. Keep in mind that this was the same year that AIDS was discovered and became a common topic of conversation among adults in my region. It got to the point where I dreaded to go out to play, withdrew from class activities and feared going to school. Left without many options, I finally received help from my mom. She went to the school and addressed the issue with the administration and the parents of the other kids. Miraculously, the kids stopped harassing me.
Because of my own experience, my 13 year-old son has grown up with a focus on his strengths and talents in order to encourage self-worth. It is something I have to work on constantly and consistently, as he has a tendency to veer toward focusing on his weaknesses and his own self-doubts. SELF CONFIDENCE IS THE GREATEST GIFT WE CAN GIVE OUR CHILDREN. Encouraging activities that are supported by his talents has created a new level of self-awareness and self-esteem in recent years. In addition, hearing the words “I’ve got your back,” followed by accompanying actions, has kept dialogue about bullying and problem solving such conflicts at the forefront of many of our family discussions.
Muttley, the main character in Monday at Jelly Roll Dog Park, is in many ways a part of the young girl I was in first grade – teased, ostracized, different. I realize now that my courage ultimately came from believing in myself, nurturing my talents, and knowing that I had someone on my side. But, I would have loved to have had those skills earlier!
By: Jennifer Schreiber, author of Monday at Jelly Roll Dog Park
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Bullying Prevention Police Car
Posted: 10/28/2015
Each year we attempt to initiate a campaign within our agency that brings awareness. This year we decided to develop an anti-bulling vehicle, which is driven each day by our elementary school resource officer. Our hope is that we develop a culture within our community that bullying is not acceptable and that it will not be tolerated. We believe that by bringing attention to this issue in Christiansburg, we can be part of the solution.
By: Chief of Police, Mark Sisson
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