Laura's Story

Posted: 4/18/2011

I was teased terribly all through school, beginning in third grade. I remember being humiliated in front of my friends. In forth grade, the students began to call me, "robot." Because I have aspergers syndrome(which I did not know about back then), I walk stiffly and I do not move my arms when I walk. This is why the other kids thought I looked like a robot when I walk. One time when I was at my brother's baseball game, one of the kids said, "look, there's the robot." He started imitating the way I walk. My mom was with me and saw the whole thing. She pulled the boy aside and told him that it was not nice to call people names and that he should stop.

The worst teasing happened in fifth grade. I remember one cold day after lunch, I was about to go out to recess. I was standing by the door and I saw the kids all gathered there waiting for me and calling out my name. I knew that something awful was about to happen, but I did not know what. I went into the bathroom for a few minutes and thought about what to do. There was a paraprofessional standing right by the door and I thought about telling her that something was going to happen to me, but I was too embarrassed.

I walked out the door. All of the other kids held hands and formed a ring around me and would not let me out. They walked around in a circle and said a lot of hurtful comments, which I do not remember. Then they began kicking me. Somehow I broke loose. Every day at recess, I would try to run away from them so that they would not do this. I would hide on the playground somewhere, but I was never safe. They would always find me. When they did find me they would say mean comments and began kicking me just like they did that first day.

I moved from school to school, trying to avoid being teased, but I was never able to get away from it. By high school, I had no self-esteem left at all. I would walk through the halls with my head down, afraid to look at anyone or talk to anyone. I remember these two boys in high school who would prey on this. They would come up behind me and scream in my ear. I would get scared and drop all of my books, spill my lunch, or whatever and the other kids would laugh.

School was miserable for me. I think something dramatic needs to be done to prevent bullying. I feel very strongly about this. The sad thing is, these kids probably do not even realize what an impact their comments and actions had on me. They do not realize what they did to me. I also think that teachers need to incorporate more about bullying into their daily curriculum. They need to educate the students on how to treat each other.

By: Laura