Stories About Bullying
If you have any articles or news stories about bullying that you would like to
see posted on this website please e-mail them to us at info@bullybeware.com
Montica's story:
Myranda will be turning 16 in April. When she was just 13 she began losing her hair due to what we now believe was a hormonal
imbalance. My desk phone rings at work. I can barely get out hello when the person on the other end says, “You need to get to
school now, Danielle and her sister jumped me at lunch and they ripped my wig off. Mom just get here quick.” I’m on fire
inside. So many things were running through my head. I just really hated teenagers, this is why kids go wacko and shoot
everybody up. They are truly the meanest people in the world. They have no regard to other people and their feelings.
I rush in and see a few of Myranda’s friends at the door. They tell me she’s in the office. I walk in and there’s my dad,
Myranda, and Mrs. G. My dad goes to leave. He stops at the door to hug Myranda. I can see he is happy to see Myranda handling
it so well. I’m surprised too. I thought she would be freaked out. Poor Mrs. G. begins to tell me how upset she is over this
whole thing. She doesn’t have to tell me, I can see it in her face. She begins to cry as she tells me she doesn’t know if she
will be handling the case as she is so emotionally attached. Myranda has been coming to her everyday for advice. She had
become more than an authority figure she had become a friend.
The school police officer comes in now and tells us its all on video. I ask Myranda what happened. She said, “I was walking
with Jeanette down to get a soda when Danielle came up and said, "I heard you kicked Krista’s butt for talking about your
wig, well I talk about it all the time. You gonna beat me up too? Then she threw her fruit punch drink all over me. I don’t
really know what happened next. I just know that we started fighting and I was doing really well when her sister came thru
the doors and jumped on me. They got me on the ground and were kicking me in the chest and hitting me. Then they ripped my
wig off and threw it."
I wanted to grab her and hold her in my arms until all her hair grew back. The hardest thing about being a parent is not
being able to fix everything. I couldn’t just kiss it and make it better but I would shave my head for the rest of my life if
it would make her hair grow. Like many parents, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my kids.
These kids are in high school. We stop preaching about bullying at this age because we think these kids don’t do it.
Actually, they do it more than anyone. They do it by dividing themselves into social groups, writing notes, texting, and
internet. We don’t realize it because at this age kids don’t go telling. It sounds like a baby to say someone is picking on
you. They just take in all in and end up doing awful things either to themselves or to someone else.
CBC News:
Two Nova Scotia students are being praised across North America for the way they turned the tide against the bullies who
picked on a fellow student for wearing pink. The victim — a Grade 9 boy at Central Kings Rural High School in the small
community of Cambridge — wore a pink polo shirt on his first day of school. David Shepherd and Travis Price decided to spread
word of their 'sea of pink' campaign on the internet.
Bullies harassed the boy, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up, students said. "I just
figured enough was enough," said Shepherd. They went to a nearby discount store and bought 50 pink shirts, including tank
tops, to wear to school the next day. Then the two went online to e-mail classmates to get them on board with their
anti-bullying cause that they dubbed a "sea of pink." But a tsunami of support poured in the next day.
Not only were dozens of students outfitted with the discount tees, but hundreds of students showed up wearing their own pink
clothes, some head-to-toe. When the bullied student, who has never been identified, walked into school to see his fellow
students decked out in pink, some of his classmates said it was a powerful moment. He may have even blushed a little.
"Definitely it looked like there was a big weight lifted off his shoulders. He went from looking right depressed to being as
happy as can be," said Shepherd. And there's been nary a peep from the bullies since, which Shepherd says just goes to show
what a little activism will do. "If you can get more people against them … to show that we're not going to put up with it and
support each other, then they're not as big as a group as they think are," he says.
Huddersfield, UK:
A 17-stone girl hasn't been to classes for 18 months because she says bullies made her develop "school phobia". Sarah Williams, 15, now does her lessons at home because every time she went to school she started shaking and feeling ill. "When I went into lessons I couldn't look behind me because the bullies were making faces," said Sarah.
She says she was attacked, spat on and threatened with hockey sticks. Sarah says the bullies even set her hair on fire by flicking cigarette ash at her. School bosses say they are trying to work with Sarah to get her to restart her education.
New York Times on Cyberbullying:
Amanda Marcuson, 14, of Birmingham, Michigan, reported some girls in her eighth-grade class for stealing a pencil case filled with makeup that belonged to her. As soon as she got home, the instant messages started popping up on her computer screen. She was a tattletale and a liar, they said. Shaken, she typed back, ''You stole my stuff!'' She was a ''stuck-up bitch,'' came the instant response in the box on the screen, followed by a series of increasingly ugly insults.
That evening, Amanda went to a basketball game with her family. But the barrage of electronic insults did not stop. Like a lot of other teenagers, Amanda has her Internet messages automatically forwarded to her cell phone, and by the end of the game she had received 50 - the limit of its capacity. ''It seems like people can say a lot worse things to someone online than when they're actually talking to them,'' said Amanda. The girls never said another word to her in person.
Student at Pasco High School, Washington State:
"Every morning I wake up and ask why am I still here. I hate it (bullying). I wish I could be dead, the way some people talk to me and act towards me. Its continuous, it never stops. Every day I get up and go to school knowing what will happen and it hurts to think about it. I can tell my dad or mom what happens at school but every time I do they say you need to learn how to get a long with others. They don't know what it is like for me.
I would like to be set on fire and burn, than have to go back to a place where kids pick on me. I get hit in the halls and everyone will turn and laugh. One time I had a crush on a popular kid and his girlfriend would write notes saying they were from him. They were cruel notes. It hurts to know no one likes me.
At night I would go into my room and shut the door. I would stay up crying and wishing I were dead. I have tried to kill myself many times. Now I am in high school and nothing has changed. I still want to die but I go to counselling to get help. I wish something can be done to stop this."
Houston, Texas:
David Ritcheson was a hate crime survivor. His attack was so vicious that he was left a shell of his former self. Ritcheson rarely discussed his feelings and declined to get counselling after being attacked at the drug-fueled teen party in April 2006. A year later, he testified before Congress in support of a hate crimes bill.
In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, he said, “I shouldn’t care what people think or say. It’s just the fact that everyone knows I’m the kid. It was bigger than Houston. It was bigger than Texas. It was bigger than America. Everybody in the world knew what had happened and everybody knew the details of it.”
Ritcheson, a Mexican-American, was beaten and sodomized with a patio umbrella pole. He also was stomped and burned with cigarettes, and his attackers poured bleach on him before leaving him for dead. He was hospitalized for more than three months and endured 20 to 30 operations. David killed himself by jumping off a cruise ship at 18.
Hannah's Story:
"I was bullied at school for quite a while. It took me a long time to come to terms with it and to open up. I thought I could sort it out myself by avoiding 'her' but I couldn't. After a while it all got on top of me and I avoided school altogether. I made myself ill and never did return back to school. I'm going to make something of my life. I'm going to prove
it to myself, my friends, my family and I want to prove it to 'her'. If I saw 'her' walking down the road, I would without a doubt cross over to the other side. But, one day that will change. I know it will."
Basically, what I want to say is, "The longer you carry a problem, the heavier it gets. If you are being bullied at school, or anywhere else, tell someone straight away before things get on top of you. If I'd have done just that, then maybe things wouldn't have turned out the way they did."
Wallasey, Merseyside, UK:
Thomas Thompson killed himself at his home in Wallasey, Merseyside. His mum, Sandra said her son had been bullied for a few years. She said he was a bright boy who didn't like sports. Thomas wanted to be a science teacher and often attended anti-war rallies. "He was a good kid, a good laugh, but a bit different from other lads of his age, " Sandra said.
Boston Girl's Story:
"The bullying started when two fellow students, both boys (we all were no more than 7) beat me up not more than a half mile from my home. One threatened to bash my skull in with a rock as the other boy held me down. He was talked out of it by the other boy so they “wouldn’t get in trouble.” I don’t recall ever talking to these two boys, but knew they were in my 5th. grade class. My mother was horrified that two boys would do this to a small girl."
"After that day, my parents tried to talk to their parents, only to be told “boys will be boys” and there was nothing they could do. The school also did nothing. From there I entered 6th. grade and middle school, where it escalated to an unbearable, daily barrage of verbal and physical assaults from most of my classmates. My grades suffered tremendously. I cared nothing for my appearance and alternated between wanted to disappear or die."
