It started in 5th grade. I was the new kid at a very small, very religious public school. I wore things that they considered weird and wasn't very religious. This was the first problem. There was constant picking and teasing, and I got death threats on a regular basis. When brought to the school, my teacher merely said that she hadn't witnessed it, and therefor could not do anything.

In 6th grade, I came out both as bisexual and an atheist. Right at that point, things became terrible. While I had friends, I was still being ganged up upon and forced into conversations I tried to avoid. Very often, teachers would join in on these conversations, despite me being obviously uncomfortable. Besides the conversations, I was avoided. I got the disgusted "Eugh" when I got near to anyone. Whenever it was brought to the school, and it was multiple times, either the school fended it off with "They're just kids, they're curious." or when they did talk to the kids, it only got worse.

I don't know why, but I thought 7th grade would be better. I was very very wrong. We got new kids in that grade, and they were dragged into conversations as well. The little irritants that I have got out, and they would use them against me over and over, seeing how long it would take me to snap, and then laughing at my anger. Instead of getting more patient with it, my temper got shorter and shorter, to the point where now I skip annoyed and irritated and angry, and go straight to rage. Now, I've always been known as the smart kid, and it became a common thing for teachers to group me with people who needed help. However, these people were my bullies. They had been reported many times, and were supposed to be kept away from me, but it never happened.

Now, in 8th grade, most of the bullying has died down, due to my bullies moving after threats from my sister (who, after multiple failures to get the school involved, took matters into her own hands). But it's still there, and it still left its scars. Religious difference is never a reason to bully, I never judged these people based off their religion, however many times it persecuted me, yet even though my religion (Or lack thereof) did not persecute them, I was bullied due to it. Tolerance is something that should be enforced, instead of intolerance being encouraged, as it was with my bullies.