I was subject to constant physical and verbal bullying for most of my school life. 

It started in infant school and continued through to Junior school where I was bullied every day, before school, during and after school.   The abuse I suffered was always at the hands of a crowd of boys and never a lone individual.   I would hang around half way to school waiting until the very last minute so that I could enter school just as the bell rang, so that I would miss the morning beating.  After School I had to regularly take a long route home to avoid the bullies.   This lasted right up until I left school.  

The long term effects are strong. I am now 46, I have a wife and 5 lovely children. I am relatively successful in my career but I still find my own company safe and comfortable, above the company of others.  I find it very difficult to trust other people and I find it hard to make friends.

I harbour a deep resentment and bitterness towards the people that bullied me at school and it terrifies me to think that the same could happen to my children.

I do not agree with the modern view that bully's should be treated with sympathy and given councelling. Any person who can willfully hurt either physically or mentally another human being without showing any kind of empathy or guilt deserves punishment of the highest order.

My stance against bullying is to give schools and workplaces the power to bring the hammer down hard on bullying with very extreme punishment. 

I stopped short of committing suicide, but I lost a good friend that way.

I am middle aged now and the bitter anger I carry inside affects every aspect of my life. It always will. I have found coping strategies, but they only mask what is going on inside. 

Stop Bullying now.. Stop it for ever. Punish those responsible with extreme prejudice!