In my own personal dictionary A Bully is someone who ABUSES others out of their own frustration, spite, or to entertain their self given power over someone else. I do not remember a time in my life that I was not bullied. Most of it became severe. I have scars all over my body from abuse at the hands of bullies in all areas of my life beginning in pre-k.

I was a preemie and VERY small for my age and I had some physical delays but nothing super out of the ordinary. Other than being perceived as little there wasn't anything different about me except I was the one everyone chose to bully. In Pre-K other students would hold me down until I wet myself and then I would get in trouble for having an accident. I had to repeat Pre-K because I "couldn't keep up with the other children academically", At least that's the excuse we were given ( I could read from age 2). I really had to repeat it because I refused to go near any of the other children and wouldn't participate in class for fear.

        Elementary did not get any better. In first grade I received the first of many broken arms as a result of bullying. By the time I got out of Middle School my right arm had been broken 9 times and my left 5 and I had two lovely scars on my legs from razorblades. The first broken arm was from being thrown off the monkey bars because I was in the way. The teachers deemed it an accident because I"must have bumped into them and fell".The second I was stomped on by a ten year old boy. a couple happened because I was clumsy and My last year in Elementary a boy chased me up a tree and pulled me out of it my older sister saved me from worse damage but not without getting her own jaw busted by the boy.

    They say Middle School is the worst and they weren't kidding. A lot of Gang activity and Bullying was happening in my school and all the adults except one were covering for it. The principal and assistant principal went on the news after a friend of mine got hit by a car running from some boys who had threatened him. The school tried to blame it on my friend being careless. I will never believe that. I saw everything but the car hitting him. A few weeks after that I was  playing volleyball at a church and a girl jumped on me with a small razor. I kicked out and ran I didn't realize until I got inside that she had gotten both my legs. I will never forget that day because at 36 I still have a prominent scar on my right leg.

      I had one English teacher that  attempted during school to protect some of us. She made us teachers aides so we could leave our previous class ten minutes early and stay in hers ten minutes late. But that only worked for about a year. The Bullies caught on and would take convenient bathroom breaks at the times we were walking in the hall. That's How I got a busted ear drum and a scar under my left eye from someone's ring.

     The worst came in Eighth Grade when another boy had been hospitalized(again hit by a car, but this time they beat him first). Parents demanded a school board meeting. Several Parents spoke, I spoke (I was almost 15 then). The School Board just blew off the whole thing. The Principals again denied to the Television and news reporters that there was,"No Problem" and it was an "isolated incident". The Reporter repeated the words that I had spoken in the next morning's paper. For my own protection they left my name out of it.

    I was sitting in Social Studies that day and the teacher called me to the front of the class. He held up the paper and told the whole class that I was the one.he said I should own up to it if I had a big enough mouth to say it there that I should face up to it. That was second Period. The Bullying got worse throughout the day. Just before Sixth Period I was attacked in the bathroom. I tried to run and was drug out into the hallway my arm was twisted behind my back and I was punched and kicked. Before they were finished with me  both my arms were held up and slammed in locker doors until both were broken and my right elbow was twisted out of socket.

      I don't remember a lot about what happened in the days that followed,just my mother battling it out with the school board and the authorities because she wouldn't send me back. I made it out, some of my friends were not so lucky.

I am not writing this to scare you. I am asking you to speak up for your fellow students. If You are a Parent or Teacher LISTEN to your children, no matter how far-fetched their story may sound. Stand up for what YOU believe is right and don't take excuses.

You just might keep this from happening to someone else.