I got bullied for real between 9 and 11 years old. We talked to the schools, my dad talked to one kid's dad, and nothing changed. I got beat up, they took my school books and threw them on top of the school, they slashed the tires on my bike, then one kid stole my bike entirely and I never got it back, even though I saw him riding it, etc. Then 2 things happened: 1) I went through a growth spurt at around age 12, and ended up at about 6'2" before I turned 13, and 2) I started martial arts, among other sports in school. I took to the martial arts pretty quickly, found out I was pretty strong naturally, and I could hit pretty hard and improved on that with technique. And I was fortunate that, even though I was taking a traditional korean martial art focused on kicks and weapons and flashy but generally useless spins and jumps and stuff, my teacher focused on real-world fighting and techniques, including grappling and close-quarters striking, so it became pretty effective. I confronted one of my bullies after that first summer in martial arts, after about 6 months of classes and rising up 3 belts, and when I was now taller than him (he was 2 years older than me), because he wouldn't leave me alone, and we had a brief "fight" with his friends telling him to kill me, and me fending off anything he tried until I had an opening, hit him straight on with a good line of sight, and him moving toward me, and broke his nose and gave him 2 gnarly black eyes (and bruised 2 of my fingers bad enough I couldn't bend them right for a month), and then he left me alone, as well as his friends. The other guy that was bullying me, I ran into at my martial arts studio. I had been going to the 6:00 pm class and it turns out he attended the same studio but he went at 9:00 pm. I went to the late class once and he was there. We sparred that night and I popped him a few times pretty hard, then I caught him with a straight front kick right in the chin and he dropped, and it broke a tooth. He left me alone too.
I got lucky I found a way out, because before that I was at a loss what to do about it and I was beginning to withdraw, and afterward I made it a point to try to stick up for the bullied kids whenever I could. lauriandres is right though, this is one thing that will be part of the human condition forever, just the form will change. In my day it wasn't quite like A Christmas Story, but not too far off that, mostly making fun of my glasses, or that I was a pudgy child, with pushing and shoving, taking my backpack at school, knocking over my lunch tray, or even beating me up, **** like that. Today it is far more centered on words and exposure in a much more open and wide-spread sphere, and kids who would have likely been bullied can be more likely to be a bully on the internet, and groups are more likely to form. And in my case it was only viewed by whoever was around at the time, so a dozen kids at most usually. Now it can be broadcast to your entire social sphere, and repeated incessantly, which makes it more pervasive and devastating. And you can't just confront the ******* and punch him once to end it, as they are not around when it is happening, and often now other join in, spurred on by the mob mentality and the perceived anonymity of it all. It is far worse today, imo.
I feel for the kid and the family. I cannot imagine how I would have handled this, and I can see why suicides over this kind of bullying are a rising thing. Yet another reason I feel social media is evil and nothing but destructive on the whole, especially considering all the other negatives (addiction, isolation, negative ads, negative click bait, etc., etc.).
www.deseret.com
should somebody try to harass her. And i try to teach, that it is better to somebody like Christine Breiner than somebody from "American Idol", "Osbournes", "Jersey Shore" etc. Whether it works or not remains to be seen.
