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[Wula]

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[zenia]

I was harassed all throughout school. I never said anything about it though and just took what they did and said to me. Then when I graduated, I moved away and never saw any of them again. From what I know, the worst of my bullies are pathetic, alcoholic, townies now. I am so much better than they ever were.

[EmoFox]

Personally, I say whatever works to make people (school faculty) realize that there's a bullying issue going on. No one ever listened to me, or jesters either when we were in high school. Actually, some of the staff were worse than the students, but i wont get into that. If the student says something, and no one listens, then they should definitely do what you did. Also thumbs up for scaring the shyte out of your teachers, lol

[professor whovianart]

well, i know i had bully issues since pre-school, every school and class (went to many, we moved alot), as i walked in and looked around at all the new faces, almost right away i would spot the one that would make my life difficult.

after school i almost always ended up running home (at least i kept in shape), though in grade 7 i confronted the bully`s henchmen when the bully was away from school a few days (i think he had a cold), and had one of them down on the ground ready to punch him, but controlled myself, an adult came along and we all went back to class, because of this he may have seen me differently for the bully and i became almost friends.

in grade 8, again i readily found the bully (or i should say he found me), this guy was meaner than the previous ones, but that may be because of teenage angst and/or because of the scar he had on his upper lip (he may have had rough childhood or  accident) which may have contributed to his demeaner, after having put up with all his crap for a few months i control-snaped and had him down on the ground and was posed to punch him, and told him very calmly to just leave me alone, i quite school shortly afterwards (never did finish grade 8, no loss).

i never did get to find out how they all turned out, someday i should research that, be a good study for someone, but i figure they may have turned out as alcoholics and dead-enders of life, much as zenia mentioned.

and thru all of this i never mentioned any of this to any adults, and i do not recall of any system in place to inform children of the existent of bully possibility or prevention.

[Tef]

I will never forgive my Grade 4 teacher for being a total asshole. That was one of the worst years of which I was at my most vulnerable, and telling the teacher about it results in me being the one writing the incident report on how I should handle the situation better (my ass).

*crazy childish contemplation ahead*
I might as well change my academic major to Education so I could work up that ladder to gain the credentials in order to get back at her for those years. Such is the modern day fairy tale.

[Drake Wingfire]

Back in our day this would have worked well, I think these days though they would be too quick to try and get you all doped up since any emotion other than happy or bored are seen as mental conditions...

I was one of those kids who literally did go to that snapping point cause like you said, teachers and everyone would never listen and it was always my word vs the 2-4 people who always picked on me and tried to fight me. So after that realization I just snapped and went at it, I did get suspended in grade 6 but I really didn't care cause I was the only one doing anything about the problem.

Hilarious "happy ending" to this story? I have met a good few of the guys who bullied me all those years ago, they all act as if I am some old friend XD not sure if this is outta fear as I look a tad intimidating and am much taller or if its out of respect for having the balls I did those years ago.

[Roffo]

Seems like an alright method. Wouldn't be the best way if you ever had to confront a bully.

Usually if someone is bullying me, I end up making it so they are humiliated or upset to the point where they don't want to bother me anymore. I love everyone, but when theres that one person who wants to be an ass, then I just cannot let that person take advantage of me. I didn't get bullied too much in highschool because I ended up befriending everyone. Even making a simple lie that "I know so and so" will make someone stop bothering me.

I get harassed a lot in town though by people I don't know. For what reason? None. One time me and a friend were walking on a road where an apparent 'strip' bar was. (I don't go to those, but), these two males started to yell across the road at us "I bet you never seen a rack in your life!", says the ignorant low life. Made me chuckle a bit. Poor guy has to pay money to see girls.

Usually young guys in cars like to scream random things as they pass me and my friends. Happens to everyone around here. I hear things like "Ah-hooo!". All I can think is, "huh, what was the purpose of that?" All these examples show how stupid and moronic some 'bullies' can be.

[velvetkytten]

I like this approach and really am happy it worked for you. I said similar shit to the higher ups at my highschool and they didn't do much but when i started to become violent towards the bullies... they left it alone even more... I got to punch these assholes in the jaw for many ppl. Anytime I saw someone being bullied I protected them... and the teachers didn't stop me... or yell at me.. I guess I took care of a lot of the problem for them.

I liked to think I was the bully to the bullies. I don't encourage others to do what I did because in this day and age its most likely going to get you thrown out of your school but fuck... people really need to fight back somehow.

Lucky for us these days though is each cell has a camera in em. I would be recording everything I could at school of bullies acting... use it as a tool to really get these bullies in SERIOUS shit.

[Fazar]

I'm kind of a nerd, and was a .. somewhat target for the occasional bully.  I like to think I'm hot stuff sometimes but truth be told I'm not really.  I used to keep quiet, and my head down when I was in school.  Grew facial hair, and generally tried to look tougher than I was maybe.

I still got picked on by some people but there were a few funny stories about it.  I don't quite think of myself of a victim, but perhaps was just a little soccially out than normal.  I have a few situations where I had dealt with bullies.

One larger kid (overweight) was kind of aggressive, and generally a dick to a few people one day wanted to pick a fight with me after school.  Through his own stupidity, and spreading of rumours from kids, the whole school knew abot it around lunch and he was kicked out of school before the end of the day even came lol.  I kind of shrugged it off so I can't say I did anything there.

Another time though there was a tall guy who was a trouble maker.  he ALWAYS used to try and pick on me.  I was playing indoor hockey against him one day though and I usually put my all into sports despite not being good.  Anyways, I got into a little scuffle with him over the puck, and then he pushes me back after dropping his stick.  So.. I pushed back, and stood right infront of him.  I was going to take that from anyone, and I didn't.

The interesting thing is the guy though being a bully.. I don't think he was really a tough guy himself.  After I stood my ground, showed that I could push back just as hard as him, he had a moment where he looked lost for words.. he said stuff like he'd kick my ass, but he never did anything.  The rest of my highschool years the guy was a LOT nicer to me.  I wasn't sure if he was being facetious or had gotten respect/fear from me.

My suggestion?  I know not everyone can fight for themselves, but if you look a victim, and if you act the victim, you become the victim.  I really hate people who are assholes, and standing up for yourself physically can make a lot of bullies back down.  Verbally usually doesn't work as a lot of verbal response is just fodder for them to taunt or poke back more.  I really don't know what to suggest to people aside from hold your ground.

I'm a little hesitant to like the top guys post about 'threatening' to teachers about doing something really bad, but I know it's not easy to stand up for yourself a lot of the times.

[Neox]

The source of bullying (I believe) is ALWAYS the kid's parents and upbringing.  Fixing that is no easy task, especially when you are a kid, yourself, and have little influence over these things.

One thing you need to know is that, if you let people walk all over you, they're going to do exactly that.  You might get hurt for it, and you might still find it very emotional when people try to pick on you, but you need to have a spine and not back down when others project ill-intentions to you.  How you choose to do this is up to you, but it's important that you don't just take it laying down.  If you choose to retaliate, never ever do so out of spite; only ever out of defence.  If you make it look like you're trying to get back at someone, you immediately lose.  Teachers and parents won't support you for vengeful retaliation, but most of them WILL support you if you're acting strictly out of defence.

I literally pulled a 180° in my high school years.  I was the kid that EVERYONE picked on.  I was fat, socially inept, and I never fought back.  I made a conscious decision that I didn't want to take anymore bullshit, and turned my life around.  I worked hard and got in shape, learned how to properly speak to people and become a likeable person by paying close attention to how other people interacted, and most importantly, I started throwing punches instead of trying to look away when other kids shoved me against a locker.  I still got beat up a lot, but I eventually became numb to it and started making other kids scared to want to fight me.

"Ignore them and they'll get bored and leave you alone."  It doesn't work.  10 years of my life in school were wasted listening to that mantra.  If a kid shoves you against a locker and you don't do anything, it makes them laugh.  If they shove you against a locker and you cry, it makes them laugh.  If they shove you against a locker and you smash their nose (or attempt to), it forces them to be more careful around you.  You've now become more dangerous than just sitting there and crying, whether you can land punches or not.

[MurphyErasmus]

The source of bullying (I believe) is ALWAYS the kid's parents and upbringing.

People say this a lot, about many things: Crime, bullying, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, etc. I actually really, really disagree.

My brother is, to put it kindly, a royal fuckup. He is high 100% of the time, physically assaults people, is extraordinarily homophobic, and ruined me as a child. He has also been raised the exact same way I was.

My father stood for NO nonsense from either of us and on more than one occasion felt compelled to withdraw my brother from a group sporting event to stress the importance of sportsmanship. My mother is kind, loving, understanding, and accepting. On no occasions were my brother or I abused, physically or mentally. Neither parent has either beaten or verbally wounded us. We have been loved, and at the same time exposed to the knowledge that life is not fair. We were raised to understand that we have responsibilities and that life owes us nothing.

However, while I am, at nineteen years of age, a responsible and fairly well-adjusted (I think?) individual, my brother recently almost killed himself by driving a car he did not have a license to drive, and has threatened my life multiple times.

Furthermore if my dad was alive to see what my brother has turned out to be he would DIE of shame. He was the kindest, most incredible man I have ever had the pleasure to know. Four hundred people showed up to his funeral. A good portion of his money was willed to charitable foundations when he died, or to a scholarship for accountants at UBC (he was a CA, head of KPMG in Vancouver).

Having met the parents of many of my brother's 'friends', I can safely say I've never known any of the fellows he associated with to come from bad families. Actually, it's quite the opposite. Many went to St Georges and have experienced a very comfortable life. The same went for the bullies that plagued me in childhood - their parents were all very nice, sociable people.

Most of my old nemeses suffer from severe mental illness or substance abuse problems now. I can't say I'm surprised.

[Roffo]

The source of bullying (I believe) is ALWAYS the kid's parents and upbringing. 

I do see this to be true, however I do also believe there can also be 'other' factors in an adolescents life that will have him/her resort to bullying. Take a child who is rich and gets everything he has ever wanted. He sees something another kid has but wants to have it for himself, but isn't able to acquire it. Maybe that individual will resort to bullying. Or maybe there is a child who just happens to be diagnosed with something that causes him get angry easily (we've all seen that one in the movies). Another reason could be an early exposure to violent videogames. We all know that conditioning to violence wont lead a kid to being kind/gentle.

I just say theres more than one factor.

[Ixiah]

I er uh..threw one of them into a desk, and the other had a desk thrown at him after his buddy got thrown. They kinda left me alone after that.
Lots of books in the desk, made it nice and heavy.... yay for grade seven problem solving.