It seems we continue to hear frequently about incidents related to bullying. Some of these have tragic consequences. For those we are made aware of, there are probably thousands upon thousands of them that we know nothing about.
Many of us have been victims of bullying. I was one of those.
When I was in about the sixth grade in the parochial school I attended, there was a kid named Tommy who was in the grade above me. He wasn’t that much bigger than I was so I wasn’t particularly afraid of him.
He was constantly picking on me, continually calling me names that I prefer not to mention here.
The bullying never became physical. That’s probably the reason I never told my parents about it. I didn’t even share it with my friends in school at the time.
It went on most of that year. He didn’t ever try to pick a fight with me and I was smart enough I guess to just try to ignore him.
To my knowledge, to this day, I have no idea why he singled me out. I never had done anything to him, and the other seventh graders in his class I got along with just fine. Played sports with many of them.
I didn’t fear him, just dreaded seeing him coming if we were the only two walking in the same hallway.
Since we didn’t run in the same crowd, the only time I saw or was around him was at school.
When he graduated from eighth grade, I was ever so glad, though he didn’t pick on me as much when I was in the seventh grade for whatever reason.
Not sure where he went to high school, but it wasn’t the same one I did and I was grateful for that.
I haven’t seen him since he left that parochial school.
I do know that my eighth grade year was much more pleasant without him around.
My dad got me a set of weights when I was in the seventh grade. That helped me grow some and made me a little stronger.
I wasn’t a very big person stature-wise as I went through school. In fact, when I graduated from high school I weighed about 125 pounds.
Unfortunately, bullying goes on continually in many walks of life and the results are often tragic. We’ve seen many times that bullying has led to school shootings, suicides, and deadly endings in the workplace.
Still, it shouldn’t be tolerated. It seems too often that when a reported incident is ignored or just blown off is when there are grave consequences.
I have heard of too many instances where victims of bullying, especially when it turns to being physical, that it would have been better for them to share it with their parents or other close friends, even authorities when needed. That might have prevented some of the tragedies from occurring that we’ve seen in recent years.