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[andyt]

Some interesting stories coming out here. I would be surprised if most people on this forum didn't experience bullying at some point, and/or did some bullying themselves. It's seems to be part of growing up, and it's not like it stops when we become adults. Trog (caveman mentality) isn't buried very deeply in our psyche.

Once a couple of tough guys caught me and wanted to make me kiss their shoes. I was scared and was going to go along, till I looked at their shoes and realized no way could or would I do this. I told them so, almost apologized for it, and that was the end, they left me alone. At that point, if they had come at me, it would have been all out - I probably would have got beat down, but would have tried to inflict as much damage as I could before then. Guess they understood that and decided it wasn't worth it. If there'd been an audience it might have gone much worse for me, make it harder for them to back down. And that's the problem with apathetic kids that just watch but don't do anything.

And then there's the kids that everybody hates, everybody bullies including the teachers. We had a guy like that, and to the best of my will I couldn't stop myself bugging him either. I'd try to be friendly, and he's say something stupid and that was it. A few years later I learned he was caught molesting a kid. I always wonder if we drove him to that, or if we responded to him the way we did because we could tell something was off.

[Lemmy]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Lemmy, I appreciate your point of view, but I was just out for vengeance and, after a while, I was getting a sadistic rush out of tormenting and humiliating bullies.

I was doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.

Maybe you were Lawrence of Arabia in a previous life. I think of it like this: if you're doing good you're doing good. What reward you get for yourself is secondary. If I were a Nuremberg executioner, I wouldn't lose any sleep over the fact that I'd actually enjoyed snuffing out Nazis. There's nothing wrong with enjoying one's "work". It's kind of like playing hockey. When I'd drill a winger trying to go wide on me, I'd feel good for doing good for my team, but I'd also feel good just for pounding the sonofabitch. I'm sure as hell not about to apologize because I enjoy getting the upper hand on an opponent.

[Choban]

Went through it myself in grades 7-9, went to JH school in Dartmouth, fairly rough place, I was unfortunate to be the skinny long haired kid in an area of mostly black trendy g-boys, they always cornered me when my friends weren't around and there was always a bunch of them.

I started carrying a knife to school, cutting things and myself up, acting nuts and one day had enough, when they all cornerd me (in a bus shelter), I grabbed the closest one by the neck, hit his head on the wall of the shelter, threw punches at others near me, when they backed off I pulled out the knife and threatened to stab the first one to come any closer.

Cops were called, I was the one charged with assault and uttering treats and spent the last 3 months of JH school more of an outcast that I was in the start, no one would come near me for the rest of the school year and I was banned from Grad.

Grade 7-8 I was hanging around with a bunch of skinheads cause the black kids were picking on me specifically, That year (grade 9) my Dad accepted a posting to Calgary.

Grade 10 in Calgary I got in 2 fights, 1 with a bunch of seniors that tried to haze me and a friend (I lost) and one with a classmate who was telling stories about me (I won), Not much for issues after that, but people knew I wasn't one to be pushed around and that I'd fight back no matter how big the opponent.

[andyt]

Choban Choban:

Went through it myself in grades 7-9, went to JH school in Dartmouth, fairly rough place, I was unfortunate to be the skinny long haired kid in an area of mostly black trendy g-boys, they always cornered me when my friends weren't around and there was always a bunch of them.

I started carrying a knife to school, cutting things and myself up, acting nuts and one day had enough, when they all cornerd me (in a bus shelter), I grabbed the closest one by the neck, hit his head on the wall of the shelter, threw punches at others near me, when they backed off I pulled out the knife and threatened to stab the first one to come any closer.

Cops were called, I was the one charged with assault and uttering treats and spent the last 3 months of JH school more of an outcast that I was in the start, no one would come near me for the rest of the school year and I was banned from Grad.

Grade 7-8 I was hanging around with a bunch of skinheads cause the black kids were picking on me specifically, That year (grade 9) my Dad accepted a posting to Calgary.

Grade 10 in Calgary I got in 2 fights, 1 with a bunch of seniors that tried to haze me and a friend (I lost) and one with a classmate who was telling stories about me (I won), Not much for issues after that, but people knew I wasn't one to be pushed around and that I'd fight back no matter how big the opponent.

What are g-boys?

See, and under the scheme you proposed your dad would have been ticketed or charged too. The systems just wasn't good enough at clearly figuring out the situation, and you hear that time and time again. When somebody finally snaps after a lot of harassment, it's them that get the punishment. Schools need a place where you could have gone with your problem, tho I'm dammed if I can think of a really foolproof way to prevent these things. It does sound like these days some schools are aware of the problem, get the kids involved in dealing with it and it works much better. I wouldn't be surprised if these are the schools that didn't have much of a problem to begin with tho.

[2Cdo]

I feel left out because I didn't honestly see any bullying with the group I hung out with. I'm not saying it didn't occur but I never witnessed it.

[Brenda]

2Cdo 2Cdo:

I feel left out because I didn't honestly see any bullying with the group I hung out with. I'm not saying it didn't occur but I never witnessed it.

Same here. I remember one time tho, when my friends and I hid and followed a classmate. We didn't yell or scream or do anything to him, just followed him, hiding in bushes and behind trees.
My mom gave me shit over it and as far as I know, it never happened again.

If I compare that with the normalcy of the shit that MY kids go through, and if you call people on it, they just shrug...

[2Cdo]

My oldest boy was like zip and played guitar, smakcking the guitar player who's drawing in the hotties is not cool!

My youngest boy was a little shy and reserved in grade school and suffered a little bullying. Started lifting weights which increased his confidence. Sorted out the worst offender and never got bothered again.

The drawback to becoming a well built, good looking kid who was tough as nails was getting challenged by punks who wanted to get some tough guy street cred.

His usual response by then was to laugh at them and walk away!

[billypilgrim]

i am the antibully program in my family.

[Thanos]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Lemmy Lemmy:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

As I said, my warpath lasted only about two months. After that the morons knew to leave me alone and my grades went up. They went after other victims and when I would find out about it I then started defending those people, too.

That's when you began wearing the cape and spandex tights. The hollowing out of the Bart-cave began the following spring.

Hate to say, but I came really close to becoming what I'd hated.

Is it okay to bully the bullies? At the time, for me, it was a near license to kill and I went way overboard. I'm seriously glad I made it through that phase without a criminal record.

No, what you did was dispense justice and that's something that should always be encouraged. Half of this fucking bullying wouldn't be going on if certain parents, teachers, police, and lawyers didn't tell the good kids not to thrown the first punch. What good does it do for a young person if you keep telling them that they'll get in more trouble from the so-called authrority figures if they stand up for themselves than if they turtle and take endless beatings without ever doing anything to stop it? Since when did making sure your kid if a wimp became equated with being 'good'?

I tell you if I had a kid that fucking clobbered someone who genuinely fucking deserved it, even up to the point of putting the bastard in the hospital, I'd have his back from start to finish. Having justice sometimes means a whole shit load more than mindlessly adhering to laws that only protect the bullies and rest of the bastards.

Regards,

Frank Castle

[BartSimpson]

2Cdo 2Cdo:

I feel left out because I didn't honestly see any bullying with the group I hung out with. I'm not saying it didn't occur but I never witnessed it.

It doesn't happen everywhere. I never had such problems nor did I hear of them on Cape Cod. Sure, there were fights and all, but systematic bullying? Just didn't hear of it.

[BartSimpson]

Thanos Thanos:

Having justice sometimes means a whole shit load more than mindlessly adhering to laws that only protect the bullies and rest of the bastards.

I agree.

[PluggyRug]

My story.

I'm a short ass, 5'-6", bullying started in senior school so took up karate classes (Shotokan). The fact that I was training in martial arts was enough to keep most bullies away except for one asshole. He cornered me in the schoolyard with half the school looking on, straight fingers to throat followed by a straight punch to the nose was the end of that. Methinks the busted nose was the most effective deterrent.

Went on to get my black belt, which has served me well in later life.

Many years later I ran self defense classes. Some of the kids who attended suffered from bullying at school.

[Thanos]

My ex-boss from a few years back is also a multi-level Shotokan black belt. He said his favourite thing was to break noses and that it would immediately take all the piss and tough-guy bullshit out of even the biggest assholes. The throat punch sounds like fun but seems a little too risky. I said 'dispense justice' but not put the other prick in the morgue. None of these dicks are worth killing and ending up in prison over.

I wish MMA was around when I was younger too. Up until watching some of it recently it never even occured to me before now that it's totally fair to fight using forearms, elbows, and hammer punches instead of only using straight punches. Time to retire all that obsolete 'put up your dukes' crap and teach the kids to go all out with a frenzy of opportunistic punches and kicks on the bullies, especially if they're bigger than the ones they're victimizing. Bully's not ever gonna fight fair, so why handicap the other kid right off the bat by insisting that he, and only he, has to?

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