I have little to say about this, other than it's worked its way up to the top of my "That is Some Messed Up Shit" list.I posted that a bit quickly. Here's another one that's twisted on a more individual level that happened to MarkCC of Good Math, Bad Math. Another one worthy of a high rank.
8 comments:
Minor note: On the Good Math, Bad Math thread, you might want to look at Mark's comment #410. Short and sweet comeback.
..."Pharyngula Ninja Vanish"? Really, BD? Really?
Hearing stories like that brings me to a dark place, a place where I relate to kids that shot up their schools. Not that I think it was justified, but I can understand it. When every single day is torture, hearing that it'll all be over in a "few years" is far too little to keep you going on it's own. School administrations too often look the other way, and the teachers who apparently never had problems with popularity just make things worse when they start "lecturing" the victims on how they need to stop letting it get to them, or start "trying to make more friends".
The very worst is those who try to say the bullying is actually a good thing because it "teaches valuable social skills". My ass it does. Every single social "skill" I learned (which were nothing more than skills in avoiding people when you get right down to it) I've had to unlearn as an adult. The majority of people in the adult world don't act anything like those idiots in school, and those who do don't get far except in backwoods trailer parks.
I made a few friends here and there, and I actually enjoyed learning, but those are the only good memories I'll ever have of school. The rest of the social "experience" I'd sooner have blotted out of my mind except that I think it's useful if only to identify and relate to future repetition of the same horrid experiences in others.
I'll say this now. Kids that are victims SHOULD in fact get some sort of escort. NEVER leave a class of kids alone! No you aren't "parents" but seriously, they're kids! You've got to take the basic responsibility that you ARE, for the duration of their time there, their caregivers, and act as such. Turning a blind eye to bullying and just saying "kids will be kids" is a major cop-out. Moniter the halls between classes, have someone watching the kids at all times, and (this comes from personal experience) if a kid doesn't WANT to go play in the playground for fear of other kids, DON'T MAKE THEM GO OUT THERE! LET THEM STAY IN THE CLASS! This shoudln't be prohibitively expensive at all.
Oh, and no, "hall moniters" and "class moniters" selected FROM one's peers are not sufficient to keep order at all. Don't pretend it does.
I'm so glad the worst I ever got in High school was some guys who ridiculed a bit of me being not-terribly-pedant about Star Trek.
The worst I've had so far in high school is someone locking my backpack shut with... whatchacallit... zipties? Think that's what they were called...
Single incidents are no big deal. Anyone can get over a one time incident. I think that's the biggest misunderstanding people who never had bully issues have. They hear example stories and wonder why someone can't move past it. Well, it's not just one thing, it's that every single day you plot in your head the fastest safest course between classes. I never used my locker for a very simple reason. It meant extra time in the hallways, and that means extra risk. I didn't think of it in those terms, it was just instinct to spend as little time out there as possible. Making it to the end of the day was "one more day".
There's a reason so many victims use the same analogies of "it's like a prison" or "like my own personal hell". It's true. No doubt there's worse experiences, certainly there are, but I can say with all honesty I'd rather take an hour of water boarding than 4 years of high school.
Random swerve: what's fun is incompetent bullying.
The poor kid so wanted to cause me pain, and couldn't understand how I was ignoring it =D
(Friend: Um... you might want to move.
Me: Okay. *Tries hardest to walk, steadfastly ignoring the larger kid latched onto my arm*)
That said, there are some classmates from fifth grade that I'm just going to hope I can get through life without ever seeing again. WTF is wrong with reading during recess, eh?
That's hilarious. XD
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