If all the stories of vicious bullying have left you fearing for humanity, take a couple of minutes to hear from five inspiring boys who took a peer with special needs under their wing and made him part of their gang.
Tag: bullied
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Speaking Up When You’re Bullied, in School and Beyond
“Sometimes the biggest act of courage is a small one.” ~Lauren Raffo
During the summer of 2001, I experienced three months of torment.
My days were filled with verbal lashings, public humiliation, and pushing my body to its physical limits. I was being broken down. I chose to accept this as my normal. I accepted my punishment like I thought I should. I was seventeen.
Nothing made my anxiety fly away and quieted the constant chatter in my brain like dance. I may not have been the best, or most technically proficient dancer (my fouettes would never land me a Joffery Ballet scholarship), but moving to music made my heart sing.
Naturally, I decided to try out for my high school’s dance team. I ended up securing a spot on the kick line of this infamous and exclusive group.
Varsity dance has been an institution at my high school for nearly sixty years. Throughout that enormous chunk of time, many traditions were thought up, tweaked, and passed on. Now, these are not your average high school traditions of young girls simply making goofy matching t-shirts, wearing the same half-up-half-down hairstyle, and teepeeing new teammates.
Most of the traditions passed on are bullying.
My summer of new-girl hazing included performing thousands of kicks until I got bursitis in both of my worn out knees, sitting in the splits until my wrists buckled under pressure, constantly hearing how unworthy I was of being on the team, and performing hyper-sexualized dances in front of ogling male classmates. Those were just a few highlights of my experience.
Then came the day the “old girls” decided to finally initiate me as a full-fledged member of the team.
The veteran members drove me around with a blindfold hugging my sobbing eyes, while verbally ripping in to each and every one of my mental weaknesses. After making several stops to “practice” dances and kick to the brink of exhaustion, I arrived just after dusk at a house belonging to one of the captains. (more…)