Well, I would love to learn what teachers & administrators can do about it. Because in my experience, everything they did (mostly out of good intentions and really trying to help) only made things worse or had no change.
- A lot of abuse occurred on the bus ride to school and from home. My mother would have to drop me off at school early and I would stay after school and take the "late bus" home. This made the abuse I receive lessen, but did not go away, because a lot of the athletes took the late bus home.
- In elementary school, I was told to name names and report each and every occurrence. I did. The kids would be taken to the guidance counselor's office and reprimanded. This caused them to retaliate by beating me up and calling me a "gay ****" for having to get help from the school. So I quickly learned NOT to do this.
- Recess was a time when a lot of bullying occurred. The administration would not let me stay inside during recess because that was the rule. I had to sit with my back against a brick wall where a teacher stood with the whistle which told us to all come back inside. This was the same wall used for punishment where any misbehaving kids would have to sit if they weren't allowed to enjoy recess that day. So I either sit with my back against the wall for however long recess was and be bored, or sit there and be tormented by kids who were also there being punished.
- In middle school, gym class was especially a time when I would get ridiculed and even physically attacked, both during class and in the locker room. They would not let me skip gym class, and they said I could choose to sit out of class but each time I did my grade would drop, so I would fail the class by the end of the year.
- Inside the classroom, we had to sit in alphabetical order, and one of the major bullies in my life had a last name very similar to mine, and he always sat behind me. The torture I received from him was ridiculous! The administration DID let me move my seat to the end of the alphabet so as not to be in front of him, but now I was the only kid not sitting in the correct order. Very easy to single out, no? And I was teased for this.
These are just some of the ways how I WASN'T helped, despite the well-intentions of the school. Again I ask, if you have had experiences where the school WAS able to help you and end bullying, I would LOVE to know what they did.
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
