Parent: Topless photo of female student circulating among students at Northland middle school

[davidthegnome]

78. As an adult I can handle it.

As a child, I felt that my life was worthless. I hated school, hated the kids that bullied me, despised the teachers that some times joined in, (in various subtle ways) even though I never really found the courage to fight back. Not then. My Father tried to teach me how to fight, my oldest sister told me that, "God helps those who help themselves".

One of my most vivid memories of my middle school days was walking home from school one day - and being followed by and frequently pushed by a small group of bullies. Three or four boys, who were probably bored and thought it would be amusing to make the fat kid cry. Finally I'd had enough, I told them I'd fight them all in a wooded area behind a local store. We gathered - other boys passing on the street heard about it and came to watch.

The boy I stood facing (with the others standing around in a circle, like a group of friggin hyenas) was very scrawny, thick-rimmed glasses, someone most kids would think of as a nerd. He was brilliant in science and later in life became very successful - but back then he was a total shit. I put my hands up, he started punching me - and I froze. Perhaps it was the adrenaline that made me freeze up, the whole flight or fight thing - perhaps it was the knowledge that even if I won, there were plenty of boys ready to come over and beat me to a pulp. So I got my ass kicked by a kid half my size, because I didn't fight back.

It's interesting the things I recall from that time, the taste of blood in my mouth, the smell of unwashed boys and sweat. The feeling that everyone hated me and nothing I could do was going to change that. The way the sunlight hit the leaves on the trees as I lay on the ground sobbing - it would have been quite lovely if my head hadn't hurt so much.

For all that, what happened to that girl is even worse. We live in a society that paints girls who display any sort of sexuality as sluts and whores. Conservative preachers will rant about the evil of promiscuity and suggest that the girl ought to go to hell. Their followers will accept this as good koolaid (gospel) and even those who are sympathetic will be careful not to show it - so they do not become associated with the girl who committed the terrible crime of showing her boobs.

As much as we become angry about it, or sad... as much as we want things to change, children will generally go with the flow. I am not sure how we alter society in such a way that the behavior of bullies, whether children or adults... becomes unacceptable. We would have to do more than teach children - we would have to educate teachers, preachers, parents, even great intellectuals and academics.

It's no surprise that a lot of our kids hate school, that they don't care for reading or writing. Why should they? Society forces them into a prison that essentially trains them to be good little worker bees. A prison full of bored children who find amusement in tormenting each other - like a sadistic little kid pulling the legs off ants.