In my day, people would just say, "Just ignore it."

[ThatsMyBarack]

On NBC Nightly News I just saw the story about James Jones, the father of a disabled girl who was being bullied by kids on the bus. He was so fed up with the bullies he jumped on the bus and threatened them.

That was crossing a line, I thought. At the same time, I envied his daughter for having a dad who will stop at nothing to end bullying.

As a child I was bullied constantly at school, especially in eighth grade. Kids I didn't even know loved to call me names and start ugly rumors about me. When I tried telling my parents and teachers about this, they would mostly say, "Just ignore it." My best friend in sixth grade became "popular" in eighth grade, and would constantly harass me every chance she got. When I told my mother about it, she would say, "You bring it on yourself with your behavior." (As a loner, I talked to myself a lot.) As a result, I was afraid to date boys in high school, for fear that somebody would start rumors and/or harass me about it ("Oooooh, you like So-and-So! So when's the wedding? HA! HA! HA!)

It wasn't just at school, either. The bullying trend seemed to follow me everywhere I went. At summer camp, my cabin mates teased me for having the "biggest boobs." At one point, the "ringleader" got the whole camp to turn against me! When I went to a boarding school one year for six weeks in the summer, my own roommate turned the other kids on me. At the time, I was battling anorexia and all the kids hated me for eating only salads and doing sit-ups on the sly.

I often wonder what kind of person I would be today if they only had an anti-bullying movement when I was a kid....

[JuniperLea]

1. I feel for you...

I was tackled in the girls room and stripped from the waist up... a group of girls thought they'd find a wad of socks in my bra. That was over 40 years ago... today, someone would be sued.

Yes, the man crossed a line, but I do understand him and I do support the rage... just not the action. I would have been taking pictures of all concerned for identification purposes... then marching to the school with lawyer in tow!

This bullying BS needs to end. Society is really disgusting.

[liberal N proud]

2. I still tell my kids to take nothing personal

I know it is difficult and it took me 50 years to figure it out but it is advice that I pass on.

Don't take anything personal.

But on the other hand, these things can get out of control and then some one needs to step in. If the school is unwilling, the what is a parent to do? Of course, that will just bring more ridicule for the kid.

[ThatsMyBarack]

3. I won't take anything personal.

I'll try to remember to call it "Just noise!" ;)

[county worker]

4. Our parents were ignorant of a lot of things we deal with today in a better way.

It wasn't willful ignorance but the result is hurt and pain just as if it were willful.

That just ignore it attitude is prevalent today even here on this board. It is prevalent in the right wing also. It is willful ignorance today in these groups I think. It is willful because people are too lazy to learn and so they take the most popular thinking as their own right or wrong.

In my case it was ADHD. As a kid I always got bad marks on my report cards for lack of attention and not working to my ability and other things. Back then it was considered having character flaws.

I was told to correct my behavior. It also led to bullying by the nuns at grade school. They would have the other boys beat me up on the play ground in an attempt to "straighten me out."

Today I can't stand to be with a group of people. I like spending time by myself. I still have ADHD as an adult and take medication. I had to tell my boss at work who gave me a bad review for the same reasons I got bad marks in grade school that I don't have character flaws I have a disability. That got him off my back because I could sue him under the citizens with disabilities act.

We learn to cope. I'm sure you have. We still get bullied by willfully ignorant people but we learn to take it. Now I suffer from depression, anxiety and ADHD. I take medications for all three and am "normal" to most people when I do but still the things the meds don't help I have to learn to cope with. I think that if as adults we manage to be successful in spite of our disabilities and our past, we should take special pride because we have to work harder than the "normal" people.

I hate those treads on this board that say taking drugs for mental illness is just taking happy pills etc. To me that is a form of bullying.

[Odin2005]

9. I was constantly accused of being lazy and making excuses even AFTER I was diagnosed with Asperger's

In fact, I still do. It's one of the reasons I have trouble holding a full-time job, my PTSD causes me to lash out verbally at supervisors if I feel like I'm being accused of "laziness".

[ThatsMyBarack]

11. Sounds like me.

I wish we'd known stuff Asperger's back then like we do now....

[pipi_k]

5. I was one of those kids who hung out with

the kids who got picked on.

I also got bullied some, but what the kids didn't know was that after a certain point, I would fight back. Once I got pissed off enough.


Anyway, I remember one time when I was about 13 and had had minor surgery to have a rather large cyst removed from the side of my face below my ear. There was this girl in school who was always picking on me. One evening my mom sent me to the corner store for some milk and this girl (who was with a friend or two...they always seem to need other people for backup, don't they?) cornered me and slapped me in the face, dangerously close to the site of my incision.

I went home in tears and told my parents...my father put me in the car and we drove around till we found the girl...he pulled over and told her she had nearly ripped out my stitches and then I don't remember exactly what else he said to her, but he could be scary when he wanted to be. She never bothered me again.

That night he was my Knight in Shining Armor, and soon after my parents divorced and I learned that there would be nobody but myself to protect me.



anyway, while the father in question did overreact a bit, I do understand his anger.

[ThatsMyBarack]

6. I don't want people to feel sorry for me....

I just couldn't help wondering what if we had back them what we got now....

[w8liftinglady]

7. It seems a lot of us had that crap.I did,too.

maybe that's what makes us so compassionate for the underdogs,the abused,the poor,the sick.

throwing a hug your way-we proved them wrong.

[Odin2005]

8. You are a Gen-Xer I'm assuming?

I've heard a lot of stories from Gen-Xers about the victim-blaming and neglect they experienced as kids, this Millennial finds it quite shocking. :(

[ThatsMyBarack]

10. Yeah, that would be me.

What's so "shocking" about it?

[Odin2005]

12. Us Millenials seem to have experienced less bullying then you Xers did.