BULLIED

Submission 848

When I was in year 1 (I live in Australia so the schooling system might be different), our class had a 'buddy class', which was another year one class. Sometimes the classes would combine to do work, etc.

So every time we combined, this girl called Bully1 would sit next to me. I found it kind of annoying, but I shook it off. We never really talked to each other.

Then, in year 2, we were in the same class. My teacher had a seating plan and she put us next to each other. I discovered that we got along really well and we had a lot in common. We had the same sense of humour, so we laughed a lot. We would make weird noises and then laugh, or just laugh at nothing at all. She also did weird things like dance around for no reason. I'm pretty sure we were labelled as weird and annoying.

So yeah, year 2 was fine, nothing bad happened. Then came year 3. We were in the same class again, still doing random things that were labelled as 'weird' by other kids. She was worse than me, so she didn't have any friends other than me. I had a few friends but I didn't play with them at break. It was just me and Bully1.

She started pressuring me into doing things that I wouldn't have usually done. For example, there was a new girl in our class part way through the year (we'll call her M) and M had a lot of sass towards the teacher and other students, etc. Bully1 started calling M names, whispering so the teacher wouldn't hear. M had a stain on her clothes, and Bully1 said "Have you ever heard of a washing machine, stainy?" "Ew, you're so dirty!"

I didn't join in, but later during break Bully1 confronted me. "Why didn't you say anything to M? Is it because you like her? Do you have stains all over you, too?"

And I was a little shocked. "no," I defended. Bully1 ignored me for the rest of break, like I'd done something wrong.

Next time she called M names, I joined in. M soon told on us and the teacher gave us a lecture. After that we left M alone.

There were other incidents. There was a boy in our class who was a little autistic called Boy, and only had one friend. Bully1 put a note in Boy's pencil case that read: "nobody likes you, Boy, you should switch classes! No, schools. I don't like you either, you aren't my friend." And she wrote "from [Boy's only friend]."

When Boy found it he showed it to the teacher and his friend got in trouble, even though he denied it. There were so many more incidents, they almost happened on a daily basis. I'm sorry to say that I participated in most of them.

Whenever I didn't do what Bully1 told me to, or even if I hung out with other people, she would 'punish' me in some way. Another girl got transferred to our class and became friends with us. Her name was T and she had some kind of disability, I'm not sure what. Maybe it was a learning difficulty.

So T would willingly do whatever Bully1 said, she was pretty mean to people, too. So when Bully1 wanted to punish me for something, she and T would run away when I wasn't looking and leave me alone, or she'd go aside with T to 'say something secret' and then whisper and stare at me. Or just say something really hurtful (I don't really remember what) that would make me cry. I would go home crying a lot of times. She would constantly use threats such as 'I won't be your friend,' and 'I'll cancel the play date'.

But I stayed friends with her (stupidly, I kept thinking she would change). I told my parents, and in year 4 we weren't in the same class. However, she would still come and wait for me outside my class at break. She had stopped being friends with T and now brought along two other girls, girl1 and girl 2.

Year four was the worst year. One time the four of us went to the library and then Bully1 took the other two girls aside to share a secret, and then she came back to me alone and said "Girl1 and girl2 told me to tell you that they hate you. And I don't like you either. Stay away from us. We are going, so don't follow us, we don't want you." And they left me crying in the library.