• Question: Have you ever been bullied at school before?

    Asked by anon-218297 to Shannah, Richard, johnpaterson, Emma, Anna on 21 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: John Paterson

      John Paterson answered on 21 Jun 2019:

      Yes, I was bullied a bit when I was at school, when I was about 9 or 10. I was very shy at school and not interested in the same things other kids were and sometimes that made me a bit of a target for bullies. Bullies can pick on other people because they want to feel better about themselves or because they have problems going on in their own life. But it is not right to bully and hurt other people because of this.

      If you are being bullied then I think you should talk to an adult about it. If you have a teacher you trust, or your parents, then talk to them about it. Adults will want to know about it and support you – if you are being bullied then it is the bully who is behaving badly, not you for telling someone. When it happened to me I spoke to someone about it and it really helped.

      The good news is that school is often the worst place for these things – as I got older the bullying stopped and I got happier and more confident.

    • Photo: Emma Markham

      Emma Markham answered on 21 Jun 2019:

      yes, unfortunately I was bullies a lot at school. Mostly on the school bus, as I didn’t live near the school. I didn’t really fit in at school, but I think a lot of students feel like that. But I did have some close friends and when I was 15 onwards it mostly stopped because I just stopped caring about it, so they realised it was a waste of time if I didn’t react. looking back, I think most of the bullies were struggling to cope with problems at home, so families divorcing or other issues, and so were acting out and hurting people because they felt hurt and neglected. My hope if that teachers are able to spot these signs in students and help them before it develops into a big problem.
      Have you experienced bullying? How did you handle it?

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