Bullying is something that happens everyday. Now that I am in college I feel as if I don't see as much bullying face to face or in public. Bullying now can happen through the internet and social media. This is called cyberbullying and I feel this is more common at the college level.
When it comes to an experience that I've had with bullying it is one that I will remember for a long time. It probably has to do with the fact that I was bullied for most of my 6th grade year. I came into junior high very nervous, but very excited. It was a new chapter for me and with a new chapter meant new people, older people. The bullying that I experienced was the most common type of bullying. Now that I was in junior high, I had to get changed for PE in the locker room with the rest of the students. Going into 6th grade I was a bit overweight. I'm a big guy now, but in 6th grade I still had a lot of baby fat and some of the chubbiest cheeks in America, but I could keep up with anyone in any sport at anytime. I loved to compete and sports gave me a way to fulfill that desire. It started in the locker room, where we changed before class. They would make fun of my body appearance and sometimes my personal hygiene. Not that I wasn't hygienic, but I think they would use anything to try and get under my skin. They did a pretty good job of it and it took a toll on me for most of the first semester my 6th grade year. I went to the PE coach to tell them about the constant verbal abuse, but nothing changed. I got use to it. I would just take it and it wore me out every single day. I no longer enjoyed going to PE class anymore. I didn't even want to compete in the games we played, because even if I was one of the better players they wouldn't give me the credit and instead would try to shoot me down with words like fat, four eyes, faggot, and other derogatory terms.
I want to take a step back and talk about who has the power in this situation. You would think that the PE teacher of the class would own authority, but the teacher was just their to make a paycheck. It was the high school baseball coach and a lot of the 8th graders that were picking on me were going to be playing on the high school team the next year, so they felt like they could get away with a lot in front of him. The teacher didn't have the power, it was the four 8th grade assholes that not only bullied me, but some of the other 6th graders as well. I feel like this is the circumstance when it comes to bullying a lot of the time. The students just rule over the teachers and can behave however they feel.
It didn't turn physical until around the end of my first semester. It was a day where we played kickball and the team I was on included mostly 6th graders. The team we were playing against was mainly 8th graders and specifically the four that were consistently bullying me. Somehow we had won the kick ball game which didn't sit well with the 8th graders. I knew walking back into that locker room I was going to have to deal with them. I stood in front of my locker and changed out of my uniform and into my street clothes. Before I could put my regular shirt back on, I was shoved in the back and slammed into my locker. One of the boys said the only reason that my team won was because I was the same weight as two people and that we had an extra person on the field.
When it got physical is when I asked my dad what to do. I didn't tell my parents about any of the prior bullying, but when it got physical I felt like I had to. Now, I'm not saying that violence is ever the answer, but my dad told me that I have a right to protect myself and that he would stand behind me if I had to protect myself.
So, I did. It was during a badminton tournament in class. I always had an advantage at this game, because I was taller. In the first round I beat one of the 8th graders that had picked on me all year. After scoring the game point, the student paced to the net, went under the net (racket raised still in hand). He looked like he had one thing on his mind and I wasn't going to find out what that was. I did what I had to do to protect myself and ever since that day not another kid picked on me or any of my classmates. I had stood up not only for myself, but for the rest of that 6th grade class. It is a day that I will never forget.
References:
https://www.google.com/search?q=bullying+in+sports&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjr88fh657lAhVQqZ4KHVAJApYQ_AUIEygC&biw=697&bih=676#imgrc=1YKY6sCQ9Jh4YM:
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