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anybody ever heard of anything like this? bullying

globetrotter

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All lank and bone, the boy stands at the corner with his younger sister, waiting for the yellow bus that takes them to their respective schools. He is Billy Wolfe, high school sophomore, struggling.

Moments earlier he left the sanctuary that is his home, passing those framed photographs of himself as a carefree child, back when he was 5. And now he is at the bus stop, wearing a baseball cap, vulnerable at 15.

A car the color of a school bus pulls up with a boy who tells his brother beside him that he's going to beat up Billy Wolfe. While one records the assault with a cellphone camera, the other walks up to the oblivious Billy and punches him hard enough to leave a fist-size welt on his forehead.

The video shows Billy staggering, then dropping his book bag to fight back, lanky arms flailing. But the screams of his sister stop things cold.

The aggressor heads to school, to show friends the video of his Billy moment, while Billy heads home, again. It's not yet 8 in the morning.

Bullying is everywhere, including here in Fayetteville, a city of 60,000 with one of the country's better school systems. A decade ago a Fayetteville student was mercilessly harassed and beaten for being gay. After a complaint was filed with the Office of Civil Rights, the district adopted procedures to promote tolerance and respect "” none of which seems to have been of much comfort to Billy Wolfe.

It remains unclear why Billy became a target at age 12; schoolyard anthropology can be so nuanced. Maybe because he was so tall, or wore glasses then, or has a learning disability that affects his reading comprehension. Or maybe some kids were just bored. Or angry.

Whatever the reason, addressing the bullying of Billy has become a second job for his parents: Curt, a senior data analyst, and Penney, the owner of an office-supply company. They have binders of school records and police reports, along with photos documenting the bruises and black eyes. They are well known to school officials, perhaps even too well known, but they make no apologies for being vigilant. They also reject any suggestion that they should move out of the district because of this.

The many incidents seem to blur together into one protracted assault. When Billy attaches a bully's name to one beating, his mother corrects him. "That was Benny, sweetie," she says. "That was in the eighth grade."

It began years ago when a boy called the house and asked Billy if he wanted to buy a certain marital aid, heh-heh. Billy told his mother, who informed the boy's mother. The next day the boy showed Billy a list with the names of 20 boys who wanted to beat Billy up.

Ms. Wolfe says she and her husband knew it was coming. She says they tried to warn school officials "” and then bam: the prank caller beat up Billy in the bathroom of McNair Middle School.

Not long after, a boy on the school bus pummeled Billy, but somehow Billy was the one suspended, despite his pleas that the bus's security camera would prove his innocence. Days later, Ms. Wolfe recalls, the principal summoned her, presented a box of tissues, and played the bus video that clearly showed Billy was telling the truth.

Things got worse. At Woodland Junior High School, some boys in a wood shop class goaded a bigger boy into believing that Billy had been talking trash about his mother. Billy, busy building a miniature house, didn't see it coming: the boy hit him so hard in the left cheek that he briefly lost consciousness.

Ms. Wolfe remembers the family dentist sewing up the inside of Billy's cheek, and a school official refusing to call the police, saying it looked like Billy got what he deserved. Most of all, she remembers the sight of her son.

"He kept spitting blood out," she says, the memory strong enough still to break her voice.

By now Billy feared school. Sometimes he was doubled over with stress, asking his parents why. But it kept on coming.
 

bbaquiran

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Kids can be vicious.

Strangely, I can't recall any bullies from my childhood. I was never bullied (eventhough I was oftentimes one of the smallest, nerdiest guys in class), nor was I a bully.

When I have kids, I'll make sure to teach them how to defend themselves.
 

Thomas

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I caught holy hell when my family moved to a small town in the panhandle. We were 'them new folks' for two whole years. Got into a number of fights, some I won, most I lost. Eventually made a few friends and learned to defend myself, I got some respect for being able to handle myself, but the names/rumors/taunting never did stop. Shortly before leaving town I got into a fight with my best friend there, we fought in someone's front yard for a few minutes. He broke my nose. Less than a month later the nanoplex was in our rear view mirror and I never looked back. This was from grades 2-4, so I would have been 8 when I arrived, maybe 10 when I left.

I ran into the nose-breaker years later in college - we were both about 20 and had a class together. Didn't recognize him until he introduced himself. For a moment I was tempted to return the favor, but it wouldn't have been a fair fight. He was in better shape when he was 10.
 

GQgeek

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There were two japanese kids at my school that would beat up on a weaker japanese kid that wasn't really all there. They would hit him where he wouldn't show bruises. Eventually one of the university students that helped out at the school in exchange for room&board found out about it and he called them on it in the dining hall. The guy was a tough-as-nails rugby player and these two idiots pulled a knife on him. He asked them outside and dared them to try something. He was really pissed because he'd just found out they had been regularly beating this kid for months. They were expelled by morning.

I don't know why public schools tolerate that ****. There's nothing wrong with learning to deal with a little bullying, but sometimes it really goes too far. A kid that's probably done nothing wrong shouldn't have to worry about getting beaten up every time he gets on the bus to go to school. And then people wonder why kids shoot-up schools.
 

VKK3450

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Originally Posted by globetrotter
... Billy told his mother, who informed the boy's mother....

That's enough for an ass whuppin according to playground law.

No seriously, bullying has been around forever. I think that the attention is a combination of the whiny nanny state and the fact that kids are going to a new level of violence.

I might guess that in most cases the level of emotional damage is probably the same as was for kids years ago. Pyhsical damage is increasing.

K
 

samblau

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no no no, you have it all wrong...the bullies are expressing themselves and need to be coddled, their parents should turn their eyes from the situation but raise living hell if the school system even remotely infringes on their fundamental rights as parents by *gasp* discipling a "child" who committed assault...Billy should of course be taught how to share and share alike, refrain from violence, meekly go through life as a middle of the road nobody, be denied the psychiatric care he probobly needs as a child victim of assault and watch as pushier people achieve success...then we can all explain to our children why seemingly normal, hardworking and intelligent gun toting children are terorrizing our high schools, universities and shopping malls. I echo GQgeeks sentiment. The first time a kid pulls this nonsense slap a pair of cuffs on him and bring him in to the police station. If they do it again its time to talk about expultion or the bad-kids school...remember "Scarred Straight", maybe we should bring that back.
 

imageWIS

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I can't believe a school official didn't call the police. If I was the mother, I would have called the police. And then I would contact the media, and let them focus their sharp eye towards the school district and it's complete failing at the handling of the situation.

Jon.
 

imageWIS

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Originally Posted by B1FF
The equalizer.

Let's hope not. Honestly if the kid starts working out and bulking up at 15, by the time he is 18 he will be ripped and could take anyone on (plus hopefully he will look good enough for chicks to come on to him and if he gets some action, that will help his attitude as well). Also, with all his rage, he could channel it into putting enough time and energy to commit to constantly going to the gym.

Jon.
 

rdawson808

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Originally Posted by imageWIS
I can't believe a school official didn't call the police. If I was the mother, I would have called the police. And then I would contact the media, and let them focus their sharp eye towards the school district and it's complete failing at the handling of the situation.

Jon.


Ditto. If the school refused to call the police after the second time my kid got beat up at school, I'd do it. But before I called the media, I call a host of lawyers so they could line up for the hefty fees they will collect after I sue the school district.

That vice principal who said he "got what he deserved" would be out of a job. Then I'd want to track him down and give him an equally bad beating as my kid got.

I'd also move. Unfortunately you can't force the families of the bullies to move. But making a point at the expense of your child seems a bit extreme. Especially since it's this bad.

b
 

imageWIS

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Originally Posted by rdawson808
That vice principal who said he "got what he deserved" would be out of a job. Then I'd want to track him down and give him an equally bad beating as my kid got.

To really get revenge, the parents should destroy his credit; it's going to be years of pain for him to rebuild his credit. And if they want to be real pricks, they keep track of him over the years and when he rebuilds his credit, they destroy it again.

Who says we can't learn anything from the 37th president?

Jon.
 

Matt

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Ill never forget the weird satisfaction I felt when I was flipping through CVs at the PR agency I worked for in Melbourne and saw in the stack an application from a dude who used to slap me around in high school.

Evidently he was looking for a role to help him break out of baggage handling at Adelaide airport.

Karma is a better equaliser than most firearms.
 

Ambulance Chaser

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Originally Posted by imageWIS
Honestly if the kid starts working out and bulking up at 15, by the time he is 18 he will be ripped and could take anyone on (plus hopefully he will look good enough for chicks to come on to him and if he gets some action, that will help his attitude as well).
He's 15. Where is he going to find the time to work out enough to get big? Not to mention, he's probably of smaller stature and likely to have a body type that doesn't pack on mass easily.

I would enroll him in a martial arts class, probably BJJ. After he chokes somebody out, nobody is going to mess with him.
 

rdawson808

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Originally Posted by m@T
Karma is a better equaliser than most firearms.

I'd like to think so.

FWIW, I was never really picked on. But I went to school with some assholes, and I'd love to see how much their lives have never been any better than they thought they were in high school.

On the same note, anyone watching this reality show on A&E (in the US) called High School Reunion? My gawds.

b
 

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