Grade School Bullies

[JimmyZip]

I was bullied at an early age. In our neighborhood I was jumped and beaten by the other kids when I was four years old. This in turn made me a bully when I reached public school in the Third grade. This issue was rectified by a short nice kid named Chris whose parents thought it good to have their small boy learn Karate should he ever come in contact with a bully.

It was the quickest lesson I have ever learned and I later became friends with him hunting rabbits and coyotes in the dunes around here through Junior High and High school.

While I have been in fights since then, I have never provoked another person since.

We have since grown apart and I still think of him and wonder how he is doing.

Here's to Chris Carlson for teaching me a life lesson that I will carry to the grave and which made me a better person INSTANTLY!

[Johann the Horrible]

I spent 20 years as a cop. Now I never even visited the US but I think certain truths are universal. I was never bullied as I was always rather large for my age(still am). Once I got into a fight because one of my classmates got beaten up by a bully in a senior grade. I learned a few very good lessons that day. Firstly, though I am a easygoing person I could not control myself if sorely provoked. Secondly, if you hit a person in the throat he goes to hospital and the paramedics has to cut a hole in his throat just to let him breathe.Even in the seventies that was not a good thing to see in a school playground. Thirdly, if you seriously injure a person it does not matter who started the fight the police will take you in, even if you are 13. Even though my dad is a quiet and unassuming person he could still keep me out of the justice system. Lastly, it would have been kinder on my behind if I stuck to the justice system, my dad has a rather firm right arm. I sat with great discomfort for about a week after the "discussion". My dad had to carry the medical expenses for the kid and I got moved to another school as my old school would not have me back. I never set out to seriously injure the bully, I just let rip at his face and missed.

Please, if a bully is left unpunished you are tarring his road to the gallows. You are kind to him when you report the matter to the authorities. If the school refuse to act against a bully, report the matter to the police. They work with bullies all day long and know exactly how to deal with the matter. If you allow yourself to be bullied by the school you are teaching your kid a defeatist attitude. It is never a good thing to take the law into your own hands, you only end up in trouble. If bullies are left to their own devices they will either end up in jail or in the morgue. The only problem with that is that it might be your kid that puts them in the morgue.