I am reading Jodee Blanco’s book “Please Stop Laughing At Me.” The book starts with an introduction, describing the moment the author attended her high school reunion. It cuts off before she is about to go in, rewinding to her first day of high school. Jodee had been bullied in junior high as well, but she hoped that high school would be different. She anticipated that high school would be different, and vowed that she would do whatever it takes to fit in- wearing designer jeans that cut off her circulation, getting in trouble, and joining clubs that she is not interested in. Jodee’s first day of school does not go as she anticipated. On the bus ride to school she sits in the “loser’s seat”, right next to the driver, and is informed by her classmates that she “sucks” after her teacher prides her for her work on last year’s speech. One triumph is that she befriends an overweight girl and makes plans with her for the weekend to go shopping for makeup, in hopes to fit in.
http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/social-emotional-skills/bullying-and-teasing-no-laughing-matter
Scholastic wrote an article discussing the effects and warning signs of bullying. A shocking percentage of 20%-30% of children are bullied in their school years. These teasing terrors can start as early as 1st grade, continuing on to middle school, and it is likely to worsen in high school, which was Jodee Blanco’s case. Victims of bullying are often shy and physically weaker than their peers. In Jodee’s case, she was not particularly shy, but she was not able to stand up for herself so far. She stated that she was not athletic, which also correlates as her school was full of “jocks”. Bullies are often affected in adulthood as well, not being able to form positive relationships and abusing substances. This statistic will be proven or disproven at the end of the book, when Jodee attends her high school reunion.
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2095385_2095422_2095872,00.html
TIME Magazine featured a unique article that really stood out to me. The author decided to face his high school bully yet again after 25 years. He wrote his bully a letter, asking to meet up. He discovered that his bully was writing back from a jail cell for first degree murder of a gay man. This is interesting because the author of the article is gay. When he confronted his bully for torturing him, the man apologized. He made it clear that the crimes against the author were not personal- he was just a convenient victim. This proves the fact that often, bullies have personal problems that they release on their victims.