My friends and I, when we first came to this school, the bullying started like really early in the school year.  Mostly, I like school.  I like to read and I kind of even like homework because it gives you something to do.  But when I was being bullied my parents would notice that I was sad.  I wasn’t like depressed, but I wasn’t my normal self.  Usually I’m like hyper and all energetic and everything and they would notice that I would be home from school, not saying anything, just going to my room and just sitting there.  It was race.  The ones who were bullying us would be racist to us because we have a different skin color or we speak a different language than them.  Or they would just do it because they thought it was funny.  Finally my parents kind of asked “Is everything ok?”  Well no.   It wasn’t.  I had to tell them but I was scared to tell someone because I thought that it would get worse.  But my mom called Mr. Daniels and we talked to him and he helped a lot. He talked to the kids and he took action, some kids got expelled and some got suspended.  Now that those kids are gone its kind of like bullying isn’t fun anymore, its not cool, you know.  And now my friends and I have actually become closer because we’ve stood up to it and we’ve become stronger.  We just hold our heads high now and know how to handle it.

Basically my friends mean the world to me, and if I see someone picking on them it really ticks me off and makes me want to do something to stop it.  One time, walking back to our lockers from lunch, I looked up and one of my friends got pushed by a couple of guys into a locker and she hit her eye.  I was with a couple of my friends, but I don’t know if they saw it.  When I saw it, I was kind of scared and thinking “Well, what if he did something to me?  What if he pushed me and hurt me too?”  I was hesitant and I didn’t really know what to do.  So I just kind of thought “Well, should I go over there and help her, or should I just stay here and pretend like it didn’t happen?”  I couldn’t do that because then I would feel guilty and it would be picking at me for the rest of the day.  I know how it feels to be bullied, I know how it feels to be pushed into lockers and you know, it doesn’t feel good.  And then I saw the look on her face.  She looked scared, she didn’t really look very happy and that made me feel really bad and like made me want to help her.  So I just decided I might as well go over there and help her ‘cause I know how it feels.

But I was definitely very angry.  I was really upset and I really wanted to punch him out and, you know, just get him back for what he did.  But I knew retaliation isn’t a very good thing because I can get into trouble for it just as much as those people got in trouble for pushing us and bullying us, so I just kind of calmed myself down.  I thought it through and decided “What would be the point of pushing him back when I can get in trouble for it.  Why don’t you just talk to someone about it and make sure he doesn’t do it again?”

            So, I went over to her and I’m like “Are you ok?” and then I turned to the guys and was like “What was that for? Why did you push her?”  And they kind of started picking on me, they just started calling me names and yelling.  They started calling me gay or something because I was sticking up for another girl.  It just doesn’t make sense, it’s retarded, I think, that they would start picking on me too.  Then they said “Oh, we’re going to push you.”  They were just being really rude and disrespectful.  I just didn’t really know what to do.  I talked to the girl and said “Well, do you want to talk to Mr. Daniels about it?”  Because he was the one we would talk to.  He was the assistant principal, and we couldn’t really talk to the principal because he didn’t really do anything.  So we just went to Mr. Daniels and talked to him about it and he took the names and talked to those people and whatever happened, happened.  I think they got suspended or something.

            I really felt kind of bad to know that this was happening to my friend.  Like, why does it have to happen to us?  I mean, I don’t want it to happen to anyone else, but why does it have to happen to us?  Why did they choose us?  I guess I was thinking basically anything a teenage person would think when they’re getting bullied.  I don’t really think its fair how some people get bullied and the bullies think its fun.  Some people are different, and I think being different is ok and we should be happy about it and not bully because of it.  I just think bullies need to learn more respect, and need to get over themselves basically.

And the teachers didn’t really do anything.  I know they see it happening, but they don’t really say stop, so we kind of have to step in and try to help whoever’s getting bullied.  Sometimes I think that some of the teachers don’t really care.  Most of them do, but sometimes they just don’t really notice that it’s a bullying thing.  Like sometimes people just play around with their friends and it may look like its just play-fighting, but it could be bullying.  I think they need to realize it might be bullying and that they should take charge and say something and make it stop.

            As for what I did, some people would say it was respectful to the person who was being bullied and some people would wonder why I did that or think that it’s just rude to the other people.  Some people think it’s a good thing, some people think it’s a bad thing that you want to stick up for people.  I don’t know, I would probably say it’s a good thing because if it kept going on, she would have probably got more hurt and nothing would happen, no one would notice it.  But when I noticed it, I kind of thought, “Well, maybe I should do something about it” so I did.