It all started nineteen years ago. I had a prenatal stroke, which caused severe weakness on my right side, difficulty speaking, and many other challenges. Fast forward nine years, when the bullying started. I was in fourth grade, when two girls started making fun of my physical weaknesses, let’s call these girls Diane and Brady.
“At “wecess” let’s play hopscotch”, I would say to a friend. Diane would mock me and say “wecess” over and over. Brady and Diane would laugh and repeat words that I had trouble saying. “Hey Amanda, why do you walk like that?” asked Diane or Brady. Then they would drag their right foot and laugh at me.
“Why is your arm bent Amanda, why is your hand in a fist?’ The girls would ask, and then they would bend their arm and copy me.
Conversations like this happened in class and at recess and other school activities, like field trips. Even when we would have computer class they would type one handed like me and smirk.
It happened pretty much every day my fourth-grade year. I felt embarrassed, and I felt shy and insecure. I wouldn’t tell my mom much, because I knew she would go to my teacher, then they would get in trouble, and that would make it worse.
Even eight years later, I had a hard time being around Brady. She was in one of my classes in High School and the first day, I saw her and just had flashbacks to what she had done to me in fourth grade. I was even going to transfer classes because it was so hard to be close to her, but then she switched classes for some reasons. On the other hand, Diane mumbled something about “being sorry for what she had done”, and after that, we would say hi sometimes or smile at each other in the halls.
Are elementary schools doing enough to recognize and prevent bullying? PACERS offers great activities and lesson plans talking about bullying. I wish my teacher in fourth-grade would have used these tools and sources to teach the class about bullying. To this day, I’m still really self-conscious of people looking at me. I have a challenging time doing presentations in front of the class because of my speech and posture, even though years of speech/physical therapy have really helped. I am also really anxious when I’m in public settings.
This is why I take online college classes.
Sources: PACERS. "Addressing Bullying in Schools." National Bullying Prevention Center. PACERS, 2016. Web. 21 Jan. 2017.
“At “wecess” let’s play hopscotch”, I would say to a friend. Diane would mock me and say “wecess” over and over. Brady and Diane would laugh and repeat words that I had trouble saying. “Hey Amanda, why do you walk like that?” asked Diane or Brady. Then they would drag their right foot and laugh at me.
“Why is your arm bent Amanda, why is your hand in a fist?’ The girls would ask, and then they would bend their arm and copy me.
Conversations like this happened in class and at recess and other school activities, like field trips. Even when we would have computer class they would type one handed like me and smirk.
It happened pretty much every day my fourth-grade year. I felt embarrassed, and I felt shy and insecure. I wouldn’t tell my mom much, because I knew she would go to my teacher, then they would get in trouble, and that would make it worse.
Even eight years later, I had a hard time being around Brady. She was in one of my classes in High School and the first day, I saw her and just had flashbacks to what she had done to me in fourth grade. I was even going to transfer classes because it was so hard to be close to her, but then she switched classes for some reasons. On the other hand, Diane mumbled something about “being sorry for what she had done”, and after that, we would say hi sometimes or smile at each other in the halls.
Are elementary schools doing enough to recognize and prevent bullying? PACERS offers great activities and lesson plans talking about bullying. I wish my teacher in fourth-grade would have used these tools and sources to teach the class about bullying. To this day, I’m still really self-conscious of people looking at me. I have a challenging time doing presentations in front of the class because of my speech and posture, even though years of speech/physical therapy have really helped. I am also really anxious when I’m in public settings.
This is why I take online college classes.
Sources: PACERS. "Addressing Bullying in Schools." National Bullying Prevention Center. PACERS, 2016. Web. 21 Jan. 2017.