Threat of physical harm, and, if it's gotten to that point - actual physical violence I found to be far and away the best way as a child.
I got bullied in elementary school - had a big head, wore tight pants, in general was a nerd. Thank the lord the administrators and bus drivers for my school were not completely inept morons (as shown in the documentary), so I almost never was physically harmed at school or on the bus. In fact, physical harm only happened ON THE SCHOOL GROUNDS 3 times to me. 3 week-long suspensions within the hour. For any educators reading - that's how you handle that, not some *beep* psyche session where you try to make yourself feel better.
Discussion will do absolutely nothing and to say "I didn't know" - that's on YOU, YOU have to be vigilant - the parents are leaving their kids WITH YOU. And I don't mean just the underpaid-ass teachers. I mean the administration more than anybody. That's their job - teachers have to teach.
Anyway, it did so happen that I sometimes got physically bullied outside of school, walking home. The school couldn't do much about that.
My grades were very high and my mother would always say "just try to get away, don't get in trouble by swinging on them - that makes you like them - you'll get suspended, etc." The same *beep* the parents on this documentary showed. Blaming the victim.
One day I came home from school bleeding because some kid smacked me with a stick a bunch of times walking home from school. My Mom said the same stuff... but my stepdad stayed silent, but looked aghast, in horror.
After I went to my room, my stepdad, openly distraught, slipped in discreetly, and said "if that kid ever hits you again, punch him as hard as you possibly can in the throat."
The next day, I'm walking home from school and this kid and a friend are there. He has a stick. I back off with my hands up saying "I don't want any problems, man", then as he approaches my face I give him the most forceful jab I can direct in the adam's apple. He collapsed to the ground, his friend ran. I said "leave me alone" and walked away, leaving him on the ground.
The next day at school teachers and administrators haul me in in the morning. They talk about what happened, and I mentioned the previous day's stick beating - showing cuts on my arm, from where he opened me up with that stick. They decide we both get in school suspension for the day and if they hear anything again we are both getting suspended.
I missed a test that day for ISS - got a zero - they called my mom, she was mad. Didn't matter, not just that bully, but NO bully in the school ever again bothered me after that incident.
The damage the bullying was doing to my self confidence... was much much much worse than the consequences. If my kid is ever bullied, I'll tell him to do the same, especially if the school administrators are a joke like in this movie.
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Hythlodaeus
10 years ago
Well, Phillip Johnson, it looks like you're brand spankin' new to IMDB (unless this is just a new account).
WELCOME!
Well, I hear what you're saying about getting picked on in school - bullying is not a word we used when I was a kid and picked on was bad enough.
But I tend to agree with you, I think I was a pretty smart kid and used humor often enough in my life - I think that nothing except physical aggression tended to work in elementary and junior high.
I still think sometimes other forms of resistance work, depending on the kid - but your stepdad told you what my dad did - that you have to defend yourself, and once people realize that they can't push you around it's over. Often it only takes one punch - ever.
However, unfortunately, there are abusive people all through life - they just develop more sophisticated ways to act childish. So learning how to stand up to people is an important skill to keep working on.
I work at a university where we do a lot of research on mental health, addiction, public health and sociology - (all really one subject) - and people need to be taught healthy ways to deal with all these issues, kids are really struggling and often the school and other authorities not only do not help but make it worse.
What hump?
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