day twenty one - hit
In Year 11, I started at a new school after having done 2 years of home school, and year 10 through TAFE. I was really hopeful that by going back to a more ‘normal’ school, it’d be all right, and that I’d be able to make it through.
For some reason, perhaps as a precursor to this year of the kilt, I decided that I’d feel more comfortable if I wore the winter pants all year long (largely due to the very short short nature of the boys summer uniform). Whilst I knew that on some level it would single me out as different, already knowing I was different allowed me to justify the decision. I didn’t know however, that I was putting a target on my back.
The first weeks were very much a period of adjustment, (and there were rumours going around about the pants - covering burns, shaved for cycling etc.) but I gradually found my people, many of whom are still my close friends, and tried to settle into this new normal. So far so good.
It was towards the end of the first term, that the school held a dance. I’d never been to one before, and was really quite excited about it (not the dancing part - I move like I’ve two left feet stuck in oobleck).
Everything was going swimmingly until I felt a powerful blow to the back of my head. I was knocked to the ground and realised that I’d been coward punched (or king hit as it was known back then). The perpetrator, who I’ll not name, was a jock from the year below. He was standing over me with his friends, laughing.
I never found out exactly why he did it, but he and his friends would bully and harass me over the next year and a half, taunting me, calling me gay, throwing their half eaten lunch at me, letting down my bike tyres and more. The effect of that incident remained with me the entire time I was at the school. That one punch took away my confidence, self-esteem (which was already pretty low), and any sense of safety I felt there.
The biggest letdown for both of us however was the school system which effectively did nothing. He received virtually no punishment, went onto become sports captain, and continued to be a tacitly school-sanctioned bully - No chance for him to learn a lesson.
In my more compassionate times, I can almost feel empathy for him, as he must have been in a pretty bad place to feel he needed to do something like that, and he never really got the chance to learn from his actions.
Now decades later, there is a lot more school policy and legislation to protect students. Conversely, there is the potential for 24/7 bullying through social media. The impacts of bullying are massively detrimental to mental health causing low self esteem, depression, anxiety and even suicide.
From teachers, parents, peers, bullies and victims, we all need to play our part in stopping bullying and violence, in all parts of society.
(At least I never had to wear those wretched short shorts.)
Kilt of the Day - Black Watch
Link of the day - Bullying. No Way!
Soundtrack of the day - Royal Teens - Short Shorts
