Further to all the bullying stuff….
Yes, I did stand up to bullies and I continue to do so – my current father-in-law is one…and I’m the only person who will tell him that and stand my ground.

Erm, yes…some people are scared of me.

At school we had the usual band of bullies; one girl in particular used to gather her cronies – all of whom were fairly innocuous alone but put together the weight of hairspray and orange foundation was overwhelming. They always hunted in a pack and picked upon the weakest in the class.

First of all it was mad Maria – I’ve mentioned her before, she had a really screwed up home life, she boarded and when she came home with me for a weekend she insisted on playing Monopoly until 4 in the morning. They hounded her and she moved classes.

Then they started on Clare – she was one of the most inoffensive people you could ever meet; quiet, friendly, gentle, but ginger. She didn’t last long either, moved classes too.

Next on the list was me. Being the resident bookworm I happened to have a large vocabulary, unfortunately a supply teacher decided to capitalise on this and spent an entire lesson asking for word definitions – being only 13 at the time I was too stupid to realise that answering the questions would make me a target – oh, and my natural tendency to show off didn’t help.

Soon drawings of me as the Walking Dictionary appeared on the blackboard, unpleasant remarks were made, my books disappeared, during prep I would have ink splashed on my work…All jolly good fun stuff. PE lessons always saw me picked last, the usual stuff….all intended to demoralise. The punches during French lessons were not pleasant, particularly as I refused to return them.

Eventually I spoke to my parents about all of this. They asked me how I wanted it dealt with – by them or by tackling myself. I decided to make an appointment with the headteacher, Sr. Mary – yes I was also irritatingly mature, another reason for their dislike of me, and despite being only 13 I could pass easily as 18 – the bullies couldn’t.

So I ratted on the bullies, named names and pointed out that it had been the reason for Maria and Clare’s departure, and that I for one was no longer willing to stand for it…when I think now just how obnoxious I must have been…..Well, it did the trick – the school looked into it and the ringleader was politely asked to leave.

All the bullying stopped.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 25 Jan 2007, 11:11, Reply)