Boy's backpack blamed for bullying

[Amanita]

I had a grade 9 teacher who was obsessed with group work, and thought that putting me into a group with boys I didn't get along with would just help us magically get along. It didn't. Those boys stonewalled every idea I came up with, when we were tossing around creative ideas for group projects. Not because my ideas were bad, but simply because they didn't like me, and thought it was fun to block my ideas just because they could, a pure power trip.
The teacher couldn't conceive of that happening, and told me to just accept it, because hey, Majority Rules. It was completely beyond his comprehension that these boys might be doing what they did because they enjoyed the power trip, and having what amounted to a teacher-sanctioned excuse to shut me down at every opportunity.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I got bullied cuz I was different. I had a bust at a time when the other girls in my year were still in vests, talked easily with boys, was clever and read books all the time. I was also told to conform in order that I should not be bullied. I refused to conform, and instead, ended up handing out physical smackdowns to the bullies after the teachers and headmaster did nothing to stop the bullying. I ended up being labeled a troublemaker, isolated from the rest of the class by having to do lessons in the deputy head's office (ironically, I actually prefered this) and eventually, my parents took me out of school and enrolled me in another.

You see, it doesn't really take anything specific like having a particular type of school bag to attract bullies. They don't really need a reason, they will pick on anything that they perceive as different. Perhaps the boy would have been bullied anyway, for being sensitive or not liking sports. What matters tho is how the head and teachers deal with the bullying. In my experience, I was told pretty much that it was my own fault for being different, and that I should "ignore it" or "walk away" if I was being picked on. Cuz the school basically did nothing, I was eventually forced to choose my own method to deal with the bullies, ie by beating them up. This was made easier for me cuz all the girls who picked on me were short, skinny girls. I on the other hand was tall, very overweight especially after developing compulsive eating disorder thru stress and had grown up with brothers, so therefore didn't fight like a girl. So once I started delivering smackdowns, the bullies left me alone.

The thing is, it shouldn't have gone that far. Headteachers have a responsibility to their pupils to not victimblame and to punish the bullies. Why should the victim have to be the one who leaves the school? Why should the victim be forced to feel that they are somehow to blame for what's happening, or be made to conform as if that would somehow stop it? It's the attitude that's wrong.

[Rageaholic]

I had a grade 9 teacher who was obsessed with group work, and thought that putting me into a group with boys I didn't get along with would just help us magically get along. It didn't. Those boys stonewalled every idea I came up with, when we were tossing around creative ideas for group projects. Not because my ideas were bad, but simply because they didn't like me, and thought it was fun to block my ideas just because they could, a pure power trip.
The teacher couldn't conceive of that happening, and told me to just accept it, because hey, Majority Rules. It was completely beyond his comprehension that these boys might be doing what they did because they enjoyed the power trip, and having what amounted to a teacher-sanctioned excuse to shut me down at every opportunity.

Sounds like typical teacher bullshit. Failing to listen to their students (or parents of students) because doing so would force them to admit that their godly wisdom is wrong. So instead of admitting that they are fallible humans, they shift the blame to the students.

You can tell I had experience with this.

On a more funny note, on one of those free days, we did some kind of a jeopardy game with groups. I had the answer, but the teacher insisted that we agree as part of a group. My group brushed me off and went with their own answer, which was wrong. Since some of those students were the ones giving me a hard time, it was satisfying to see them get a little humiliation for ignoring me (even if it was just a silly game).

[Andara Bledin]

Come on, is anyone really surprised that a boy with a MLP bookbag got bullied? It's the equivalent of putting a kick me sign on his own back. Of course he was going to get bullied for it.

This sentiment right here is everything that is wrong with the US (and schools just about everywhere) right now.

This tribalistic othering bullshit has got to stop.

Good for him and his mother for standing up for the right to not be another cookie-cutter wannabe cool kid and to be different without fear of harassment over it.

I was the target of bullying in school. In grade school it was petty shit like trying to trip me (I have ridiculously good balance, so that stopped for being pointless), stealing my pencils, or other bullshit, with a coup de grace being having egg something poured over my head at the end of day on the last day of school. In high school, it got physical once, when someone threw a shoe and hit the back of my head. Apparently, I looked so ready to kick the shit out of whoever did it that nobody was willing to touch me again for fear of facing my (unknown to them, nonexistent) wrath.

[Rageaholic]

In 5th grade, one of the douchebags threatened to poke me with a needle. I don't remember exactly what I said to him, but he backed off.