Hi everyone!
I'm typing today's post while in my bed about something that happened yesterday and for many years. I have been a victim of bullying for as long as I can remember. I thought my peers were now mature enough to handle having a disabled person with an intellegence level equivalent (or higher in some cases) to their own. Yesterday my peers had to prove me wrong. In history we were having a debate on healthcare and our government providing it for us, so I spoke my mind (as usual in that class, history is my favorite subject) about how there should be government funded healthcare but they need to be stricter about who is on there and I mentioned that when I was in Elementary school, I couldn't get my powerchair because our insurance had been spending way too much on people who didn't actually need it (they said it was because I had a mobility scooter, which I couldn't use because my hands were getting worse) and these four girls (one of which I thought was nice and mature enough because she had known me since first grade) were sniggering at every word I said! Like we were back in Elementary school! So my aid told the teacher and is now taking care of it with our Dean of students. So then I got home and I was crying because I had pride in the maturity of these people and they completely let me down. And my mom said that was not considered bullying, only aggressiveness whether physical or verbal, is bullying. And I know more people out there feel that way but the dictionary definition of bully is: A quarrelsome individual who intimidates others. Which I also feel is untrue, to me and many others, bullying is simply people making you feel different and/or infererior, the worst bullying I ever endured was in the sixth grade. Our schools just merged, and all the Elementary kids were together for the first time and this girl I never spoke to before kept staring at me with like daggers in her eyes and just kept gossiping about me and being mean, I would come home everyday crying, because I was without any allies. One day it got really out of hand when I was in class and we were talking about bullying, I said I had been bullied before and I thought it was wrong to bully someone just because of their differences well the girl came over to my desk after class and called me a hypocrite and racist. That upset me enough to go to our guidance counsler who called in the other girl who said I started bullying her at the beginning of the year, and everytime she'd accuse me of something I hadn't done, Id say I don't believe in that, so we were in science and she sat behind me and she kept saying, "I don't believe in doing that, its beyond my beliefs" in a mocking tone. That girl never let up, until about a week before she moved, Freshman year. This girl just kept staring daggers at me throughout the hallways! People say "Sticks and Stones make break my bones but words will never hurt me" which through my experiences I know it's wrong. If somebody is making you feel inferior, you can talk to me.
"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent" ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Love you all!
Sarah
