From what older people say, movies.etc it seems that bullying was much more prevalent and severe in the 1980s and before than today. I was a nerd in high school but never really got bullied. It is probably because of the zero tolerance policy, but do you think bullying was a much worse problem when you were growing up?

I don't really think it has alot to do with the decade as much as the age group... I think most people who were bullied had the most trouble between 6th-8th grade - by high school most kids try a little harder to act mature.  If the "older people" you are referring to, would have been in 6th-8th grade in the 80's, that is probably why they say it was worse then.

I don't know if bullying is more frequent now or not, but I would say it is "worse" now... when I was in middle school I got called names (people made fun of my NY accent) but people would mimic me sometimes but nobody ever threatened to kill me, brought guns to school, etc...

I know a guy (not personally) who is about 40 now, but he told us of how he was bullied while growing up in the western suburbs of Sydney in the 1970s. He said that once a group of bullies stuffed him in a garbage bin, set it alight (with all the trash in it) and put the lid on - needless to say this would have been very serious. Also in the 1970s in Australia teenage gangs would pick on weaker kids and attack them with knives, bicycle chains, spanners.etc so I think there was alot more serious violence among kids. I mean, you rarely see big streetfights these days. I'm not talking about the odd school shooting, but since the police weren't as tough on crime as they are now, this sort of thing was more widespread.

It wasn't like that where I was.. but you're right, that is pretty bad...  Most of the kids I went to school with were really cool... there were just a couple who had nothing better to do than make fun of others..  one of them was really super pretty, a cheerleader, etc... but it's funny because I saw her once about 3 or 4 years ago and her face was all sucked in, hair was all ratty... she looked like she's had serious drug problems...  so what comes around goes around... in one way or another...

The "zero tolerance" policies on bullying only started when bullied youths began shooting up schools instead of just suffering through it.

Once again, America sends the wrong message.  For generations bullying was viewed as a natural part of growing up.  The implicit doctrine of social darwinism suggested bullying was OK, and perhaps the righteous order of things.

I was a pale, frail, sickly kid with Coke-bottle glasses, poor coordination, and a withdrawn demeanor.  I got bullied without mercy.  I lived through daily jeers and weekly roughings-up until my sophomore year of HS.  Then it turned to social ostracism, and I turned to Goth.  It wasn't called Goth just yet.  I was Goth before Goth was cool (I was Goth when Goth wasn't cool!).

I had abandoned any wish to fit in starting in the 8th grade.  I no longer carried the assumption I needed to follow adolescent ritual.  I decided I had to be in school because the state said I had to be in school until I got the piece of paper that said I didn't have to be in school anymore.  I never bothered with dances, with sports, with class rings, with proms.  I didn't need that crap.  I didn't even attend my graduation ceremony.  I've never regretted it.

Others in the persecuted minority went to the prom, for instance, saying they wanted to prove they "could go."  I scorned them.  "You have nothing to prove to these suburban nincompoops," I chided.

Anyway, in the late 1990s, we had first wave of "school shootings" punctuated by the Columbine High massacre.  Only then did the popular culture take seriously the consequences of bullying.  That's right, America sends the wrong message yet again.  I thought, "What do you have to do to get taken seriously, kill a whole bunch of people?"  Apparently so.

The bullying topic is popular on this site.  I always say, the only difference between me and the Columbine kids was I never had a gun and I never wanted to hurt anyone.

I was the perfect age for the classic '80s John Hughes movies when they came out.  I was not a Duckie ("Pretty In Pink").  There were Duckie types in my HS, I was more of a cross between John Bender and a male version Ally Sheedy's Allison Reynolds character ("The Breakfast Club"), yes, that is as bizarre as it sounds.

I once scolded a former member of inthe00s for saying of Duckie, "a team sport would have helped him."  It is the "team sports" jocks who make life hell for the interesting and creative souls who populate American high schools.  They don't need sports.  They need to graduate HS and get the fork out of there!

I can't remember who said it, but it bears repeating, "Show me a fellow who enjoyed his school days, and I'll show you a bully and a bore."
:P ::)

When I went to school in the 80's, when I was in grade 11 there was this guy who had overly sized ears and he used to be called dumbo and big ears, stuff like that. One day it got really bad and this gang of kids held him down and cut away at his ears with sissors!! They were expelled, handed over to authorities and no-one knows what happened next. But the kid who had his ears cut, had to get surgery and he wore bandages around his head for the rest of his school. I never saw much of after that but he moved in to the same area where I live I met up with him. This was a while ago and his ears look bad and he's always covering them up with hats and beanies. He is seriously thinking about plastic surgery to make his ears look natural and I wouldn't blame him. It's horrible tat kids culd do that to other people.
That was about the worst for of bullying I witnessed during school. I heard of kids getting stabbed with pocket knifes. I heard about someone from another school and a gang of kids got their older brothers to drive the kid out to the highway, take his clothes and hang him from a tree naked so all the cars going past could she him because it was rumoured that he had a very small penis (don't know if that was true or not) and they drove him miles and miles away from where he lived and he had to walk home. They stole his phone, his money so he couldn't contact his parents. He had to walk home naked!
Bullying was pretty bad back when I went to school.

When I went to school in the 80's, when I was in grade 11 there was this guy who had overly sized ears and he used to be called dumbo and big ears, stuff like that. One day it got really bad and this gang of kids held him down and cut away at his ears with sissors!! They were expelled, handed over to authorities and no-one knows what happened next. But the kid who had his ears cut, had to get surgery and he wore bandages around his head for the rest of his school. I never saw much of after that but he moved in to the same area where I live I met up with him. This was a while ago and his ears look bad and he's always covering them up with hats and beanies. He is seriously thinking about plastic surgery to make his ears look natural and I wouldn't blame him. It's horrible tat kids culd do that to other people.
That was about the worst for of bullying I witnessed during school. I heard of kids getting stabbed with pocket knifes. I heard about someone from another school and a gang of kids got their older brothers to drive the kid out to the highway, take his clothes and hang him from a tree naked so all the cars going past could she him because it was rumoured that he had a very small penis (don't know if that was true or not) and they drove him miles and miles away from where he lived and he had to walk home. They stole his phone, his money so he couldn't contact his parents. He had to walk home naked!
Bullying was pretty bad back when I went to school.

:o :o :o :o :o
OMG!!!  That is a grisly and horrifying story.  Either one of those anectdotes could serve as an introduction to a Carrie or I Spit on Your Grave type of revenge slasher flick!
Where did you go to school?  Sodom and Gomorrah Regional?  The image of the kid getting his ears cut up has unfortunate staying power!
:P

I was the perfect age for the classic '80s John Hughes movies when they came out.  I was not a Duckie ("Pretty In Pink").  There were Duckie types in my HS, I was more of a cross between John Bender and a male version Ally Sheedy's Allison Reynolds character ("The Breakfast Club"), yes, that is as bizarre as it sounds.

so was i! we could have been friends if we went to the same school...i know my school suffered with a major bullying problem. my bully (that i mentioned in a previous topic) was a busy young man, tormenting others. unlike those unfortunate others, he never tried hurting me physically, being over 6 feet tall and 250 pounds means i went about the hallways without a black eye...but mental torture left it's scars that still exist.

my son is in pre-school and i'm glad he's getting along with the other children. he's a big kid, like i was and i hope he has a level headed temperment and the courage to stand up for himself and others whenever a bully is around, unlike me. i was a coward.

hey man...i understand all of this..even though i never got bullied or bully anyone...i just watch...and try to think to do something about it...cause i know at that school in minnesota...somewhere in the news report they say that kid got teased in school...and the FBI saying thye looking for a motive...DUH! THAT IS THE MOTIVE....only solution i can think of is we all be nice...is that called something where everyone is nice?

Bullying was even much worse back when I was growing up & going to High School between 1988-1992.I had the crap kicked out of me and never stood up for myself.It was a problem for me & I never had done a darn thing about it. :(

Unfortunatly, I had to deal with bullies as well. I think it's lot more worser now, even with zero tollerance now in effect.

just got be nice man...maybe we can stop it just be kind...help one another...love one another

I was made fun of a lot from elementary school on up. In primary I was made fun of because I had curly hair and glasses, and because my last name is McDonald (I don't know how many times some dumb@ss little twat thought he was the first person to ask me for a burger and fries). I was called gay and f@ggot for not being an alpha-male and for sucking at sports. That was just primary and middle.

In high school I was my own worst critic, but I still got the shhh from others. Got called f@ggot by some jock creeps because I was dorky and I was in TV/Film production and I wrote for the school paper and I didn't have girlfriends. Later on, like around Junior year, I got more respect for being smart. My school was so big that a small, tight-knit cirlce of friends was just as good as being "popular" so I got along fine after that... although I still was the butt of a few jokes, my increasing sense of authenticity and cleverness allowed me to hold my own.

I played varsity soccer junior year and it almost snapped me into some sort of paranoid nervosa. The pressure not to make mistakes for fear of catching shhh from the guys was crushing and usually caused me to make more mistakes. Nevertheless, I forced myself to go to every practice and every game and I got fierce nervous stomach aches before each practice (and this was every schoolday for about four months). I was usually quiet, kept mostly to myself or talked to the German kid in German or the Irish kid in Irish (the little I knew), and listened to weird music that most people didn't like... thus, I was called gay (for those of you who don't know, if you don't fit in these days for whatever reason, you're automatically "gay"). If it hadn't been for the fact that one of my best friends was also on the team, I wouldn't have made it... I had to talk myself out of quitting every day. In the end, I broke my nose in practice and won "Most Dedicated." It meant shhh to me, I just wanted soccer to be over.

I didn't go to either prom event, I went to only one homecoming dance. I moved out of state in my last couple of months of high school in a fit of consuming depression which only got worse, and thus I missed graduation with my friends. I graduated with a bunch of strangers here in Texas.

So that's that. No physical bullying, only verbal and emotional abuse at the hands of my fellow students for a straight 10 or 11 years.

Has anyone ever had to deal with those overweight 300 pound bullies before?

Had you heard of Miss Crunk?  I do secretly have a crush on her, but when you put her wit some pimp squeaks who dosen't have to many friends, she starts to bust loose.  :D  She looks a lot like Howard, but considered being to the fact as the girl version of him.  What should I do?

I never had, like, bullying in the sense of "beat you up" or "steal your stuff", but more of an "put-downs, insults" sort of thing.

But this one time, I got tripped when I was a young boy. I fell face-first onto concrete and REALLY screwed up my face. I was bleeding and my nose was like.. whoa. And everyone saw who did it. Guess what response I got?

"Well, if it happens again, you let us know."

EXCUSE ME? I was freaking Bleeding out of everything but my eyes. And anything they say that, even if it happens again, NOTHING HAPPENS. They don't enforce sheesh.

Had you heard of Miss Crunk?  I do secretly have a crush on her, but when you put her wit some pimp squeaks who dosen't have to many friends, she starts to bust loose.  :D   She looks a lot like Howard, but considered being to the fact as the girl version of him.  What should I do?



I don't know. ;D

bullying had started way back in High School with My Brother and I.We were always the weaker links that were always being picked on.Both of us couldn't even defend ourselves.There was no reason to fight. :(

I don't really think it has alot to do with the decade as much as the age group... I think most people who were bullied had the most trouble between 6th-8th grade - by high school most kids try a little harder to act mature.  If the "older people" you are referring to, would have been in 6th-8th grade in the 80's, that is probably why they say it was worse then.

I don't know if bullying is more frequent now or not, but I would say it is "worse" now... when I was in middle school I got called names (people made fun of my NY accent) but people would mimic me sometimes but nobody ever threatened to kill me, brought guns to school, etc...


Sadly, I don't think bullies are the ones who feel they need guns...
I think there are new laws that help prevent bullying, though.  Too bad they don't prevent gun purchasing by a minor...

Back on Topic:

I had a few bullies myself.  Like the rest of humanity, I had weird hair and glasses in Junior high school, and in elementary, I guess they thought of me as a pansy.  One time in the 5th grade, I was in the shed, and this 6th grader(who looked older and more disgusting)tossed a basketball at my head and it made me hit a wall, so I got hit on both sides.  In Junior high, it was more of the same, though I didn't get beat up or anything.  I was pushed onto a locker though by some typical fat footballer.  In high school though, it was tamer.  I was only called names as a sophomore, but in my junior year it got a bit better.

Any of you hear a long time ago that Eminem sued his school bully?

anybody had girls as their bullies who always teased and pushed you around? :(

In elementary school I was a smart quiet kid who unfortunately had to wear often out of style second hand clothes. Eventually I became the victim of some nasty verbal abuse. I put on a brave face and didn't react to it until in 4th gradeI some girls cornered me in the bathroom. They wanted to beat me up because they thought I was "too ugly" to be walking around the school. I must say, one of the girls got a couple of licks on me but I ended up  pushing her face down on a hot radiator and choking the crap out her friend who tried to intervene.
After that I decided in my twisted little mind that violence was my only solution, I started beating up everyone who crossed paths with me. I spent a whole lot of time in detention but I never got seriously penalized for the fact that I was a straight A student and involved in a lot of school activities.

just got be nice man...maybe we can stop it just be kind...help one another...love one another

Or else, punk!

anybody had girls as their bullies who always teased and pushed you around? :(

Nope, they're called "wives."  I was offered, but no thank you, ma'am.