Bullies Be Damned

There was an interesting article in our rag yesterday about bullies.  The lengthy article talked about how kids face a different breed of bully today.  It's not the stereotypical bullies who take your lunch money, but the bullies who call other kids names, tease them about their appearance or exclude them from social groups.  The experts say that the emotional abuse is far worse than any type of tangible abuse, such as getting beat up on the school bus or having to fork over your lunch money so you don't get beat up on the school bus.  The article went on to say that the kids getting bullied get so fed up with their situation, and feel so deparate that it often causes them to hurt themselves or others.  Bullying has always gone on, but the issue is receiving more attention because of the many school shootings in recent years.  The shooters in these incidents turned to violence after years of being ostricized and teased.  Other students have instead resorted to suicide. I was bullied only once during my school years.  The day that I stood up to Angela Darnell will live in infamy at Conway Middle School. 

I was in the 6th grade, and the school bully Angela Darnell was unfortunately in most of my classes that year.  She had bright read hair and freckles, and she was mean.  It's odd how today, I think red hair is one the most attractive features a person could have - I love read hair.  Back to the story.  Angela Darnell bullied everybody - girls, boys, it made no difference.  She was always pulling pranks on people - I remember how she gave some ExLax to a group of unsuspecting kids one afternoon in the lunchroom, and my gullable schoolmates thought it was harmless chocolate. I was not on the receiving end of this prank, thank goodness, but I saw my little friends spend all afternoon in the bathrooms and it hacked me off that she got away with it. 

Angela picked on the other kids mercilessly, but the day that she somehow broke into my locker and stole my faux denim and red bandanna Trapper Keeper was the day she stepped over the line.  I knew she had it because I saw it in the bottom of her locker one day when I was passing by. I knew she had to be stopped.  A day or two later, our class was lined up in the hallway, getting ready to go to the gym for a pep rally or meeting or something.  As my luck would have it, I was behind Angela Darnell in the line.  She stood there, and started swinging her arms back, like she was doing some Pilates exercise.  And in doing so, she hit me a couple of times.  I'd taken all I could take, so I calmly told her "if you do that one more time I'm going to hit you."  Well, she did it one more time, and true to my word, I hit her.  Laid her right out in the middle of the floor, I did.  You could have heard a pin drop as all of my classmates looked at her on the floor, mouths gaped open in awe.  Then the silence was broken as they all cheered for me.  The teacher, Miss Russell, had witnessed the whole event, and knew I was acting in self defense.  She walked over and put her hands on her hips, and said "Angela, are you going to go with us to the gym or are you going to stay there in the floor the rest of the day?"  Never again did I, nor any of my classmates, have any more trouble out of Angela Darnell.