

Highschool Reunion, Bulllies and Being a Nerdy Kid in the 70's and Early 80's - AlexeyBrin
http://jacquesmattheij.com/highschool-reunion

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kstenerud
I got in sooo much trouble in school for standing up to bullies. It was
totally bizarre. NONE of the teachers understood basic bully psychology, and
so when I hit back (after which the bully predictably left me alone for good),
_I_ was suddenly the bad guy. My first suspension was in kindergarten, and it
solidified my disdain for most (but not all) teachers.

That's really what ruined school for me, and set me on an independent path.
Actually, now that I think about it, that's probably for the best. I do my own
thing no matter how nerdy and I don't take shit from anyone. Plus, learning to
box was a big help.

~~~
hga
Perhaps it was a different time, the '70s, perhaps a different location, very
Red State and culturally part of the South extreme SW Missouri, but the
teachers and administrators understood discipline and bullies. With one
exception there were no repercussions when I fought back against bullies, who
did indeed leave me alone for good afterwords, perhaps even becoming a bit
friendly.

Once we were both sent to the principle's office and told to cut it out, that
was a low level thing but in class (shoving a table in art class). And once in
my senior year in high school I came close to possibly putting an assailant
into the hospital, I was armed with a dog choker chain, but he ran away into a
unoccupied part of the building guarded by a teacher.

He whined about my having that choker as I simply put it into my pocket in
front of at least one teacher and 10s of students, and I was later told _sub
rosa_ that as far as the school administration was concerned, I could have
beaten him up without repercussions.

Had a lot to do with who he was, who I was and how I'd _never_ caused any
problems in the high school. And again, the local culture, this is a place
were a few years ago the police praised someone who had used lethal force
against home invaders, and said she had an "absolute right" to do that, which
is not a common thing for them to say elsewhere in the US.

But the less overt harassment I did receive had similar effects on me as with
Jacques, maybe the physical bullying was limited because I steadily developed
the _CONSTANT VIGILANCE!_ one fictional character advocates due to it, and was
generally known to be a hunter and target shooter (in my father's days in the
late '40s/early '50 it was routine for students to store their hunting long
guns in their lockers after early morning hunting or before hunting after
school, to save time), and on the high school JROTC rifle team.

Who knows? Although one of the biggest disappointments in my life was having
to credibly threaten lethal force to stop a hazing kidnapping in my first
semester in college, despite it being the best school for its specialty in the
world it seems people were still people....

