 | Hello,
My name is Michael, I'm 16 and am attending 3rd year high school (Grade 11) in Toronto, Canada. I'm fairly tall for my age (5'10) but am also extremely skinny (110 lbs), and because of that I've become a severe victim of bullying.
It all started last school year. A group of 5-6 girls in my grade who are all friends would casually hurl insults at me like "stick-boy", "toothpick", and "ugly loser" whenever they saw me in the halls or in class. Then it escalated into minor physical abuse. They started out by kicking me in the shin, then a couple of them would punch me extremely hard in the stomach as they passed me while I was at my locker, knocking the wind out of me momentarily. I didn?t fight back mainly because I can handle the verbal assaults and the odd bruise or cut, but also because I feared they were much stronger than me and could do much worse if I tried anything.
With the start of the new school year, I hoped that they?d either matured or plain forgotten about me and found somebody new to pick on. But instead, the abuse escalated yet again. Now instead of one or 2 of them coming after me at a time it?ll be the whole bunch. They?ll attack me every chance they get, whether it?s at lunch, after school, or between classes in the hallways. The beatings have become systematic, routine, and gradually more severe. A distinct pattern has emerged over and over again ever since the 1st week of September. 1 or 2 of them would come up behind me and hold my arms together behind my back, and once I was completely defenseless, the other 4 or 5 would beat the living $hit out of me. First they?d punch me dozens of times in the stomach to completely knock the wind out of me, then they?d give me several painful whacks to the face, and if that wasn?t enough to knock me over, they?d kick me a couple of times in the groin for good measure. The first few times they?d just walk away after that and leave me lying in a pool of my own blood. But lately, that?s just been the start. Now as I?m lying helplessly on the ground, all of them will start kicking and stomping on me until I?m crying like a baby. If you haven?t tried protecting yourself against 6 different pairs of shoes trying to kick and step on you at full speed as you?re lying face down, you don?t know how painful it really is. The best I can do now is wrap my arms around my skull and hope that the most painful kicks they land are to my back and stomach. Every day I would come home with bruises covering my entire body, gashes and cuts over my whole face with plenty of black eyes, and the pain would just takeover my life. My back has been stepped on so many times that I can?t remember the last time it wasn?t sore. I can still hear the insults being thrown at me in the background continuously, but I?m in too much pain to care.
However, that might not be the worst part. As these beatings occur, the girls are ALWAYS laughing excessively whenever they land a painful blow, with the biggest laughs reserved for the ones which put me in the most pain. One particular instance comes to mind a couple of weeks ago. In the earlier stages of a beating where I was still standing, one of the girls attempted to kick me on the thigh at the same time I was trying to duck a head punch from one of her friends, and so I lowered my whole body and the girl?s kick nailed me right in the testicles. I let out the loudest, most high-pitched yelp I can ever remember and fell straight to the ground. All of them started roaring in laughter as if it was the funniest thing they?d ever seen and forgot about beating me for just a few seconds.
But just a couple of days ago, it got much worse. Taking the advice of a good friend, I tried fighting back for the first time. Of course, because it was 6-on-1, I had no chance of winning and this made them extremely angry and gave them more blood-lust than ever before. The beating was the worst one yet, and instead of leaving me lying there after |
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