Most students at my primary school had grown up together, being at the same school since preschool. I believe that entering this school in Year Four, where friendship groups had already solidly formed, was one of the contributing factors to my bullying. Furthermore, my class was small and only had eight Year Four students, four girls and four boys. This also limited my ability to meet peers and make new friends, leading to a social isolation that left me vulnerable to bullying.
For my final two years of primary school I was in a different class where 30 students were academically selected. It was here that I was first subjected to bullying by the boy who would remain my tormentor for most of high school. I don’t remember ever doing anything to annoy him, but I believe it may have been to do with test results.
Year 8 was a year I would rather forget. The boy who had harassed me during primary school was placed into my class and, even though I had long moved on, continued to bully me. This involved him befriending other students that used to talk to me and making sure they never could sit next to me or do group work with me. This constant niggling and torment was aggravated by teachers insisting there was nothing I could do about this and that I must be doing something to annoy him.
It was not until the middle of the year, during drama class, that people started to take action against him. We had a substitute teacher and were playing a game where the person in the middle makes a statement and anyone who agrees must stand up and quickly change seats with one another. My bully intentionally ended up in the middle and said “Stand up if you think Sam is ugly”. At least three students stood up. I walked out of that class shattered.
Older boys were also bullying a girl in my class called Meg. I was not aware of this at the time. Meg supported me throughout Year 8 and