In junior high school and high school, bullying leaves its mark and some victims take a long time to get over it. Others never recover. The person who is going to testify today has lost a lot of self-confidence because of the meanness of his former classmates, but has nevertheless chosen to answer our questions anonymously today in order to speak up for the victims. In this interview, he will go by the name Mr. S.
Toombow Kids: Hello Mr. S. You’re very courageous to come today and we’re sure that you will help many people. When were you first bullied?
Mr. S: Hello. Thank you very much, I hope so! It began when I started junior high school.
Toombow Kids: Okay. What did your bullies do to you?
Mr. S: They made fun of my weight and singled me out a lot. Since I was very naive, they would make me believe that I could join their group, which never happened of course. I got beaten up too, a few times.
Toombow Kids: We’re relieved that everything is okay today. How did you react in those moments?
Mr. S: I took it to heart, I kept to myself at the time. It got even worse later, with the build up over time. That’s when I discovered the power of words. It affected me a lot and it caused me to isolate myself, even in my senior year of high school, when I was doing better.
Toombow Kids: At the time, were you aware that you were being bullied?
Mr. S: No, I didn’t even know that word! I thought that all newcomers went through it. It wasn’t until the end of seventh grade that I realized it wasn’t normal.
Toombow Kids: There should be more awareness. How did you get out of the bullying?
Mr. S: In first grade, my dad found out that something was wrong. He took me to see a psychologist for a year and it helped me a lot to understand everything that had happened to me. After that, I realized that there were things that even a psychologist couldn’t fix and I worked on myself to not let it happen again.
Toombow Kids: It took a long time, it must have been hard. What advice would you give to children who are victims of bullying?
Mr. S: Just talk about it ! That was the biggest mistake I made. Even when I came home with a black eye, I would make excuses so my parents wouldn’t find out. I should have told them sooner. It went on too long and it went too far. You can’t minimize bullying, it starts small and gets bigger and bigger.
Toombow Kids: Don’t blame yourself, it wasn’t your fault. Thank you and we hope that your story will give hope to victims.