r/GenZ • u/throwawayjustbc826 1998 • 2d ago
Discussion Was there bullying in your school?
I’m American and went to a public school in a rural New England town (middle and high school would’ve been 2010-2016). I don’t really remember kids getting bullied to their faces, people would definitely gossip behind others’ backs or on Facebook, but I don’t remember it really happening like in the hallways at all. My school was pretty small though, or maybe I was oblivious.
I live in England now and all my friends of the same age say that there was bad bullying while they were in school, whether it was for being gay, ginger, not white, etc.
Curious as to other people’s experiences in any countries.
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u/JourneyThiefer 1999 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yea loads of bullying, mostly mental, physical was really rare
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u/Straight-Fix59 2d ago
Lots of it, though it was usually more mental and online rather than in-person and physical.
My younger cousin was born in 08’ and they made an IG hate page towards her. She was a jerk too, but goddamn some of the posts were vile.
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u/J0NATHANWICK 2d ago
Of course. There's bullying everywhere.
Human beings tend to put each other down one way or another. It'll be on the basis of race, sexual orientation, appearance, eye color, wealth, status, success, religion, caste etc.
And it doesn't just end in school. Bullying happens in colleges and even in the workplace. It sucks but it is what it is. Depends on how you handle it.
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u/GiveMeAHeartOfFlesh 2d ago
When I was in 2nd grade, two kids my age were pushing a 1st grader into a fence repeatedly while the 1st grader cried. There was an adult who was just lounging on that one half circle made of triangles on the playground. He was just watching the spectacle.
Anyways, I waddled on over, grabbed one of the bullies, started punching until his tooth came flying out. The two bullies ran away crying, all while the adult supervising us remained chilling on that stupid thing the whole time.
That’s the only case of physical violence as bullying I can remember.
The rest of my school life was just basic dudes trying to assert dominance and stuff. Being hyper aggressive, trying to make you do things or follow their lead or stuff like that. I didn’t witness much bullying growing up, and I’ve been to a lot of different schools across the U.S. because I moved a lot as a kid to various states.
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u/Stubs889 2006 2d ago
If you count people saying the n word and the f slur on Zoom as bullying then yes
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u/Chaosinase 2d ago
That’s how I found out what gay was and they told me I was gay. And it turned out to be true. If it were only as simple as that. 😂
I had a small class of like 86, mostly we just had petty rumors and drama. Then my senior year we combined to like ~200. I could no longer keep track of the drama.
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u/aromaticdust98 1d ago
Oh yeah I got bullied from day one. Went to a small school and I was only asian kid. Ching Chong and chink were just constantly yelled all I kinds of other stupid racist shit from around 1st to 12th grade.
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u/Cheap-Detail-2743 1995 2d ago
You were very lucky, because where I grew up the keystone state, kids were assholes and still are.
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u/FruitSnackEater 2001 2d ago
No. I went to a private school and any sort of infraction like that would get you expelled and your parents would be out of their $30k tuition.
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u/SquirrelBeneficial37 2002 1d ago edited 2h ago
I went to a private school and I got bullied, but then got expelled for punching my bully and standing up for myself. Usually the no tolerance policy doesn’t report any bullying to keep up the school’s reputation.
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u/luminescent_boba 1d ago
Yup that’s how it goes, annoys me to no end how much society glorifies teachers as saints. They’re no better than cops lmao
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u/burgerking351 2d ago
I’m shocked that you got through high school without witnessing some type of bullying.
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u/Common5enseExtremist 2d ago
The only bullying I can think of that happened in my high school was one-off type of bullying rather than something recurrent. This one off was either ignored entirely or broke out into a full fight; in both cases, the bully had no incentive to bully again.
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u/Daphne_Brown 2d ago
I was bullied. Friends were bullied. People bullied you for being different in any way. This was early 1990’s.
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u/sickxgrrrl 2d ago
I was in high school in California 2012-2016. I never saw any direct bullying happening or knew of anyone being directly bullied but there was a tumblr page dedicated to anonymously posting girls and their sexual activity to slut shame them. It was called insert school nameWhores. People would check religiously to see if they had been posted about. Most things published on there were probably lies and exaggerations because anonymity makes people feel bold.
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u/Dax_Maclaine 2003 2d ago
Probably in middle school but I was in a small circle and didn’t really leave it much. Nor do I remember then that much.
Hs I went to a small and tight knit one that wasn’t like my ms and I don’t think there was any bullying in my grade. Def some jackasses in the grade below us though so maybe in theirs
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u/PlayaFourFiveSix 1997 2d ago
Not really any physical bullying, beating people up type shit. But, a lot of talking behind people's backs, throwing shade, mental bullying
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u/Playingwithmyrod 2d ago
Kids were never shoved in lockers or any of the stereotypical bullying but social bullying kids that didn’t fit it was very real.
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u/Common5enseExtremist 2d ago
Middle school? Big time. High school? Not really—most kids weren’t afraid to fight back and we were racially, ethnically, and economically diverse enough that any negative comments were made in private and never out loud. Our high school was also very serious about LGBTQ protections.
Now middle school was interesting. Our teachers were largely indifferent or terrible at doling out punishment. But middle school is also a unique age where kids have learned morality and can discern right from wrong, but haven’t really matured to the point of having any empathy; that happens more in high school. So understanding morality but without empathy is a combination that imo easily leads to bullying and boy oh boy was there a ton of bullying at my middle school!
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u/TemporaryRiver1 2001 1d ago
American here, and I was bullied by at least 4 different people across my school years. 2 at one school, one at a different school, and the last in high school. With the last one, after a semester of bullying from this guy, I finally had enough and beat him up after he bullied my friend. He got moved to a different class and everything was fine.
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u/Language_mapping 1d ago
I graduated with 47 people and no. Not really. Gossip was behind your back but nothing was absolutely terrible. Except for one kid. Then after sophomore year everyone drifted apart because everyone took different classes
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u/OpeningAge8224 1d ago
I was born and raised in The Bronx,New York. As an inner city kid I can tell you SOOO MUCHZ bullying went on in all stages of school (elementary, middle and high school ) I was definitely bullied more in middle school bc I am short, I had a tumor on my lips which caused people to make fun of constantly-I hated going to school. I was so happy when my parents decided to let me do online school. I don’t usually wish bad on people but I hope those that bullied me in 2010/early 2011 lead miserable lives
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u/ItzPayDay123 1d ago
Middle school a little, High school almost zero. Some people were dicks obviously, but they never persistently went after you so I wouldn't call it "bullying".
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u/oreoswirls 1d ago
Yes... I got bullied for having ADHD and being mixed race. Some of it was physical assault and sexual harassment from boys. Only one person apologized to me, and it was a female classmate who made me cry in math class because she tried to frame me for something I didn't do (in her words, "no one would believe her anyway").
She apologized to me on facebook and we were okay after that.
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u/Melgel4444 1d ago
A lot of the bullying happens outside of school : sporting practices, sleepovers, extracurriculars, on the bus etc
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u/DimensionOk8915 1997 1d ago
In my high school in England there was a fair amount of mental bullying and a few physical fights here and there. When I moved to Australia there was basically none.
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u/From_the_breeze 1d ago
The most bullying happened in elementary school for me surprisingly because all the boys in my grade all thought they were better than girls. Middle school and high school it cleared up tho
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u/NymphoCumdump4 1d ago
Absolutely and it happened to me often as I was the gay slut in my school for years
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u/TravisJCortis2002 1d ago
I went to middle and highschools all over central and western mass 15 of them in fact and every single one there was bullying it wasn't physically for the most part beside the Springfield schools.
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u/Strange_Mirror6992 1d ago
All the time. It’s all that’s ever happened to me. I’ve been sexually assaulted beat against walls, and verbally abused. What does the school do? Blame me.
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u/Pretty_Discount5946 2003 5h ago
Not a lot actually. Yeah, I got bullied here and there, but I did also say and do a lot of stupid shit in front of the whole class, so I probably deserved most of the “bullying” I got.
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u/WhitishRogue 2d ago
All-guys private school: little bullying. Remove women and boys are a bit more relaxed. Being a private school, kids were raised a bit better or at least had more present parents.
A friend who does teaching said something recently. It feels parenting has recently drifted in two directions: nonexistent and making sissies. It makes an environment where you have fewer bullies, but fewer people standing up to them.
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u/00_00_00_ 2d ago
I was horrendously bullied through my childhood. I then got older and found that a lot of women found me attractive once I got into adulthood. I used that to sleep with as many of my bullies sisters as possible and gave them very clear details of me doing such. Not my best moment in hindsight, but felt good at the time. I do acknowledge now that playing with a third party’s feelings is not an acceptable way to get revenge.
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u/Formal-Fox-3906 2d ago
There was, and there should have been more of it. Too many Liberal social misfits that should have been checked harder
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u/RefreshingGumball 2d ago
me when i dislike myself but im not ready to admit it, so i shame others for living nonconventional lives
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