Bullies

There's a lot of talk about bullying going on at the moment, probably because of this story. I don't know any of the details of the case, so can't comment either way on whether the payout is fair or too high or not justified at all, or whether the judgement is correct or incorrect.

I'm sure that everyone gets bullied at school, some more than others. Even the bullies. The über-bullies get bullied by their drunken fathers and so they bully kids at school, who in turn bully weaker kids, who bully yet weaker kids, all the way down to the bottom of the heap to the kids who get picked on by everyone, and so end up torturing cats or abusing their younger siblings.

In Year 7 I was bullied by this bloke, I can't even remember his name now or what exactly was happening. Eventually I cracked one day and just started hitting him back. He belted me good, but then never touched me again. And in Year 9 a similar thing happened - a bloke was pushing and pushing until I eventually cracked and thumped him good and hard on the nose. In the classroom with the teacher present as well. I'll never forget the satisfying look of surprise on his face. After that incident he copped at lot more bullying from his "mates" as well as never bullying me again. I guess he realised that I was actually bigger than him. Also, getting thumped good and hard by one of the "band nerds" has a way of dropping you down the pecking order somewhat. Heh.

Yesterday I was at Josephine's primary school for her open day. I was sitting with her at recess, chatting and eating some of her cookies. A little boy came up to me, obviously thinking I was a teacher. It has happened before - and Josephine's friends tease me about it.

The little boy said, "He just punched me in the stomach," and pointed to another little boy of about the same size. Without thinking too much I replied, "Well punch him back."

Josephine was horrified, "Dad! Be responsible." Of course she was right -- given moral direction by a 9-year-old! Luckily a teacher came along to take charge of affairs for me and I didn't have to save the situation.

There is no other moral to this story, other than my incredibly poor judgement. I just thought it a topical occurrence.