I Tried To Kill Myself To Escape Bullying

I believe that everybody has the right to live their life without feeling threatened or unsafe. Sadly, not all of us can exercise that right as often as we should. I, for one, grew up feeling fearful and useless. I was bullied. From primary school all the way up to secondary school, I was bullied again and again. We aren't talking about the odd name-calling or playing about between friends. This was a systematized, endemic bullying in which I was treated like a sub-human to the extent that I would be terrified to go to school.

Once, I told the wrong person that my pet rabbit had frozen to death in the cold, and I got incessant chants of "run rabbit, run down the hallway." Generally it was about my weight or something I might have said.

All of the sudden I was not only bullied at the school; I was bullied at the bus top, at my neighborhood corner store and even at the bank when waiting for my Mom.

I'm sure everyone is aware that children can be cruel - very, very cruel. But I learned the hard way. I suffered relentless taunts from kids my age. I was slapped in the face and even pelted with stones as I walked to the local shop.

I remember some mornings before class, I'd be on the floor of the classroom, with groups of lads around me chanting or smacking me with a ruler. Usually it was much subtler than that - the odd word here and there, kids swinging me around by my backpack, or routing through my lunch. You know that scene in The Breakfast Club when B ender goes through Brian's lunch? In my case, sandwiches would end up being trampled on.