Video:
http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Name-calling-6084601/
Name- Calling
Uhh, my primary school was like, very nice because everyone was all happy and uhm and I got on pretty much generally with everyone else.
In Year 5, people started to uhm call me like gay and stuff like that and I didn’t even know what they meant at the time.
And then at primary school I pretty much got pretty upset with it, they met up with people and then it happened again and again. They started to exclude me, uhm, from games, and things that seem really silly now but like really hurt me at the time. Uhm, and they wouldn’t talk to me. They’d ignore me. And, yeah…
As time went on, I thought that I shouldn’t be treated this way, and then uhm, when I went to my secondary school, it started again, but with different people. Uhm, they never used my name. I was just simply ‘the gay kid’.
Uhm, the worst thing that happened to me when I was bullied was pretty much, uhm, being called names again and again. It didn’t stop. It just went on continually. I didn’t know how to stop it.
I really wanted to play a game with lots of other people… …well they basically told me to get lost. They used some words I didn’t like.
Uhm, I found escape by being by myself. I didn’t trust other people. And sitting in the library and reading books.
I became really withdrawn, uhm introverted, and pretty much like didn’t be myself.
I think they were doing this simply to be cool. Uhm, to kind of like join in the fun with everyone else. There was only like one person that really started. The rest of them were really like tagging along. And it never really got physical, although once or twice they did start kicking me, out of nowhere really.
I think being bullied makes you feel very withdrawn, introverted. It changes your whole life and personality and it doesn’t make you the person that you used to be.
Uh,I didn’t really feel I could tell my parents because they wouldn’t handle it properly or, I’d blame myself most of the time. I didn’t want them to kind of react in a bad way. And I didn’t want them to uhh embarrass me in any way.
Uhh, I came to a resolution. I started to look towards the people who weren’t bullied. And I started to learn witty comebacks, and… I didn’t change myself, but I started to, kind of not care what anyone thought and I started to redeem myself.
I think, uhh being bullied has made me a stronger person. I tell everyone else, if they are being bullied, to tell someone. It’s worse to suffer by yourself. And to really be themselves, and to not care what anyone thinks.