NVEEE

You know… like when the abusive bully comes and takes the poor kid by his ankles shaking his money out of his pockets. It may not happen exactly how that happens, but it does happen. Sometimes when I’m walking down the halls at school, I’m so scared that I walk along the walls so that I am barely noticed. The other students that roam the halls often terrorize me. I innocently walk from class to class in fear that someone will stop me, panhandling in an aggressive way. I guess since I’m not as popular as the other kids, they try to take advantage of me by stealing my stuff and taking it for themselves! I try not to bring stuff that’s worth too much!! I try to avoid conflict, but it seems like the more I try to avoid them, the more they come and rob me for my valuables. Everybody laughs at me and make jokes about how it seems as if I willingly give away everything they ask for.  I’m scared that if they ask me for something that they know for a fact I have, and I turn them down, that they will get upset and start to physically abuse me, and eventually they will begin to not just take my money, but they will begin to take my money AND beat me up along with the robbery. I try to beg for help but no one will do anything to help my case. Not the Principal. Not my teacher. Not my counselor.  Sometimes I wonder if it’s because I live in a “black” neighborhood and go to a “black” school, yet according to them, I act like a “white girl”.  I am afraid if I seek higher authorities and tell the principal that the teasing will get worse and I will get even worse torture for being a “snitch.”  Sometimes I try to hide, but it seems as if I am trapped in a scary movie—the kind where the black people die first. The kind where you can never escape the bad guy! I often think of a way to get revenge on the bullies. I have come to the conclusion that you cannot fight fire with fire, and if I try to fight with them back then that will only make matters even worse than they already are. So I am stuck, backed in a corner, with nothing to do!

Female, 16 years old.