You would think as a 20+ year veteran teacher, I would have an answer to this question. I don't.

It was not a part of my world growing up. Maybe it was there, but I wasn't aware of it. Kids were nice to each other. I easily could have been bullied in high school due to several factors, but was not. I remember the kids in my small high school as being a genuinely kind bunch. If they weren't interested in you, they steered clear of you. But they didn't tease or harass you. And they would at least greet you as they passed you in the hallway. It was a friendly atmosphere.

But as a teacher, I have viewed bullying at close range. I currently have a horribly-behaved little bully in my classroom. He breaks other kids pencils, rips up their papers, and steals things from them. I know he doesn't have much at home, but still. He also steals and destroys my things. I have seen teaching materials that I've collected over the course of my career completely obliterated. I've seen supplies that are expensive to replace being treated as toys. He seems to take joy in hurting other people. His parents seem unable to control him. I have other children who are also destructive, but with him, it gets personal.

The teachers in my building are starting to have conversations about sociopathy among our students. We know that sociopaths exist. Are they among our student body? The numbers would suggest that they are.

We've all seen bullying among adults as well. We've had numerous reports of bullying on this board -- sometimes from spouses or other family members, sometimes from church leadership or other ward members.

What causes bullying? Is there any real solution? My school district is slow to move on discipline. I have filed some formal reports, but have yet to see a suspension. And meanwhile my problem student is free to terrorize his classmates.

How have you dealt with instances of bullying in your own life?

I think a factor is biology.
Study a lot of animals. They take down the weak. The strong survive.

Territory. Resources. Appearing strong to others. Insecurity. Frustration.

Ganging up on something seems related to animal instinct.

I wouldn't say anything on this board rivals some of the stories we have heard about bullying in schools lately.

I would get fired if I had your job! I would probably announce in class that "Bully" has some emotional problems and they should feel sorry for him because he need professional help. I hope your problem student does not move on to the next phase: abusing animals and after that ... who knows.

I believe at the core of bullying is the eternal principle that everyone wants to be seen as special; everybody wants to be a winner, or, at least fit in. Some strive hard to achieve this through their accomplishments.

But some are lazy. Like a criminal they would rather take someone else's than go to the trouble of getting their own. "God Bless the Child That's Got His Own." And they do one of two things which may be the same essentially: They either resort to survival of the fittest mentality--might equals right, or, they "blow other people's candles out to make their own seem to burn brighter." They simply can't handle a level playing field. Their primal instincts kick in like dagney says.

When I was bullied I fought back. No one expected that of me. I hated the feeling of my fist hitting a face, but sometimes you had to. It was the words that cut the deepest though. Those wounds didn't heal as easily.

I honestly don't think there is any real solution. It would be nice if people pushed for classes in school that taught the principles of social expertise showing how everyone can win when we all treat each other well. Instead there is the distraction of whether to teach Creationism in schools. Also, I don't see teachers being supported enough or respected nowadays like they were when I was young. Friends who are teachers tell some pretty scary stories about the parents of the kids who need discipline being in their faces and blaming the teacher. I see more bullying now than when I was young, and I think that is part of it.

I don't recall seeing much bullying through my years of schooling. There were groups of friends that hung out together but they didn't gang up on others. The biggest no-no were the kids that hung out on the edge of high school campus and....smoked! Didn't know anyone who used drugs. They were not easily available. I'm sure there was some drug use but the group I hung out with frowned on it. So did my family.

I'm also baffled. Is there a single root to bullying? Probably not.
Some seem to be acting out of a kind of reaction to how they are treated at home or by others.
Some are just "wired wrong" -- have no empathy, a sociopath in the making.

I'm concerned that TV and video games, and movies have an impact on how some children act-out. This is a different era, changing technology, the opportunity to use good for evil has always been there, but now, it seems it's easier twist the real purpose of a phone,etc. to hurt and harass rather then just common communication.

There are areas where drugs and gangs are rampant. There have been gangs for decades, but today, they seem to resort to guns instead of talking or fighting.

There is a certain group-think that it's Ok to hurt other people, steal, destroy other people's property among people that starts when they are young.

Whatever the cause, we need to pay close attention to our children and know what is going on in their lives. Too many commit suicide because they do not know what it really means, or are experimenting or just "playing around" and kill themselves or others accidently.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has a good magazine, and also programs for educators specifically aimed at how to influence children to have a culture of not-bullying as opposed to letting it happen unchecked. You might find their website and see if it has any ideas you could use.

Here in Colorado, not far from where the Columbine shootings took place, the schools are quick to be on top of bullying. They have a 2-pronged approach. Even mild bullying is not tolerated at all. and They have counselors who really do pay attention to at-risk kids. I'm sure the system is not perfect, but at least they are aware and trying to respond.

I would be very concerned about the little bully-kid in your classroom; it sounds severe to me, and I would be wondering whether maybe he's being severely abused at home, and then bringing his anger and hurt to school.

The school should be intervening; this kid is already doing harm, and probably at risk himself. I suppose you would be risking your career to look into whether there is social support from beyond your too-complacent school for possible checking and intervention? Because I'd be looking into that.

I read a book about a little boy who was being horrifically abused at home. The person who finally got intervention for him was a substitute teacher; the regular school staff saw the kids every day and apparently it didn't occur to anyone to notice or say or do anything. (This kid was a quiet one, not a bully, but he was dirty, ill-dressed, starving, and bruised.)

Stay aware. It may be a "discipline" problem only---but I'll bet it isn't. What resources might your community have to help?

In high school, he was your typical runner - tall, slender, long, narrow musculature. At home, he and his brother were taught to be respectful and loving to their parents.

Dad saved money he earned from a paper route to take martial arts classes (his non-violent parents would not have approved.) When WWII broke out, he and his brother were in basic training together. I remember my uncle telling me stories about how Dad could clock the boxing instructor, bobbing and weaving like a snake. Dad could take out the martial arts instructor by mixing and matching some of the rules. His attitude was, "This is not an equestrian competition, where a carefully braided tail counts for points." He would looks for weak points and go after them.

The hand to hand combat instructors would look at this kid and say, "Where did this guy come from??" Dad used his money from an after-school paper-route to take both boxing and martial arts class. He was just barely an ounce or two this side of being scrawny, but in his quiet way, he had decided to make every ounce count.

Nobody ever called him a bully. It was common knowledge that my grandfather, a well-educated man himself, told his boys, "I don't EVER want to hear that you started a fight. But if somebody else insists on starting one, YOU finish it."

This was the legacy I inherited. Fortunately, genetics made me a tall, strong girl. But workouts with Dad after school on the fine points of blocking, uppercuts, a solid smash to the solar plexus - made all the difference.

I was smart and had plenty of friends. I was not a scrapper by nature. But neither would I put up with unprovoked BS. If you get a new kid in school who is just itchin' (as we used to say) for a fight, you can do it. If you can humiliate the other guy rather than making him look like a badass, so much the better. Almost always, he will leave you alone. Generally, it only takes one, good, humiliating scrap before they learn to leave you alone.

I was never taught that a fight was bad. Letting a bully win was the bad part. On our playground, we didn't play dirty. We didn't have to.

I know these stories were true. At both my father's and uncle's funerals, little old guys would totter up to my cousins and me, and tell about how how Dad's coaching helped them survive junior and high school. And this was in Compton, California.

The overall message was to do your best to find points of agreement, to try to be nice to the other guy, maybe even to strike up a friendship. But if the other guy was determined to give you grief, you gave him several chances to back off, honorably. If he didn't get the point, you flattened him.

I have followed this all of my life. Nobody expects a solid right hook from a little old lady. It works, and word gets around.

And it doesn't have to be physical. You can make somebody look like a complete worm verbally. But the same rules apply: YOU don't start it, give them plenty of chances to back off, and if they keep coming at you, decimate them. Chances are, it won't happen again.

Even as a nevermo in 1960's SoCal, I didn't know what "drugs" were (except medication) until I was a freshman in college. The prof of one of my classes didn't show up, but an older kid came in to say that there wouldn't be class that day. The prof's son had died from taking too many "drugs."

To me, the child and grandchild of registered nurses, "drugs" were things you took when you were sick. They were either prescribed by the doctor, or given to you (like aspirin) if some body part ached.

I was shocked to learn that "drugs" could be a whole new level of bad.

I would say a test of power. A test of limits. A test of consequences.

My son was bullied in Jr High. His mother had him go through the tell a teacher thing etc. Nothing changed.

Finally I told him. Beat the hell out them. Win lose or draw it doesn't matter. Beat them until a teacher stops you.

Took three knock down all out fights. But word got around and the bullies left him alone.

Same happened to me in the 60s. One good fight and the boundaries were set and I was left alone.

Too bad you can't have the destructive child booted from the school. I know your hands are tied as a teacher.

Bullies have a pathological mental illness, and should be treated as sick and contagious. Their "disease" definitely harms others, and they need to be separated.

In our private school system, we had a school psychologist, who would come into the classroom and observe and evaluate, and assess the damage. The psychologist would also interview the bully and his parents. Private schools have the power to expel students.

My older brother was the school bully. He was a sociopath, and was good at convincing others that he was innocent--in fact he was the victim--and everyone else was bullying him. He could cry on cue, and push the right sympathy-buttons in the adults. My parents always took his side. I was just his little sister, a Mormon female, and not as important as my abusive brother. He had all the drama. He got all the attention.

You would think that if you could video a bully in action, that maybe people would see for themselves, and be convinced of the damage he is doing to others--but this has never worked. The only way we could expel a bully is to note that far too much of the teacher's time is being spent on the bully, and that he is truly getting in the way of the other students' learning in the classroom.

My big brother would torture me right in front of my parents, and I would cry to them to help me, but they just sat there, and did nothing. I grew up thinking I was nothing. No one in my TBM family cared that my brother broke my toys, tortured animals, made nasty, vulgar threats to me and other little girls. I remember one day, in particular, when he came home from school screaming and crying, with a nose bleed, because someone had hit him. Mom and Dad called the school principal, were going to report the other boy to the police, and everybody made a huge uproar about it. It turned out, that my brother had assaulted the other boy's little sister! Everything was kept quiet, and I don't know how they covered it all up. My brother changed schools, "because he was being bullied at his other school." He was almost kicked off his LDS mission, but my father bought a used car, drove it up to the mission, and donated it to the mission. The mission president (a relative of ours) kept my brother on, for the remainder of his mission, so he would not have the disgrace of being released early. My brother behaved like a pedophile, and ruined the lives of his nieces. I tried to warn their parents, but they laughed at me. They thought my brother was just a "funny, dirty old uncle." The nieces are in their late thirties, in therapy for depression, and have never been on a date. My brother lived with my parents, and I could not bring my children into that house for a visit. When my parents died, he had a "nervous breakdown" and was in a mental hospital for 6 months. They diagnosed him as bi-polar. We, his siblings, set him up in a retirement living complex, that has assisted living for later. When my brother died, he had two lawsuits against him, with two different neighbors--for sexual harassment.

Cluster B, psychopaths, sociopaths, narcissists, are a huge problem in our society. They can not be cured or rehabilitated. Drugs don't help. Most of the homeless people that wander the streets are Cluster B's, who's families can no longer deal with them.

I wonder if these perverts are diagnosed at a very young age, and separated out into special schools (reform schools) where they can get the attention and discipline they need, that they could be taught cause-and effect, manners, a work-ethic, laws, cooperation. As a group, Cluster B's are not unintelligent.

I had several sociopaths in my life--and the damage these men and one woman did to others is beyond measure!

Summer, you have asked the one question that would change American society!

The last post (I forget the name of the poster) has an interesting perspective. Maybe the key is to educate the classmates, family, and other victims, on how to deal with bullies. The bad news is that, in my experience, the only thing that stopped victimization was to cut off all contact with the psychopath. Hence, the huge penal system in America (and we still don't have enough jails to hold all the criminals).

As much as you can in your situation, inteventions as noted above by Breeze are absolutely appropriate. Something is really wrong here, and both the other kids (and teachers/staff) and the child himself need the protection of active intervention.

My student can cry on cue as well. I have no reason to think that he is being abused at home. Quite the opposite. I think he is overindulged, babied, and not disciplined at all.

He appears to me to be within the normal range of intelligence. He is very lazy, however. He doesn't want to pay attention to lessons or to do more than a token amount of work. It is very difficult to seat him next to potential student helpers because he ends up terrorizing those children. Right now I have him seated next to another out-of-control boy, but at least a kid who tries to do his work. I will see how that works out. I also have a volunteer in the classroom who is willing to tutor him if the kid can cooperate. But even she is disgusted with him at this point.

With the end of the school year approaching, many kids have trouble keeping behaviors in check. This particular kid, who has been difficult all year, is going off the rails. I am hearing reports from other teachers that his older brothers are also problematic, but I don't think quite as bad as my student.

At this point I am just trying to get through to the end. I am exhausted. I don't think I can solve his problems. Perhaps he will have a better experience with his teacher next year. His behaviors are just so destructive and anti-social that they leave me sad and bewildered.

To Breeze,

Your brother sounds so similar to mine! I am so sorry you and others had to endure that treatment from him.

I found out in my teens that my best friend would not come over to our house growing up (we had been friends since we were aged 6 and still are!) because my brother had threatened to KILL her if she ever came back over again!!

She was so afraid that she didn't even TELL me until we were about 13 or 14 years old! I then told my family about it and everyone LAUGHED! Oh it was just my brother 'teasing' and having fun and wasn't it SO funny that my friend took him seriously and wasn't it SO funny that she had been afraid!

I think I may have (nervously) laughed along with them. Trying to normalize it as they did. Otherwise it was too horrifying to consider!

I know now he did that because he didn't want me to have friends. He repeatedly abused my friends in one way or another so that they would not come back over to play with me. It was sadistic. As a result I had difficultly making and keeping friends for a long time. It wasn't until high school that I gained some social skills. Luckily that one friend stuck by me, but I did have to go to her house until we were older and that limited my contact with her when we were younger as I had to then rely on getting a ride over to her house from my parents, etc.

This same brother is out there in the world, I think he is still a bishop in Utah somewhere. He of course moved there with his family as soon as he was able. I know he's always had more success with his business cons there than on the east coast. I am sure most of his kids are traumatized being raised by him. His oldest has luckily gotten out of the cult in part thanks to his insane treatment of her after he found out she was (god forbid!) FORNICATING with her boyfriend at age 18! My brother found out because he was spying on her via her emails and texts, he would hack into everything. He then made her sign some contract to not have contact with the BF or he would disown her! And he threatened to put the BF in jail for statutory rape (though he had no evidence that it happened when she was 17, he pretended to). He sent her east to be a nanny thousands of miles away. She was so afraid she wouldn't dare break the 'contract'.

They even made her go to a psychologist and even in Utah the therapist said that it was her parents who were crazy not her!

Poor girl, she's been through sheer hell because of him. And then since she was in contact with me during that time, he found out and scared her into not being in contact with me. It's been like 5 years since i've seen her and now we are trying to meet again. We'll see if it actually happens.

But honestly, as hard it is for me to say this, I think my brother is evil. Not sure if i can say he's a sociopath as I've seen him show remorse before. or maybe that was faked, it's hard to say. But he's definitely not to be trusted. And if at some point we found out about law suits against him over bullying or sexual harassment I wouldn't be surprised.

But he is a charmer and SO many people think he is just such a great guy! It's incredible. But he's always been like that, able to show one face to our parents and the world and another in secret. he main way of having fun was at other people's expense. His 'best friends' were always insecure types he could easily push around. He often humiliated them for fun in front of others. And he was cruel to animals. He intentionally would aim for animals on streets to try and run them over often successfully and he would laugh and laugh. It was horrifying to me as I was and am sensitive to animals. Once I had to be in the car when he did that.

Okay I guess he is a sociopath. Clearly I've been in denial about that and how bad it really is. Good to 'say' that and get that out!

Yes, cruelty toward animals is a big red flag for sociopathy.

If you haven't read it already, "The Sociopath Next Door" by Martha Stout is an interesting read, and often recommended on this board.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2017 02:18PM by summer.

I was bullied as a child in the 70s and 80s. But my friends just a year behind me in the same schools were not. But in my class many people were by the same small group of people who were controlled by these twins that moved to our school in 3rd grade. I can understand now that they clearly had issues at home to be behaving as they were at that age. And the other kids who were insecure got pushed around by them and ordered to bully other kids.

I was 'shy' which really means 'fearful.' I was taught be afraid at home because of bullying by my brother(s) (mainly one of them but sometimes all) and taught to feel like I am worthless by my parents. So I was an easy target being so weak. Kids like any animals can sense weakness in others and some kids exploit this weakness for a sense of power (they don't maybe feel at home, or maybe they are bullied at home and then feel they need to take it out on others).

Why some react to harsh treatment by bullying and some react by being victims I'm not sure.

My therapist thought my brother bullied because he wanted to get attention from our father. None of us got the attention we needed from our parents who were too obsessed with their religious cult to give us what we needed and of course there were just too many of us for them to provide for us properly. I think most Mormons esp. from big families experience a lot of neglect as children. We were largely unsupervised so the bullying and victimization happened and like Breeze my brothers were never punished even when they hurt me in front of them. And sometimes my dad was involved in the bullying too. And so of course my dad was also the example for my brothers.

Another reason I think that bullying is more prevalent now has to do with the effects of wireless radiation on the population (kids being esp. vulnerable to it). There is something called 'stimulus addiction' which most smart phone users now have some level of. (they are designed to be that way). And wifi is worse and now with wifi in schools a lot of kids are affected by the overdose of EMFs and many become agitated and angry or hyperactive or exhausted. In extreme cases some kids are getting nose bleeds and in one school when they amped up the wifi many kids started to get nose bleeds AND bleed from their ears!

I know a lot about this topic because I got personally affected after getting a 'smart' phone and 'smart' meters on my apt. I started to get very sick after some months and had insomnia really badly and then headaches and then migraines and confusion, brain fog, chest pains, dizziness, difficulty with speech and concentration. And then I started to get these electric shock type pains in my hands just when holding my phone. It got so severe that I could feel when someone's iPhone got a text at ten feet away from me! I learned that I had something they are calling 'EHS' 'Electro Hyper Sensitivity' disorder. It's when you overload from EMFs (usually wireless source radiation as it's more powerful than low frequency and penetrates your body) and your body can no longer detox from the exposure so you respond in an allergic reaction way.

We had to move cross country to find a place without cell phone reception where I could recover! This over 2 years ago. I am doing a lot better and no longer immediately react when exposed to cell phones and wifi but will after about half an hour or so. So I am not 100 percent better yet. and probably I won't ever be a cell phone or wifi user again, esp. now that I know how much harm it can do biologically (lots of corruption in that industry, I know since my partner and I have been working on a documentary film on the topic and researching this for years now). A good resource is bioinitiative.org

My sisters (after learning about this from me) started to limit screen time with their kids and don't allow them to use cell phones (they are still really young, elementary age) and they have noticed that the hyperactivity has significantly reduced. Esp. in my niece who has had ADHD problems for a long time. She is much calmer and they noticed when she does have too much time at a screen she gets very agitated and angry and acts out. This is a huge problem for them with school now that they require so much work to be done at screens in particular these tests they now have to take to get to the next grade level. It really makes it hard for my niece, who is actually very bright, to concentrated. It's very frustrating for her. Also sugar is another trigger for her as well. But the EMF thing is a huge one.

So I would really look into the EMF trigger thing. It's a huge problem right now worldwide. Some nations are taking measures in light of new information about the harm and they are banning wifi from kindergarten and elementary schools, this is also starting to happen in some states in our country.

Anyway hope this info is helpful to you!

Best of luck!

PS- Just so everyone knows who is reading my post.. Wifi does nOT equal 'internet'.. Wifi is a way to access the internet wirelessly, meaning using radio frequencies (microwaves). I can get online like everyone used to in the 'old days' (really not many years ago, but it's like the memory has been erased now from the public psyche) via hard wired ethernet cable to my modem (with the wifi in the modem disabled, which now has to be done by a technician since they don't give you the option to disable it manually anymore). I also use a desktop computer with a corded keyboard and mouse and sit some distance from the computer. I still can't sit at the computer for long periods of time since the low frequency EMFs can still bother me, but not anything like the high frequency (wifi) ones do!

Just a side note.. in learning about the corruption in the wireless industry and government regulatory agencies (namely the FCC whose chair Tom Wheeler is the former head of the wireless coalition lobby group for the wireless industry, NO conflict of interest there! having the industry regulate itself!).. I found a lot of parallels with the way the LDS organization is run and the kind of lies and propaganda and covers up that are happening. Very similar.

I am still learning to 'question everything' as one poster has mentioned they learned to do after leaving 'the cult' (sorry it's hard for me to call it a church or religion!).. I can see how I have been brainwashed by media and industries into compliance to my own detriment. And of course if you question anything in this country esp. to do with government and industry corruption you are labeled a 'conspiracy theorist' just for questioning! It does seem likely that governments who are aware of the harm from cell tower and wifi radiation are pushing to have wireless everywhere because it's a very handy surveillance technology. It's interesting to me how now almost every person in the population including kids (I think it should be criminal to advertise cell phones to kids, they are much more vulnerable to the harmful effects, worse than selling them cigarettes!) have a device on them (cell phone and tablets) that they carry everywhere at all times and even often sleep with and it is essentially a tracking device. If the governments of the world said you all need to carry this tracking device (that can listen in on all conversations and read all email and texts!) nobody would do it! But instead we actually PAY for it ourselves willingly!

And now nobody thinks they can live without those devices but I have for more than 3 years and all I can say is my life is MUCH better now!

Sorry to go so off topic! Thanks for letting me rant!

Let me get this straight.

You moved to the National Radio Quiet Zone and got rid of your WiFi router, cellphone, cordless phones, Smart Meter and microwave oven because you believed your health problems were caused by electromagnetic radiation? I would really like to know how this diagnosis was made and what the qualifications were of the person who made it. I must say your post as a certain "conspiracy theorist" vibe to it. Lots of claims and very few facts to back them up.

As for your assessment that WiFi is leading to bullying, I find that very doubtful, although, I will agree that the amount of time children spend looking at a screens should be limited. There are numerous studies that show that the stimulation children received from constantly being "plugged in" is not good for them.

I would really like to see some documentation of WiFi causing nosebleeds and bleeding from the ears. That would be newsworthy, especially considering the fact that wireless routers and access points are limited to 4 Watts EIRP. A household microwave oven is usually in the 1000-1500 Watt range and many leak enough radiation to interfere with 2.4GHz WiFi while they're running.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Radio_Quiet_Zone

https://www.air802.com/fcc-rules-and-regulations.html

In re. wifi, it's estimated now that about 3 percent of the world's population have EHS (the disorder I suffer from if you can call it disorder, it used to be called 'radiation sickness' or 'microwave sickness' in the 40s-60s when mostly radar operators suffered from it, but now the levels we are exposed to are on par with what radar operators were exposed to when you put all of the sources together.

I do get affected by microwave ovens now as well. I know about Greenbank. I didn't move there. I didn't want to live in butt F west virginia. And it's not as clean of RFs as they make it out to be anyway. And wikipedia is not a good source of info on EHS as many outspoken scientist and doctors on the subject have tried to correct the info there and have been barred from doing so.

The wireless industry is a 4 billion dollar annual gross industry. It is much bigger than Big Tobacco was and is using the same tactics (smarter now since they learned a lot from the Tobacco fight) to fool the public, mainly hiding information about the dangers.

there are more than 6,000 peer reviewed scientific papers on the topic. Go to bioinitiative.org to learn more, it's the best starting place.

There are documentaries out there, not many yet. I can post later with titles and links. But honestly I don't want to get into that on this board nor have to feel like I am being put on the witness stand about this because someone on here is ignorant on the topic. I used to be ignorant as well until I got personally affected. I can't even begin to describe the kind of hell it was for me when I could not get away from the triggers which are freaking everywhere in our world now. But luckily I did find a rural area that doesn't have an f'n cell tower yet.

Some people get hyper sensitized like I have been, but others just suffer from other illnesses without knowing the cause. I am actually lucky in a way to react this way. In fact one prominent scientist in the field (look up Dr. Olle Johanssan, he helped to get Sweden to recognize EHS as a disability and so the UN and all UN nations are supposed to as well, I know some EHS folks who have been able to get disability in this country but it's a hard fight as most doctors are currently ignorant like in the 90s when I had a bad reaction to second hand cigarette smoke and asked doctors for help for my allergies and they said I was imagining it since there was, I quote 'no such thing as an allergy to cigarette smoke'.. so now we know better, eventually the public will have access to the facts about wifi and cell phones/cell tower exposure and people like me won't have to be made fun of, disbelieved and abandoned by society because of what we are suffering.. Anyway Dr. Johansson has said that people like me actually have immune systems that are functioning as they should be sending us the alarm to trouble, so we are not overly sensitive, but in fact the rest are DESENSITIZED.

You have no idea what I have been through with this. The drastic measures I and millions of other like me have had to take to find anywhere we can live in relative comfort. Where I live now I spend my days blissfully symptom free. Going into town can trigger symptoms again depending on how much exposure I get.

I can understand skeptisicm but many may feel the same about Ex-Mo's and what they go through if they have not been through it themselves. There are recovery boards like this one for those dealing with EHS and there are at least 800 people on the one I frequent. This is not imaginary. And the sleep disturbances people have are not imaginary. I have helped dozens of people get better sleep now that they know to turn their cell phones and wifi off at night. And wifi routers are much more powerful than that now. I have measured them. Many in people's homes are public hotspots without their consent or knowledge. I know people who get seizures from them. I know people who have gotten brain tumors from cell phones. The harm is REAL.

YES the symptoms SOUND similar to PTSD, so there are those who could doubt this. But for me the triggers are unrelated to my PTSD. And as I have given my body a chance to recover I have been able to handle more exposure than I was when first so terribly affected. There are those who cannot even use computers anymore or even live with electricity their bodies have been so badly affected. These people were living 'normal' lives before often in the high tech industry themselves. I have been finding ways to help my body heal others are getting worse. Many have committed suicide they are so badly misunderstood and misdiagnosed. It's extremely tragic. You have no idea what people are going through.

Honestly I am sorry I brought it up at all now because I am so over people not being supportive and understanding. Because I have had to go through hell to get help for myself in the face of so much ignorance.

There IS research. The wireless industry actually funded a 23 million dollar research study on the harmful effects of cell phones in the 90s and we talked to the head of that research team, Dr. George Carlo (he wrote a book about his findings) and after a decades research he DID find a link because cell phone radiation and brain tumors. Instead of then trying to make products safer and warn the public Tom Wheeler (than chair of the wireless lobby group heading the study) threw out the findings and started a smear campaign against Dr. Carlo. He even had his house torched!

Guess what the new safety study they were supposed to do was never done. They are still promising to and using a lot of loop holes in the system to delay the process. These are products that have not been proven safe before being released on the market. There is extreme corruption, it is not conspiracy. I have been researching this for 3 bloody years now and honestly I am so f'n tired of going through this same crap trying to explain to all of the smart phone junkies out there.

Sorry but I am really pissed off. I am just tired of this. You don't know what I've gone through.

But I am also trying to approach my health in a holistic way and so I am exploring the roots of trauma and doing all I can to be better in every way I can. It's possible that PTSD has compounded my condition but I don't believe it's the cause as millions of others have this without PTSD and also millions of others are suffering from the myriad of other health effects from exposures including anxiety, depression, brain tumors, cancers, diabetes, autism, and the list goes on.

Look up videos on Youtube. There ARE very well respected scientists and doctors and lawyers speaking out.

That's the last I am going to say about it, it's not worth my time trying to explain to those who don't want to listen and so rudely dismiss someone's suffering without knowing a f'n thing about the subject. Just plain rude.. talk about bullying. Jesus.

And Breeze. I am so sorry about your brother and the animal torture. I cannot even begin to imagine the hell you must have gone through. It made me cry just reading about it. Hugs to you! You are truly a brave woman having gone through that and gotten to the place you are in now, I really admire you.

Addressing PTSD and wifi/ radiation sickness.
I was just going to back down after what I wrote yesterday.
But I had trouble going to sleep after.
I noticed I was getting into panicky breathing patterns and that I was overly stressed. I asked myself why as I tried to take deep calming breaths.

What I discovered is interesting so I want to share it here as it may be useful to others in figuring out their own triggers and body’s responses.

The poster “Mnemonic” who immediately disbelieved my story of my radiation sickness (which is now commonly called EHS Electro Hyper Sensitivity, but I think this is a misnomer as it makes it sound like ‘hyper sensitivity’ is the victim’s problem and so could be psychological rather than naming what it really is, which is over exposure to microwave radiation, therefore it’s really microwave sickness), dismissing me in a callous manner without any real evidence to prove .. to prove what? That I am making this up? That I am lying? That I am delusional?

I say HE because it was clear to me, or this is how it felt to me, that someone with that kind of attitude, who thinks he is an authority on something he knows nothing about, and is patronizing and condescending in tone, MUST be a man.

I could be wrong. What I what I point out is how PTSD from Mormonism, specifically men acting in authority positions (who really have no proof to their claims of authority but demand blind obedience anyway) affects my ability to deal calmly and effectively with skepticism as in the case here.

Being in a minority, albeit a minority at epidemic proportions now (3 percent is epidemic, but in some countries it’s even as high as 10 percent, like Israel, they have an estimated 10 percent of the population who are dealing with that I am, hence the government is now taking measure to make safe spaces for ‘EHS’ victims to live, work and go to school in. They have banned wifi from many schools and taken down some cell towers.), I of course have had to deal with a lot of skepticism, esp. as a knee jerk reaction from a public which is used to trusting industry and government, namely trusting authority, even when there is compelling evidence time and again to NOT just blindly trust authority.
(Think of all of the industries which have thus far lied to and wittingly harmed the public for the sake of profit… DDT, PCB, Asbestos, Lead, Agent Orange, Tobacco, etc.. and governing agencies which back them up, protect them, and governments which lie to and manipulate us into fighting in unjust wars). A public which does not want to consider the idea that the authorities they have trusted would betray that trust even though recent history is ripe with examples. It’s like the need to trust and believe overrides our memories of betrayals. I think it’s also just our conditioning to do so (i.e. TV commercials bombarding us from birth to the grave), esp. those of us raised in a cult where blind unquestioning submission to authority is the norm.

So getting to my point. In the face of this type of knee jerk response to new information, which in this case happens to be my personal very difficult experience, my PTSD is triggered. Because I feel I am being treated as I was growing up LDS, which is to say, having my feelings and experiences and thoughts immediately dismissed by authority figures. Feeling like I can’t express myself because I will be ridiculed and dismissed, particularly if anything I think or feel is incongruent with said authorities ideas or in the case of my father, it goes against information from his higher up authorities. Growing up constantly feeling like I am worthless and anything I have to contribute is unimportant and anything I experience is likewise, mainly due to the gender I happened to be born as, has certainly taken it’s toll. And the abuse I endured has of course led to PTSD because of the trauma. So when I feel I am in a similar situation again, even if just slightly so, the reaction I feel psychically is out of proportion to the situation because of the PTSD. Hence my body goes into flight/fight mode and stress hormones are released.

The added stress of course is counterproductive to healing from the radiation sickness. Esp. given that what EMFs do to the body is to throw it into fight/flight mode via the constant stimulation of the radiation. So many with ‘EHS’ after years of being exposed to this stimulation without rest, get stuck in ‘fight/flight’ where they get this sympathetic nervous system lock. So that once in a place where they are no longer constantly being exposed it takes some time for the body to get out of that mode. And because their bodies have been continuously releasing stress hormones for long periods of time, they are unable to recover after and set the body back to equilibrium, so that their cortisol levels are lower than normal after exposures. This is similar to what happens in the body with PTSD. But as I mentioned in my other post PTSD is not the CAUSE of ‘EHS’.. the over-exposure to the EMFs is the cause, BUT as you can see it compounds the problem by becoming another source of stress for my body to deal with when my adrenals are already shot from the years of dealing with the stress stimulus from EMFs. (It’s thought that adrenal dysfunction from not getting a break from stimulus, is what causes a ‘hyper-sensitized’ reaction since then the body’s reaction is similar to an allergic one) And it makes it difficult for me to have to face the natural skepticism and criticism in a world now addicted to their wireless gadgets. (if you don’t ‘believe’ in the addiction aspect, just look it up, BBC news even had an article recently about it saying that digital addiction was worse than meth addiction). As a result I have chosen to minimize my involvement of the politics surrounding the issue and haven’t been comfortable in an activist role. Though I try to educate those whom I care about and when the issue may come up in conversation. But I have been able to see the toll it takes on me when I have to be in a position of feeling the need to defend myself. (Esp. when I and so many other have faced and experienced homeless when unable to find safe housing and safe work environments, the illness having this severe and disruptive of an impact on our lives.. making it easy to get angry and frustrated quickly being so misunderstood so frequently.)

I brought this topic (something I generally like to avoid these days) up here on this thread because there is compelling research that shows that the stimulus on the body from wireless/microwave radiation, particularly in the form of wifi and cell phones, causes aggressive and hyper active/ agitated response in many of those exposed to it. This is a biological response, not a psychological one.

Children, whose bodies and brains are still developing are especially vulnerable. The only safety study ever officially conducted by the wireless industry has been to do with thermal heating of tissues in the body, but NOT in re. to biological effects (namely cell damage, cell mutations have been found in independent scientific research, from even just a few minutes of exposure to cell phone/ wifi radiation), and even then the thermal heating tests were done on a ‘dummy’ meant to represent a 200 pound man in his 20s. This is what is referred to as the SAR rating. And even the SAR ratings are currently not in what the industry itself deems to be within ‘safe’ exposure limits.. and the literature found with your cell phones (buried in the manual in fine print) says that you should keep the cell phone away from your body at least an inch at all times to avoid thermal heating damage to your body! (The city of Berkeley, CA just passed an ordinance to label any wireless product so that these safety warnings are on the package rather than buried in the manual.) Hence if you try to sue your cell phone manufacturer for bodily injury and they ask you in court which hand you held your phone in, and you say your right hand, they then can say that you weren’t supposed to hold it because their warning in the manual says you have to keep it an inch off your body at all times, this would include your hand! So in effect you can’t use the product the way it was designed to be used.

As I mentioned before, I know a lot on this topic, because I have been personally harmed and as a result my life severely disrupted (having to leave home, a budding career, friends, family, etc.). So I’ve had to educate myself. BUT I find it hard to engage in debates on it because of my PTSD. When confronted with the post yesterday I felt my body respond with a quickening heart rate and shallow breathing. I became both blood boiling-ly angry and overly fearful. I still feel the anger triggers and can see in my body how hard it is for me to confront those mimicking authority figures. This is MY issue. People have a right to say what they please even if callous and ignorant. I imagine that this poster isn’t aware of his own behavior. But I am hoping my sharing will help us to see how we may fall into this behavior pattern without thinking, because of our brainwashing about gender roles and authority figures.
(And it would be helpful for people on this board in general to be aware that many of us suffer from PTSD, so a little sensitivity is appreciated.)

The fact is the mainstream media is owned by corporations. They cannot bold facedly criticize an industry that funds their publications. They would lose funding and lose their livelihoods. This is not new phenomena. This is pretty much how it’s always been. So if someone is only going to accept information from what they have been trained to believe is a credited source (i.e. mainstream media sources) and dismiss everything else (non ‘authority’ sources) and everyone else who questions the mainstream as ‘conspiratorial’ not even really having a grasp at what that means, then there really is nothing I or anyone else can say to that person.

But in a perfect world we wouldn’t be so quick to come to judgments, and maybe just maybe we’d decide that in the face of new information that perhaps we don’t actually know much on the subject and instead of immediately shooting the messenger we could step back, take a breath and say ‘well I haven’t heard of that, but just because I haven’t heard of it yet, doesn’t mean it’s not true’. I would hope that if someone told me of an illness they are suffering from that I wouldn’t just say that they must be imaging it and be a conspiracy theorist because I haven’t heard of it before.

And in asking myself this same question, I realize that my tendency in the face of new information is to not dismiss the person telling me and to dismiss their experiences but to allow myself time to take it in and then do more research so that I can learn more. This is probably because of my being a female in the LDS cult and never having been placed in the position of authority that the males are, so I wasn’t trained to automatically assume I am right. Though I was trained to obey authorities. I think however my questioning authority which lead me on a path of discovery I would not have otherwise taken, has caused me to question it in general every since. I am grateful for that, even though it’s been a very hard road. My world has also expanded dramatically and I have been able to discover so much more knowledge on so many more topics than I would have had I not done that. And it can feel very lonely knowing something that the majority of the population does not yet know. But it doesn’t mean the knowledge I have gained isn’t valuable or correct. What I have to struggle with is not wrapping my sense of self worth up in whether or not I am believed and validated by others. And THAT is what is related to my PTSD, the feelings of unworthiness and the feeling that I need to keep quiet or I will be ridiculed and shamed.

So it takes a lot of courage on my part now to write all of this. To trust myself, to take a stand in the face of what feels like ridicule. I am not so much writing this to the person who triggered my PTSD, (since likely that person is not going to be open to the information) but for others who may relate to my story and see in themselves how they get triggered and why. And to hopefully learn that they are also valid and what they have to share is just as important as what anyone else has to, no matter what people’s reactions might be.

Knowledge is discovered, not revealed. I have to repeat that to myself now often. We were in the LDS faith, taught that knowledge is revealed and revealed by those in authority. We were taught that it is not discovered and we are not to go out seeking its discovery.

So here’s to DISCOVERY!

Thank you!

A child who did something extremely hurtful or destructive could be banned for the remainder of the day.

I think bullying is to a large extent genetic and always has environmental contributing factors.

My father was a born bully but was made worse by his father and his poor environment as a child.

Bullying is one of the hardest to combat behaviors in any classroom. It's important to intercede early and be relentless with consequences for every infraction. That's very difficult because most bullies are sneaky liars who can hide their bad behavior much of the time.

In class suspensions worked for me where the child would sit isolated from all classmates and have all privileges at risk. Meanness or destructiveness meant losing what other children enjoyed. Hours of compliance meant getting to enjoy small bits of fun or camaraderie.

I'd say, "I need to see evidence that I can trust you before I can let you use my things or be with other children. For now, you'll have to sit alone and miss playtime and using my markers, snap-blocks, and puzzles."

Teachers can be bullies, too. My Algebra teacher was a bully. He eventually got fired. I think it has gotten worse than when I was in school.

Like some above, I have a sibling who was my bully. She was only 17 months older than I am and she made me suffer all the time at home and at school. Someone above said because his brother didn't want him to have friends. That makes perfect sense. My sister wouldn't let me talk at church functions like even playing volleyball. She'd elbow me in the ribs and tell me everyone thought I was stupid so stop talking. She did it at school, too. I was so happy when she'd move on to jr. high and high school as I had a year without her. She'd bully me behind my parents' backs and if I tattled on her, I'd always get in trouble, too. My dad said he finally figured out that if I was yelling, then she was up to something.

I got bullied some in school, too. There was a group of girls in jr. high who would corner girls (back in the day when we had to wear dresses every day and we wore slips) and pull their slips down. I lived in fear. I guess it happened to me, but I have "conveniently" forgotten as I have been told it did happen to me.

Then there was the time a girl's older brother threatened me because someone stole his sister's purse and IT WASN'T ME, but she thought it was me, so he came and threatened me. He was 16 and I was 12. ha ha ha ha My older brother found out and then my dad found out. And they took care of that.

My older brother protected my sister and I a lot, and he was one of the ones who did see what my sister did and he protected me when he was around.

There's a lot of info in this thread. I don't think there's a single cause nor an easy fix of the situation. I agree with others that there is a sense of empowerment to prey on those perceived as weak. It starts young and perhaps is modeled at home. It continues in the real world away from schools too.

I wish you the best. Just hang in there for a few more weeks.

Count yourself lucky if bullies didn't harass you at school. I caught a lot of it, and it was miserable. My father bullied me at home, and boys bullied me at school. In western Oregon, a whole community turned against my father. Jeff and I were bullied mercilessly by groups of boys who told us they hated our father. I think some of their parents put them up to it. We went to school expecting assault. One day a group of kids cornered me in the locker room. One big kid grabbed my hair and banged my head at the steel locker. I remember keeping my head down so that my forehead would take the blows. It hurt less that way.

Hate? Fear? I don't know. I just wish it hadn't happened.

Every bully I've ever met was bullied. They bully out of fear and ego protection. All bullies know in their heart they are worthless a-holes and desperately need you to feel the same. There is no reasoning with a bully. The only thing they respect is a bigger stick. Then they move on to their next victim...

This thread has really given me a lot of pause. It's helped me to see my own part in bullying in our home growing up. Because I was bullied so much I took some of that out on my younger brothers.

I teased one relentlessly sometimes. Most of us did. He was an easy target, because like me, he was sensitive to it and reacted. It was easy to get a rise out of him so it made it even more 'fun' for the rest of us.

Unfortunately in my family 'teasing' was the way we showed our 'affection'.. or that was our excuse. Participating in it made us feel included, so we all did it to some degree. It was a learned behavior for all of us.

Many in my family still do this. But some of us are learning now how destructive it was. My oldest brother (the NON sociopath one) recently expressed his distaste for and disapproval of our father's constant teasing of our mother. To the point of nobody taking her seriously in the family and nobody caring about her feelings. She ultimately just ends up laughing at herself too, but in a really sad way, like she just can't fight it so doesn't. She accepts it as some kind of act of 'love'.. but it's really not, it's a power trip. It's to keep her in her place.

I finally when I was in my early teens got to be the one to do the teasing and I guess it felt good, seeing my brother get mad and react. I feel terrible about it now. I realize how hard it must have been for him to be teased by so many people and not taken seriously. How when he'd ask us to stop we wouldn't.

No wonder he was the one who threw temper tantrums. He must have felt so powerless. It seems he still has issues now from it, but not facing them. Instead he became one of the most fanatic in my family.

Inspired by the support here I just wrote to him to apologize for my part in his harassment. I detailed my understanding now of what went on in our home in that regard and how I felt it must have made him feel and let him know how sorry I am.

I am sure it will be a shock to him. I haven't been in touch in a long time. We aren't close at all. I am hoping by naming what happened to him and to me (and really all of us) that it might help him identity that unnamable feeling he must still have eating away at him.

Maybe it will help us both to heal.

That is so cool ------ seeing it in yourself and reaching out.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/13/2017 07:47PM by thingsithink.

My guess is that there isn't just one cause of bullying. However, I believe that most of that type of behavior starts very young. I remember several years ago having a girl in my Sunbeam class who was a bully at three. Recently, I heard of a bullying incident that she was involved in. She clearly hasn't changed at all and unfortunately, I suspect her bad behavior will continue in her teen years and adulthood.

I think it's fairly safe to say that bullies lack empathy. Why exactly is anyone's guess. I believe home life often plays a large part in it. The worst bullies I have known also had parents who continually defended their child's bad behavior.

Like others have said, most bullies are bullied themselves. I tend to be a people watcher. While I'm in public places, I like to watch family members interact with each other. It is really shocking to see how many parents talk to and treat their own children with so little respect. Many parents are bullies who belittle and torment their own children and may not even notice that they are teaching their children bullying behavior.

"It is really shocking to see how many parents talk to and treat their own children with so little respect."

The root cause of bullying? I'd say it starts right there with your observation.

As Susie Q#1 said, there is probably no single cause, but a combination of factors. I can't help but believe, from my limited observation of bullying, that low self-esteem on the part of the perpetrator(s) has some bearing on it.

I think that in order to bully someone, you must either not be capable of empathy with your victim (sociopathy) or have the ability to set aside your empathy in order to torment your victim. The second group can be addressed by opening their eyes to the suffering they inflict. The first group is ultimately hopeless and can only be addressed by protecting their victims.

I'd (highly) recommend a referral to the school's special services team for an evaluation. Ask for intellectual, behavioral, and personality evaluations. There's a possibility that he may be identified as having a severe emotional disturbance. This would open further resources to assist you in dealing with the behaviors.

Such a referral will also bring in specialized teachers, school psychologist, counselor (and sometimes school nurse and social worker) to assist and serve as resources.

Even though it's near the end of the school year, start the referral process now. That would be quite helpful to his next teacher, and ultimately helpful to the student as well.

I already made the referral months ago. Our school's SST is mainly a roadblock in terms of getting things done. The pronouncement was that he is suffering from frequent school changes (the family has a history of moving every year.) I did independently get the mom to pursue an ADHD evaluation with her child's pediatrician, but nothing came of it. I will certainly give his next teacher a heads up.

Was an evaluation done before the "pronouncement" or did they pull that diagnosis out of their collective a**?

If an evaluation was not done, then the teacher and (especially) the parent need to keep asking for one. Schools often respond to parents much more than to their own teachers.

Is there a parent advocacy group in your area? There used to be Parents United, but it looks like they might have been disbanded. Ask the state special education department for names of any parent advocacy groups or organizations, and help the parent to access those resources.

Having an "interested party" from one of these groups attending a child study team meeting (at the parents' invitation) can do wonders in trying to get the district to move off their butts.

Also, a reminder to the administration of failure to help check the bullying behaviors of this student could likely land the district in a messy lawsuit and expensive legal action as the child's behaviors escalate (as well as negative publicity - they hate that). Other parents will not tolerate their own children being hurt by this one child, and it WILL blow up in their faces.

The school needs to act to resolve this issue, and not hide their collective head in the sand.

I've always been a bully magnet.

As a child I was shy, dumb, and ugly. I was the kind of kid you'd want to slam face-first into the lockers or stick your foot out and send sprawling. After that I'd go home and get smacked around.

Fifty years later, I am still shy, dumb, and ugly. My last two bosses were bullies, they loved to pick on me and put me down, especially if they had an audience of their toadies. They knew I needed my job and would not fight back.

No one picks on me now. I'm retired.

Finally a swan!

Sorry you were always the target. Don't believe that you weren't smart and as good looking as anyone else. Look around. As I reach retirement age, I'm avoiding mirrors!

Humans can be so mean. Stupid humans!

Thanks, Dagny, for the reply!

I had totally given up on dating, and that was when I met my sweet guy. We've been married 30 years.

Only one time did an acquaintance ask me how did *I* ever manage to "get" me such a nice, handsome, smart fella. I dug her in the ribs with my elbow, gave her a big wink, and said, "Whaddaya think?"

I read the other comments, that came after mine.

I thought, "No--my abusive brother was never bullied at home." My parents always took his side, against the accusations. They were permissive in allowing his bad behavior to continue. They ignored his loud outbursts and temper tantrums, saying, "Oh, that's just him. No one can do anything about it."

My parents were TBM, and they didn't believe in psychology. They denied that there was anything wrong with my brother, and they denied that my frequent bruises and black eyes had anything to do with my dear brother.

AND YET--my parents were extremely verbally abusive to my brother, and to me, too. They called my brother "Big Fat Slob." That was his name. My name was "Goddamned Brat." My brother was called "Worthless, Lazy, Clumsy, Mouth Breather, etc." He moved himself into the room above the detached garage, out of the house, and he lived like an animal.

"It is really shocking to see how many parents talk to and treat their own children with so little respect."

Bingo!

About animal abuse--I didn't write about that, because it was just too horrible. My bully brother would keep score, on the outside garage wall, of the animals he killed and tortured, and he would tell me about them--and scream loud, when I would cover my ears to not hear. I couldn't sleep for days after hearing about it. He would also sneak up on me, and then yell loudly to frighten me, pounce on me and beat me up--for no reason. A man screaming--like my brother, like my wife-beater ex-husband, like a loud bass speaker, like a loud lawnmower--are PTSD triggers that I will probably never get rid of. I'm sure shapeshifter has PTSD, and that the sensitivity to wi-fi is part of it.

Shapeshifter, your brother is a sociopath! What you wrote, that your brother is EVIL, really hit home with me. My brother was a talker, and never shut up, and the evil things that came out of his mouth were astonishing! Detailed fantasies about having sex with each of my little friends, and threats about what he was going to do to me, and hatred of the races and gays, and hatred of our parents, consumed him. He would save newspaper pictures of horrible accidents and people who were disfigured. He would laugh at other people's pain and suffering--I mean, a real belly-laugh of enjoyment!

Yes, I would have to smile along with him (or be beaten) and pretend that this was NORMAL.

Sociopath Mormon Bishop--God, I hope Shapeshifter can help her niece! I tried to help mine, and failed--but I never regretted trying.

I think it's a combination of one or many factors. Parenting styles such as laissez-faire, neglectful, or authoritarian can lead to severely negative behaviours. Abuse at home, not getting enough sleep, lack of discipline and follow-through, trying to be a kid's friend instead of a parent, or just plain kids raising kids and not knowing what to do. Some parents really don't care that their kids are misbehaving or bullying and expect the school to fix it. Not sitting down with the kids and explaining things in context or what's appropriate behaviour when the watch movies such as Deadpool or Sausage Party or shows like Dexter and they think they can mimic certain behaviours with no consequence. No accountability, too.


I see a lot of bullying at the school I work at as well- Girls as young as K age engaging in relational aggression calling each other fat, ugly, that sort of thing. I did not expect to see this level of racism and sexism with the kids either, the homophobia doesn't surprise me, though. We have a lot of poverty, child abuse, and drug abuse here in the Corners. Some of the kids' stories are just horrifying and I can't believe they have to deal with that at home.Combine that with the energy economy here tanking and you have a very bad situation for the families here.

The socio/psychopathy is something to be concerned with, especially if a child has the three signs at an early age and probably accounts for some bullies.

Low self esteemm can be a factor. Putting down others makes some people feel better about these own deficiencies and hurting others can make them feel powerful

Yes, most of the bullying I've seen and that was done to me was done from insecurity. In TSCC, insult humor was especially popular because they could claim it was just a joke, they weren't really being mean.

I've only met one adult who was a malignant sociopath who did it for other reasons. She was absolutely vicious and got away with it using her finely honed skills of manipulation, lying, and tears on demand.

I was bullied heavily in the late 90's, both at school and at church. I very nearly committed suicide as a result. I still don't understand why they did it. I mean I was overweight and got excellent grades, but I was also a pushover; my TBM parents had taught me never to resort to violence under any circumstance. And "tattling" was a big taboo back then. My parents never knew anything was happening until years later. But they never noticed my severe depression and anxiety, either.

In any case the bullies seemed to take a lot of pleasure from tormenting me, so maybe they were sadists or sociopaths. There have been well-documented cases of child sociopaths. A few years after I luckily got out of that situation, I heard that one of the kids who had bullied me actually stabbed and killed another kid in an argument. Though I'm inclined to believe the bad parenting angle, in all likelihood it's a combination of many factors, both nature and nurture, and different from bully to bully. And that makes a "solution" extremely difficult.

I complied nearly a hundred links on the wireless radiation topic a couple of years back. I have since bookmarked hundreds more. So this is just a short list here for those interested in further research.

Wifi in schools links-

http://www.babysafeproject.org/
http://www.safeschoolspg.org/health.html
http://www.wifiinschools.com

General info links-

http://www.bioinitiative.org
http://microwavenews.com
http://www.justproveit.net/studies
http://www.magdahavas.com

Documentary film links-

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/resonance-beings-frequency/
http://slt.co/Education/Media/CellPhonesAndBrainCancer.aspx
http://www.mobilizemovie.com/
http://www.ulule.com/ondes-science-et-manigances/

It wouldn't be a poopstone post without some kind of horribly racist aside, would it? Go away.


I hated high school. I hated it enough to drop out when I was a sophomore and get my degree through an online charter school.

A lot of it was because I went to school with some assholes.

What's worse than bullying almost is the people that had been your friends for years not intervening when people do fucked up shit to you.

I think bullying is rife in Utah because members are raised to think they are superior to others that are not in the cult and because these people are unimportant it is okay to bully and cause them to commit suicide. In my experience Mormons are very cruel and judgmental and seem to lack empathy which makes sense as Mormonism is based on a belief that they are superior and teaches its members to be that way. We have lived in Utah for over 4 years now and have encountered bullying which has stopped because we stopped being nice and putting up with it. The gloves are off and I truly believe that one has to stop bullying in its tracks or it will escalate. My 9yr old grandson is taking Judo and self protection classes because of bullying. He is no longer being bullied because they are afraid of him. Do not worry about the whys of bullying because it is a waste of time and does not solve anything. Action is the only thing that stops it.

For what it's worth, buddhism teaches that people harm others because they are unhappy. I must admit I've never seen a happy bully.

I was bullied a lot in elementary school (mostly teasing, and I remember being shoved around a couple times). I didn't really have friends and I was a little different, so I was an easy target. I think they were all just trying to seem cool and convince themselves that they were at the top of the classroom social hierarchy, although one time a complete stranger also pushed me to the ground.

One of the bullies apologized to me in high school, but I didn't even remember who she was. I think she just went along with it because it's what everyone else was doing. As for the main bullies, they were a grade above me (it was a combined 4th/5th grade class), and I never heard anything from them after the year ended.

In my husband's school, he had to suffer from a bully name "Billy Dart". (Does that sound like a bully's name, or what?)

My husband was very smart and loved school, which (I suppose) irritated Billy Dart, and therefore Billy did what he could do--which was pick on others and "bully" them.

So, IMO, those with low self-esteem may be at least one of the "root causes" of those who feel the need to bully others. (They want to be good at something.)