1. Health

Sometimes Beaten Up

Share Your Story: Bullying of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Teens

From rsg0910

Updated April 18, 2010

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Your Bullying Experience

Constant teasing, now and then being beaten up but not badly, name-calling. My hearing aids were never touched.

I had one person actually throw stuff at my back at times. I came rather close to actually slamming my desk on him a couple times. I don't know why I didn't.

If I tried to defend myself, I'd be the one in trouble.

Your Coping Experience

Talking with others about it almost never did anything. The only time it did was when I came home with bruises on me and some hair was cut. The principal came down pretty hard on the kids.

But even then, they stepped it up in retaliation when I reported it. Even trying to avoid them never worked. Ignoring them? Never worked. Use suggested techniques? Never worked.

At its worst, one time my locker was broken into. EVERYTHING was taken that I needed for finals coming up within a week. Let's just say revenge was sweet, because I didn't need to take the tests. They averaged my scores out for the semester or year and that was my score for the class. There were plenty of pissed students in my classes when they heard about it.

The contents of my locker? Gone forever.

Even though some of the kids knew where I lived since I lived near the school, they never bothered me at home.

I've blogged about it on my blog. Look for the labels bullying, teasing, and mistreatment.

http://rsgeo007.blogspot.com/

Lessons Learned

  • Report it. Even if they don't believe you or act like it never happened, DOCUMENT IT! It helps if some friends can actually video it with your phone or other device.

Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing at Greater Bullying Risk?

I would say they are since it's easy to miss things here and there since they may not be able to hear some things.

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