I was a bully at school, I don't recall ever picking on a kid because of this or that attribute or for that matter defecit, my victims (if you can call them that) were selected on the basis of how much they were willing to put up with.
Basically because the core of our group at tech school were big, strong and confident we'd attract the smaller weaker boys who couldn't fend for themselves, they became subservient to us in exchange for hang around privileges.
The real bullying came in the form of pitting the weaker kids against each other, egging one on, pushing one to the outer for no reason and ganging up on him, playing favourites and all manner of sadistic mind games and physical abuse.
We had kids in the school who were slow, who were very poor, disabled and a few who were "pansies" but there's no sport in harassing them and you'd never want them in the gang anyway, better to have smart but weak kids who have a bit of pride in themselves.
I don't know, we were blessed with girls so I'm up with what goes on in all female cliques but I have no idea of the state of the art in male bullying at present, the girls don't seem to have changed much across the generations so I'd assume the boys gangs operate in much the same way.

Good evening to you POIROT...

I'm sorry I must have missed your reply contained in another, earlier Topic, it seems to happen more than usual lately? Though I've undergone several testing sessions at the Repatriation Hospital in the last 2 or 3 years with the neuropsychologists, they claim I have a gradual onset of age related Dementia. Which according to them will have very little impact, other than some 'minor memory disruption', whatever that means? That said, I'm going along quite well, thank you for asking.

Someone said, all children should be able to attend school without the fear of being bullied, and I couldn't agree more. I was fortunate at school, I played Rugby League in winter and Cricket in the summer, and as my mate HASBEEN said, that type of activity tended to insulate you from the ordinary school bullies. Most of them for one reason or other, weren't all that interested in sports per se., which was quite amazing really?

o sung wu,

My reply was only made the other day, quite sometime after you posted on the thread about me...so it's not surprising you didn't see it.

Yep...although I was bright enough academically, being good at sport was my saving grace too at school. I played cricket (although back then the girls weren't allowed to. I'd spend half of lunch hour playing cricket with boys and the other half on bin duty because I'd played cricket with the boys) Also played kick-to-kick footy with the boys and netball and softball with the girls. I surfed on the weekends because we lived near a beach.

Funny how physical prowess makes others look up to you...don't ya reckon?

Bugsy:

Which one is not bullying – a. Useless, b. Pig, c. Faggot, d. Douchebag ?

Cossomby:

“The thing that really disturbs me about this thread is the rush to negative judgement on a child, when none of us here can possibly know what the real story is. That in itself amounts to something very like bullying.”

We know what we have been told in the article and we presume that is the real story. If we cannot presume that much then it is pointless ever discussing what the media tells us.

It is not bullying to criticise his behaviour in response to what he has called bullying and his opinions. If he wants the attention then he has to be prepared to accept that not everyone is going to feel sorry for him or agree with his analysis of the situation. From the story we can tell that he lies, dramatises, and manipulates. None of these are endearing qualities. If he thinks that people are just going to ignore all that then he is very naive indeed.

In a court of law he would be considered a very unreliable witness.

Prebs:

“Either someone (all) being bullied is (are) newsworthy or none of it is.”
This is a very important point and the media should be called to answer for it. Perhaps the editor has a personal agenda to push which is an abuse of their position.

Foxy:

“This school failed in its job”

That is for the court to decide. Perhaps he was the real problem. Maybe he was such a bully that the other kids did not know how to deal with him so responded in kind. The school may not have been able to handle him. There are lots of possibilities that could have occurred and need to be considered before jumping to the emphatic conclusion that the ‘school failed in its job’.

Well it all depends on context, doesn't it phanto.

I'm weally weally sowwy if the poor widdle phanto feels soo bullied by the big bad bugsy :(

Maybe you should change schools.

phanto,

The young person was bullied - he obviously has some psychological trauma to deal with as a result.

Why would you surmise:

"....Maybe he was such a bully that the other kids did not know how to deal with him so responded in kind. The school may not have been able to handle him. There are lots of possibilities that could have occurred and need to be considered...."

There was no indication in the article you posted which suggested anything of the sort.

On the contrary:

"Ms Whitmore went to police and eventually took out an intervention order against her son's tormentor.

In a letter entitled "ongoing bullying of Nathan Whitmore" seen by the ABC, Mr Lloyd stated the school "dealt with a number of incidents over the last two years involving 'harassing and bullying'."

So your flights of fancy in attempting to paint this kid as anything but a victim are just that - flights of fancy - driven by goodness knows what in your sneering attitude.

We have to ask: "What is your problem?" - that you can put the rhetorical boot into a young man for bringing school bullying to wider attention.

Weird!