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I would have liked these guys to respond to my calls.

Originally, last week’s post about whether the police should be involved in bullying incidents was going to be a one off. However, this past week or so, I have been reading the book by author Cherie White titled: “From Victim to Victor.” It’s Cherie’s own account of how she was badly bullied in junior high school and then high school and how she eventually was able to move past her experiences and lead a great life. At the moment, I’m still on the victim part and not to the victor but when I do finish reading, I will give a full review of it here.

For the purpose of today’s post, I want to share a part from Cherie’s book which is related to the subject of involving the police. In this instance, one of her bullies (and there were many) follows her home from school after she refuses to give up her seat on the bus and attacks her in the street in the presence of her brother and his friends. Cherie’s injuries require hospitalization and her father decides to go the legal route against the bully. Without wanting to divulge too much, the bully is given probation and ordered to stay away from Cherie and pay her medical bills.

Reading this account, it had me reflecting back to my own experiences and my post about involving the police. In one instance, my mother did threaten to press charges on two bullies if such a thing was to happen again. My fear would have been that even if I had pressed charges on those or any other bullies, I don’t think they would have even received the sentence Cherie’s bully did. At worst, they would have possibly been handed a restraining order or some light ‘slap on the wrist.’ Worse though is that there would have been a good chance that they would have been acquitted! See, the father of one of the bullies my mother threatened to press charges on was a well respected lawyer in the community. Many lawyers did live in that town so if not the father, there would have been another highly paid attorney to do the job. Combining that with the fact that I was a kid nobody liked, there would have been a good chance of an acquittal.

Another point I would have had in common with Cherie is the aftermath. She received a lot of bullying from a friend of the bully that was reported to police. In my case, a light sentence or acquittal would have encouraged the bullies more. After all, the son of the lawyer wore what he had done to me as a badge of honour and boasted about being threatened with being charged. I knew he was confident that lawyer daddy or one of his associates would have got him off.

In spite of the gloom scenario I have just painted, I think there is a time when enough is enough and if the school or parents won’t address the bullying, the police should be called when it escalates and believe me, it will! If the police don’t do anything, then it should be the newspapers. No one should have to suffer the bullying torment that Cherie and I both had to suffer.

To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Was-Weird-Publisher-Generation-Publishing/dp/B00SLVHRFG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36I8I1G32U0R4&keywords=he+was+weird&qid=1646071257&s=books&sprefix=he+was+%2Cstripbooks%2C148&sr=1-1

Or email me direct at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com