Trapped In Hell: for outsiders now in school

You're in middle school, or junior high, or high school. Other kids beat you up regularly, or spit on you, or push you into lockers. Maybe you have a few friends who are outsiders like you, or maybe you have no friends offline at all.

I'm an adult now, but when I was in school I was an outsider like you. I had no status whatever at my school; my classmates didn't consider me to be human. My school experiences were so awful -- and so different from the way everyone seemed to expect school to be -- that I thought I was completely alone; that no one else could possibly understand what was happening -- or, later, what had happened -- to me.

But it's a big Internet out there, and out there there are others who understand. Others who are trapped in a nightmare which seems unending; others who come home quietly and bandage each day's cuts and scrapes before parents (or brothers, or sisters) can see. And still others who are grown up now, but who still remember how it was...like me.

A few websites have information aimed specifically at students who are being bullied. Here are some of the better ones. (I've ignored the ones which say things like, "Invite the bully to play games with you. He/she probably just feels left out." *snorts* I'm sure you've heard that sort of thing often enough before.)

What is Bullying? -- This page was created by the U.K. organization Childline. It too has numbers that bullied U.K. students can call.

No Bully -- New Zealand Telecom and the New Zealand Police have put together this page. It seems to be aimed at elementary-schoolers, but if you live in New Zealand, the phone number might be useful.

Stop Bullying Now -- This site was created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It too is mostly aimed at elementary schoolers, and it doesn't have any phone numbers, but it does have an ongoing anti-bullying comic strip.

The BB Clic is beatbullying's kids' UK web portal. It's a fully interactive Flash site which takes an innovative approach to delivering anti-bullying resources for young people. The site is a virtual community, with a four-story clubhouse containing, among other things, a surgery, cinema, sound studio, games arcade and cyber cafe. It also hosts a blog and a message board.

Cruel at School -- Bev Powell's daughter was bullied at school. Now she runs a website where bullied students can go for advice.

Scared of School is a teen-run site in Scotland. It hosts support forums for kids who are afraid to go back to school.

If you're being bullied and you need legal help, Brooke Whitted, a lawyer in Illinois, may be willing to take your case.

Notice of Harassment Kit -- The commercial website Documatica offers a free Notice of Harassment legal template which parents or guardians may send to school systems or to bullies' parents in the U.S. and Canada.

And for other links of interest to outsiders (but not directly concerned with bullying) check out Raven Days' Outside Over There.

"Ozy and Millie" is © 1999 by D.C. Simpson, and appears here by permission.

All original material on the Raven Days website, except the material appearing in the sections Words Out of Shadow and Lighting the Way, © 1999-2008 by its creator and maintainer, Meredith Minter Dixon.. Copyright to the articles in the sectionsWords Out of Shadow and Lighting the Way is retained by their authors. Counter: 11433