Bully, Back Off! (A view of a bully from a parent’s perspective)

I am so tired of your hateful, anti-social behavior, bully. Your sadistic goal of sucking the joy out of my child’s school day stops now!

Your cruelty is far reaching, touching countless children and adults:

Your victims who dread going to school because you have made it unbearable and frightening.

Parents who agonize during the school day praying that you will give their kid a break and fantasizing that your family will relocate and take you far, far away.

The administration that repeatedly tries to curb your mean behavior while soothing irate parents outraged that you are allowed on school grounds.

Teachers doing their best to reinforce basic etiquette skills like kindness and respect in the classroom.

Where have you been for the past decade while the rest of us have been besieged (thankfully) with bullying education and heartbreaking stories of bullying and its long-lasting impact? I was told yesterday, while complaining to school administration about YOU for the second time this week; that a bullying presentation will be given at your school next week. Be sure that you don’t miss this yearly lecture-I hear the eighth time’s a charm. The government even has a website called stopbullying.gov which I suggest you visit; your bullying style is textbook and you’ll relate to a lot of the content.

Bully, Back Off! (A view of a bully from a parent’s perspective)

You may be unaware of the impact your viciousness has on others so allow me to enlighten you.

You are a thief. You rob us, your victims, of the great afterschool conversations that we used to enjoy so much. Now we have to talk about YOU and the cruelty that you meted out today.

You are a time vampire. You waste our precious time that should be spent hanging out with friends and family, running a business, practicing sports, reading a great book, playing music, doing homework, in fact doing anything else worthwhile besides dealing with YOU. We don’t have time to call the school, meet with the principal, meet with your parents, and talk to the teacher. We want our time to go to our own children not YOU.

You are a backstabber. You enlist bystanders to collude with you and if they don’t you target them next. Fearful you’ll turn on them, they egg you on when you torture your victims. Against their better judgment they feed your wrath and assist you in tearing down your victims.

You are a conspirator. Your threats of retaliation cause our innocent children to lie for you and say everything is okay. Fear of retribution creates a sick relationship between you and your victims and alienates adults.

You are a manipulator. You lie and lie and lie about your behavior. You blame the victim, and the spectators (your co-conspirators) are so afraid of you they back your lies up. You swear up and down to your teachers and school administrators that you didn’t do it or it was nothing but a joke. You know how to game the system, you’ve been doing this a long time. You’re not getting caught and you’re not stopping. In fact, you’re kind of ticked off that an adult confronted you so you might up your game.

You are a predator. You troll the school for your victims perking up at the first sign of whatever you, in your closed-minded brain, perceive to be weakness: timidity, gentleness, small stature, introversion, non-confrontation, intelligence, creativity, and fear.

You are a coward. You prey on people smaller than you. You bully in insidious ways so that you don’t get caught. You don’t admit that you are a bully. You don’t have the courage and maturity to deal with whatever internal upsets you have going on in your life.

Bully, Back Off! (A view of a bully from a parent’s perspective). I know that if you are reading this, you are smirking. You will keep doing what you are doing, because you can’t help it. You are like a robot, wired to do what you do. And I feel sorry for you and for everyone around you, including my child and our family.

But know this: Your bad behavior ends now. We are going to use every legal means in our power to stop you and protect our child from your cruelty, viciousness, and abuse. We are working closely with the school administration to stop you from hurting our child and other children in the school. You picked the wrong family to bully.