And....again

Once my seventh grade year arrived, the taunting only intensified. It seemed as though the circle of bullies had grown over the summer, and the church friends continued their retreat. Prior to coming back to school that year-I along with my church youth group had attended a summer camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Asheville, North Carolina. During that trip we bonded and became stronger-or so I thought. However, once school reconvened-those bonds were gone and so were the people.

I was sitting in my seventh grade math class one morning when Jon Patton, the "newest bully" began saying things to me like "you faggot" and "sissy boy". Unfortunately, this kid would be scheduled in every one of my classes that year and for whatever reason, our seats in class were always in taunting proximity.

On this day in math class-Jon decided he would take his taunting one step further. Right at the end of class when the teacher had her back turned Jon picked up his math textbook (a rather large hard bound book) and slammed it into the back of my head. At first I didn't know what had hit me. I blacked out for a second and then realized he had hit me with his book. Then, the bell rang and everyone left the room laughing. I walked to the front of the class to tell my teacher. She was stunned and upset-the blow to my head had left a huge knot. She immediately took me to the office-there I had to give an account of what happened.

The principal still indifferent to the situation called Jon to the office and had a chat with him. Huge mistake on my part. Jon was given a reprimand and allowed to stay in detention after school. The next day he was back in class. From there you can only imagine.

The rest of my seventh grade year, saw my clothes getting stolen and thrown in the trash can during gym class, my school supplied being taken and place in the toilet in the boy's bathroom, and my weight increasing a hundred fold because I was so stressed.

At this point-I honestly wanted to "go away".