Sammy had a problem. He was the new kid in the class this year after a school transfer. At first, all seemed well as everybody was quite cool with him. Things started taking a turn for the worse when a group of boys from his class started borrowing a small amount of money from him. Initially, he enthusiastically lent them the money, thinking nothing much of it. However, they continued borrowing money from him, promising that they would return the money soon. The promises were never fulfilled.
When Sammy finally decided to confront the boys about the issues, the most unexpected thing happened. The boys brought him to an isolated place in school and beat him up, threatening to do him further harm if he ever dared to bring up the issue again. They also made him promise not to tell his parents the real reason for his injuries.
Sammy went home full of fear and doubt about himself. What did he do wrong to warrant such an attack on himself? Then something extraordiary happened. As he was surfing the internet while nursing his bruises, Sammy stumbled onto Woody's blog post titled "The Mind of the Bully". Sammy realised that while it was not his fault that the incident happened, he might really have been sending the wrong message to others, always flashing the latest accessories and gadets that his parents had bought for him to his classmates. Sammy had also always been a scatterbrain, always stumbling around the place clumsily and never really knowing what was going on around him. Could this be the reason he was targeted?
Sammy decided to do something to resolve this problem. Now, how was he going to go about tackling this issue?
4 comments:
Interesting post, linking it to your last one! Sammy had indeed been sending the wrong signals to the school bullies by flashing his accessories and gadgets to his classmates. I think the school bullies decided to pick on him for this very reason. He should have gained some insight on self-honesty after reading the post by Woody titled "The Mind of The Bully". Putting myself in Sammy's shoes, the first thing I would do is to stop flashing my gadgets, keeping them to myself. Next, I would seek help from other classmates, asking if they had encountered similar problems in the past, and how they handled it. The fact that Sammy was a transfer student meant that he had less friends and thus no group of friends to back him up. He should thus make more friends so that he has a group of friends to advise him and to help him in case the bullies try to extort money again. There is another alternative that Sammy could take which is reporting the matter to his teacher. However, I feel this could cause more harm then good as the bullies would just return to haunt Sammy with revenge on their minds. Thus I do not recommend this alternative. Sammy should also remain optimistic that once he got more used to his new school, he will know how to handle the school bullies just like everyone else is doing.
The are two ways, really. The soft politically correct method, or the radical fight-fire-with-fire method.
The former would entail making more friends, and stop showing off. There are strength in numbers and friends can provide the necessary support, physically or mentally, whenever one is confronted again. Find points of similar interests with one's classmates. Interact with them. Be friends with them. If one were to be lured to an isolated place again, fight back. Use every dirty tricks one knows. Bite, kick, practice active defense. Show the bullies it is not worth their times to pick on you.
The latter would entail one tells one's parents and teachers. Show them the injuries. Get them verified by a doctor or two. Involve the bullies' parents into this. Your parents should be supporting you. If the school's administrators refuse to get involved in something just beneath their own noses, get the police and court into this. Show them the school's reputation is at stake. The message must be clear and strong.
This scenario is very imaginative, Jeremy, especially with the link to the other post. I appreciate you putting the time and energy into imagining this.
You present two questions.
On the second, I'm not sure that it is answerable in the short run. Clearly the main character Sammy has some growing up to do. I'm not sure, too, whether Sammy isn't somewhat responsible, not for the beating of course, but certainly for the naivete in sending messages that were wrong.
In any case, thanks again for the creative approach!
Thank you guys for your opinions and encouragement again!
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