A Boy the Bullies Love to Beat Up, Repeatedly

[JackBeck]

Published: March 24, 2008

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.

All lank and bone, the boy stands at the corner with his younger sister, waiting for the yellow bus that takes them to their respective schools. He is Billy Wolfe, high school sophomore, struggling.

(snip)

Things got worse. At Woodland Junior High School, some boys in a wood shop class goaded a bigger boy into believing that Billy had been talking trash about his mother. Billy, busy building a miniature house, didn’t see it coming: the boy hit him so hard in the left cheek that he briefly lost consciousness.

(snip)

In ninth grade, a couple of the same boys started a Facebook page called “Every One That Hates Billy Wolfe.” It featured a photograph of Billy’s face superimposed over a likeness of Peter Pan, and provided this description of its purpose: “There is no reason anyone should like billy he’s a little bitch. And a homosexual that NO ONE LIKES.”

(snip)

So who is Billy Wolfe? Now 16, he likes the outdoors, racquetball and girls. For whatever reason — bullying, learning disabilities or lack of interest — his grades are poor. Some teachers think he’s a sweet kid; others think he is easily distracted, occasionally disruptive, even disrespectful. He has received a few suspensions for misbehavior, though none for bullying.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/us/24land.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&ref=education&adxnnlx=1206381987-qZX6pqr19vCUcUEMeCxySw

[meegbear]

1. He's a better man than me ...

I was bullied for years in school, not that level physically. I would've been outta there as fast as I can.

I hope he makes it.

[JackBeck]

4. You can add me to "the club".

Never physical, probably because I was able to run fast.

Just constant verbal abuse starting in the 6th grade. I couldn't wait to graduate and get the hell outta there. And I was actually gay. This kid self-identifies as straight, yet gets anti-gay harassment.

[YOY]

2. When you grow up around rednecks you get their brunt

One of the reasons why I favor a Northern European school system. Split the kids up at High School and have vocationally based high schools that prepare them for college. Call it narrowing an pigeon holing but kids like Billy would have a less chance of being stuck with the kids who have futures in fast food service and prison only.

[Double T]

3. Bullies are psychopaths in training. All schools need to eradicate their halls........

of these hopeless individuals.

[msmcghee]

5. Agreed!

If only more people understood this.

[TrogL]

19. They're actually sociopaths

They use social techniques to surround themselves with supporters.

[DrFever]

6. I was bullied until I turned the tables

I was never a jock, sticking more to speech and debate. Here in the south, if you ain't a jock, you don't count. I was constantly being beaten up or slapped around, humiliated in front of everyone.

Then one night I happened upon one of my bullies, a baseball player, putting his stuff in his car. I snatched his bat out of the trunk and I swung away. I tore him up and he had no idea who was attacking him. He figured it out when I visited him in the hospital. He never played again. To this day he walks with a limp.

I was never bullied again.

It didn't help. I still feel like shit for what I did to him.

[guitar man]

7. hey Dr

welcome to DU, I see you're a fellow Tulsan :hi:

I know how you feel, I was a "runt" of a kid when I was in grade school and junior high, got picked on a lot. I finally took a big stick to a bunch of them one day when I couldn't take any more. It never feels good, but sometimes the only way to handle bullies is to put them on their ass with a bloody nose.

[Xithras]

11. Unfortunately the penalties for defending yourself often penalize the victims.

I was a skinny, lanky kid in HS, but I wasn't a pushover by any measure. My freshman year some bully twice my size decided to take his aggression out on me, and attacked me in a classroom between classes. At one point he picked me up and physically threw me over the top of a lab counter. Unfortunately for him, I grabbed one of the lab stools as he came around the counter to continue his beating and swung it at him. A few moments later he was on the ground nursing a broken nose and a shattered jaw while trying to find the three teeth I'd knocked out. The hard wooden seat on the stool had connected squarely with his face and did a LOT of damage.

One of us barely beat an expulsion hearing and ended up with 14 days of suspension and a mandatory ejection from the school track team, and was arrested for assault. The other received a three day suspension. Care to guess who received which penalty?

[Cronopio]

12. "I still feel like shit for what I did to him."

You shouldn't. It's not your fault that he had to be threatened into civility - that was his choice.

If he came out of it with a limp, I'd hazard a guess that you've also saved others from being abused. Who knows, he might have done the same thing to an innocent person had he gotten away with bullying someone enough times. There have been abusive husbands who have gotten a hole in their head as payback, so maybe he got off easy.

[Dr Fate]

15. My story is similar. Too bad this is so common. n/t

n/t

[htuttle]

17. Add another "I went through that too" right here

Four-eyed from the fourth grade and too smart to not get singled out...with a fucking cowlick I couldn't get rid of.

I too got it from all sides year after year, until one day...'Through quiet reflection and great dedication I mastered the art of karate and rose up...and then I made the bugger's eyes water...'

Still feel kind of bad about breaking that guy's nose though. He cried. It was a really pathetic scene by the end...I ended up taking no joy in it. :(

[Vincardog]

8. I had a somewhat different experience. Every so often a new kid would transfer in

and he would try to make his rep on me. I was the tall skinny kid.
I would let him go on and on, say and do anything he wanted. I did not want to fight.
Then the new kid would hit me. Probably punch me in the nose.

And I would beat the shit out of him.

[pleah]

9. Why haven't the parents filed assault and battery charges against the kids that beat him?

Just because the school did not do anything about this doesn't mean that they can't.

[JackBeck]

10. They just filed a lawsuit:

'The Wolfes are not satisfied. This month they sued one of the bullies “and other John Does,” and are considering another lawsuit against the Fayetteville School District. Their lawyer, D. Westbrook Doss Jr., said there was neither glee nor much monetary reward in suing teenagers, but a point had to be made: schoolchildren deserve to feel safe.'

[kevinbgoode]

20. I hope they sue those teenagers out of their college education

I'm sick and tired of being part of the public which is expected to pay for the "education" of these jerks. If their parents haven't taught them to respect others, they have no business out in public. And yes, their parents ARE responsible for their behavior.

After reading this story (and a column in the Fayetteville newspaper) I have no sympathy for the school district, either. This has, apparently, gone on for years and there is no excuse for it. None. If their "disciplinary" action doesn't include filing criminal charges when a teen willfully attacks others with intent to cause great bodily harm, they need to start doing so. Hell, I'd be willing to support filing charges against the parents as well - after all, in those cases where the overgrown teen is bullying the parents at home, the courts need to intervene.

Moreover, the teachers/administrators who knew this was an ongoing problem needed to intervene. If a kid punched someone in my classroom, his ass would be out of that classroom and the building - and I'd make it real clear he wasn't welcome back. Send the bullies to work at McDonald's and let them earn their diploma when they are old enough to pay attention and treat others with respect.

Of course, I think parents coddle their kids much too long as it is today. I'm an older graduate student, but I am shocked at the number of grad students in their late 20's/early 30's whose parents are subsidizing their education, paying their car insurance, furnishing their Internet and cellphones, and paying for them to take VACATIONS. And, naturally, right down to the very last one, all of these "kids" are "takers" - they treat everyone else as a resource for something free.

Now as a college-level teacher who occasionally has high school students (who, as honors students, are generally well-behaved). . .I tell them the first day that if they disrespect me or each other, their ass is out of the classroom. Period.

[Iris]

16. That's what I kept thinking. Glad they are taking some legal action now.

[martymar64]

13. Billy needs to find one of them alone, then . . .

Take a baseball bat, tire iron or something similar and put that bully into intensive care or a wheelchair. The others will never fuck with him again.

[Dr Fate]

14. I'm sad and almost ashamed to say that this works.

I was bullied until I was 15- and never, ever again after I did something similar to what you suggest.

In fact, the kid I injured wanted to be my best buddy after that- LOL.

I really hate to admit that this is sometimes the only resort.

I hope that this kid finds a solution that works for him- bad grades? Distracted? Been there.

[backscatter712]

24. Absolutely. It should be legal to do this.

I'm 34 years old, and still, to this day, am a ball of fucking rage for what a bunch of little shits did to me in junior high school.

I should have literally killed them.

[dsc]

18. I am just outraged

That poor kid. I never got beaten that badly, thank god, but I can sure relate to being hassled at school. I hope he is OK.

[flvegan]

21. Billy, call me.

Nothing else to add.

[riverdeep]

22. Wow, I experienced deja vu for a second.

Glad to see this story getting more exposure, but for what it's worth, a torrent of fury was posted here, as well:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3052424

[backscatter712]

23. I hate bullies. HATE 'EM. Kids should be encouraged to strike back at 'em

My only regret from school is not striking back more often.

One bully learned some fucking respect when I gave him a swift kick in the groin.

Another had a broken rib, and then thought it funny to spit in my face in the gym locker room, so I punched him square in that broken rib. That punch might have killed him. Unfortunately, it didn't

I don't regret striking the fuckers one bit. As far as I'm concerned, if you behave like that, you forfeit your right to be treated as a human fucking being. Open fucking season.

When I have kids, I'm teaching them to never, ever put up with that shit, and above all, NEVER FIGHT FAIR. If he's being bullied, get a baseball bat, wait in ambush, and brain the little shit. If the bully gets hurt, brain damaged, maimed, crippled or killed, too fucking bad.