I went to school with mom the other day, I love going to school and seeing all my friends! We all have nicknames for each other that's so cool! I am the S-dog, there is B-man, J-dude, and O-guy! We like our nicknames and it is fun to have them. We have a new kid in class but he hasn't decided on his nickname yet. We all love calling each other these names but we don't like when other people call us different names.
One reason I asked to go to school with mom is that some of the other pups are teasing me and calling me names and it hurts. I wanted to know what my friends do in this situation so that I can handle the teasing better. Right now I get really mad and bark and growl, which seems to make the others laugh and tease me more. I don't like being called names and being picked on - I don't think anyone does.
When I brought this up with the guys they all got really sad. They have all been teased and called names too. B-man told me that when he was little - like last year - he would just call them bad names, but he kept getting in trouble on the playground because the teachers would hear him say the bad things but didn't hear what the other kids were saying. B-man explained that he couldn't always get the words out to tell the teacher what happened and he would end up sitting by the fence in trouble. He said that he would get the kid back later in the day by hitting or kicking him. Then B-man would get written up and in more trouble. He said that when he finally explained things to his teacher (my mom) she was able to help him learn how to ignore the bullies. Now that he is more grown up he just walks away from them - most of the time. He still gets mad and doesn't remember that he shouldn't hit. I can understand that he would want to hit bullies, I want to bite them!
J-dude says that he yells back at bullies or chases them, sometimes they stop teasing but most of the time they laugh at him and make him really mad. When J-dude gets really mad he cries and boy do the others tease him when he does that! J-dude said it is really hard for him not to react because he isn't stupid or retarded. He says he feels out of control when bullies tease him. Once he thought a girl liked him but she didn't she was just messing with him to make fun of him. That really stinks! He said he really thought that she wanted to be his friend.
All three of us have been teased and made fun of because we are different, mom says special but it doesn't feel special it feels bad. Mom tried to explain that sometimes other kids, pups and people don't really understad special people like us, that we make them uncomfortable. They do not know how to treat us so they make fun of us. People sometimes don't realize that we have the same feelings as they do, that seems just silly to all of us! We are just like everyone else but different!
We decided that we would make rules that we could all follow when we get teased. B-man said the first rule should be no hitting! We agreed no one should ever hit a kid or a dog! The real problem is trying to teach people about us and why we are special, different or weird. People need to understand that we are who we are and are just as happy about being us as they are about being them. At least that is what the Big Guy from high school says. I told Big Guy that he is big and people don't tease him the way they tease us little guys. Big Guy just smiled and said yes they do. I asked him how he handled teasing and bullies. He said that he found something that he was really good at and showed people how good he could be. I asked him what was he good at, so good at that people quit teasing him. He said he is really good with horses and cows, that he is a great cowboy! He also said that even though he is a great cowboy that some people still teased him. He said he ignores them or he just smiles and says thank you! That generally makes them quit teasing.
So now we have three rules:
1. Don't hit anyone
2. Be good at something and let people know
3. Ignore people when you are teased.
It was about this time the girls came into the room. Mom told them they could have freetime but they decided our conversation was way better than freetime. CG said that she handled teasing and bullying by making sure she was really different. CG has lots of piercings and her hair is really black. CG said that being different is good and we should celebrate out differencs. J-man said that he just wanted to be like other people. CG and Big Guy smiled and kinda laughed. They told him that they just wanted to be like everyone when they were little too. But they had to learn, just like us, that we are different and those differences are good things. B-man asked all the high school kids what rules they had for bullies when they were little. The high school kids came up with two more rules that will help us.
4. Walk away from bullies - this makes them weak
5. Talk to a teacher, counselor or parent when things are getting really bad.
We are so glad that we have high school friends that have been where we are! It is good to have older friends who understand how we feel and how mad we get! Lu had one more idea for a rule for us but wanted to talk to mom about it first. Lu and mom went out in the hall to talk. When they came back in they were both smiling. Lu sat down in the front of the class, he said that he thought it was important for us all to learn about our handicapping conditions. Lu said that when he learned about his emotional disability he was able to ignore the bullies and explain to others why he is different and why it takes him so much longer to learn things.
So, our rules are:
1. Don't hit anyone
2. Be good at something and let people know
3. Ignore people when you are teased.
4. Walk away from bullies - this makes them weak
5. Talk to a teacher, counselor or parent when things are getting really bad.
6. Learn about your disability and learn to explain it to others.
Each of the high school kids told us about their disabilities and how they explain their disability to teachers and other people. We were able to pair up with the older students to learn about our disabilities as well. There really wasn't a partner for me as I am the only beagle in the room but I went from group to group to listen and learned a lot about each disability. I will be writing later about each one later in the summer.
At recess we practiced our rules for bullies. It was a good recess! No one got hit but some kids got ignored! We did good!
