Cast overboard

To the teachers, principal, and administration of our Jr. High school:

You know how Benjamin Franklin wrote all sorts of proverbs like “a penny saved is a penny earned”? Well I had written my own.

“The one who rocks the boat will be cast overboard”

Every time we dealt with harassment and cruelty, we “rocked the boat”. But alas, we were the ones punished for it and ultimately nothing was done.
“Oh they’re just words”.
“Just ignore them and they’ll stop”
“Oh s/he’s just lashing out.”
“Oh I had a bully once and I just did this one-time-situational-fix and they went away.”
“Have you ever heard the story of The Boy Who Cried ‘Wolf’?”
“The worst kind of bully is a crybully. Don’t be a crybully who cries just to get others in trouble.”
Every time. We were given some variation of those phrases. At best we were told “We’ll look into it”, but we all know that was just another canned expression made to get us to stop bothering them. The most that ever came from a “We’ll look into it” was an ineffectual reminder and never any effective punishment.
They picked on us because we were “Troublemakers”. If you picked on a “Troublemaker”, you could usually get away with it – because the adults will always assume they’re some high-maintenance crybaby calling out because our precious little feelings were hurt by a fly on the wall. In fact, you could often blame it on them.

Bullies are not stupid. They know who to pick on. If they pick on fellow “Troublemakers”, the teachers are less inclined to come over. They know that if they touch the “Goldenboy”, the teachers will practically teleport right to the spot and yank them into suspension faster than you can say “Stop”. As a result? Many of the “Goldenboys” became the worst bullies. Because it was always their word versus a troublemaker’s word. our reputations were stained in your eyes.

One time, we had a bullying seminar, and you said what was one of the most callous things I could ever imagine.
“If you don’t speak up about it, that must not have bothered you that much to begin with.”
What a hunk of burning trash.

We did speak up.
Like the person who rocked the lifeboat to warn you of the saboteur on board, you tossed us overboard. Every time. We learned that if we remained silent, we’d only just get more torment.

This is why we are silent.
We speak, but it never gets an acknowledgement.
So we remain silent.
After all, why bother speaking to someone who won’t listen?

Sincerely,
the “Troublemakers”.