I sympathize with bullying victims because I was bullied mercilessly throughout school. People need to wake up. We all need to realize that the people who are doing the bullying are doing it to make themselves big by making someone else feel small.
Interestingly, although there were tons of rumors about my sexual orientation when I was in school, being called a "lez" didn't bother me, and maybe it was because I was actually straight so it just made me laugh. Being called a slut bothered me a lot more because even though I lost my virginity when I was barely 16, I thought I was in love with the jackass. I wasn't promiscuous. I started self-injuring at that point in my life and ended up locked in a psych ward for a weekend when I gored the hell out of my wrist after taking a handful of diet pills. The wounds were actually superficial. This was back in the early 80's. I was treated like I was both stupid and crazy. I'm not saying that cutting oneself is normal behavior, but it's a sign that something is going on that needs to be looked into, and simply acting like a condescending ass isn't going to help anybody. One nurse even told me "you are a freak, you will always be a freak, people like you will never be normal." I said "better a freak than a bitch like you." She went out of her way to make my stay there hell.
It took until I was 38 years old to be properly diagnosed with Bipolar II, and longer than that to realize that I also have borderline personality disorder, OCD, and PTSD.
I certainly hope that the mental health system has improved since I was a troubled teenager, but the schools need to be on the lookout for kids like this young man and all adults are responsible for teaching kids that being different is not an open invitation to inflict misery on another.
