Posted on 03/20/2011 1:48:21 PM PDT by OldDeckHand
Casey Heynes has captivated the world’s attention with the video of him standing up to a bully and laying the smackdown. As some news reports analyze the consequences of the fight, one news show in Australia went right to Casey to get his inspirational story.
Casey provides play-by-play commentary for his bully confrontation and admits that he wasn’t really thinking. The interview reveals that Casey suffered from a “lifetime of torment and abuse” and was all alone since his friends had deserted him. Casey sadly spoke about how he could only remember a couple of days when nobody would tease him, and that he even contemplated suicide. Finally though, as documented in the now famous clip, Casey just reached a point where enough was enough and snapped.
Casey has no regrets about the incident, but even more importantly, has a profound message for bullying victims around the world: “look for the good days, keep your chin up and school ain’t going to last forever.” And with Casey’s international popularity, and hundreds of thousands of supporters through social media, Casey is likely to have many more very good days in the future.
(Excerpt) Read more at mediaite.com ...
When I go into the school this next week, I expect to witness the opening of a lot of cans of Whoop Ass.
If you put a group of kids of the same age together with little supervision you should expect "Lord of the Flies" behavior.
Yet the school system whines that home-schooled children don't get social interaction to try to eliminate the lack of revenue.
During an interview with A Current Affair , Casey said he had been bullied almost every day at school and even contemplated suicide a year ago when the taunts became too much.
“I started putting myself down and all the crap just kept piling on,’’ he said.
“That’s when I contemplated suicide.’’
A Year 10 student at Chifley College, St Marys, Casey said he was being targeted by a new gang of Year Seven students last Monday when he was attacked by Ritchard Gale.
Casey said his outburst was a “build-up’’ of more than three years of being attacked verbally and physically by other students.
“They used to slap me on the back of the head and said I was a fatty and to lose some weight.
“I’ve been duct taped to a pole before as well. They target me because I don’t retaliate.
“I’ve never reacted that way before but everything built up inside me for three years...I just had enough. All I wanted is for it to stop.’’
In school, I was picked on a lot, too, and I did the Christian thing, too, I turned the other cheek, let them have at me, but then one day, the cork blew, and I took the punk out (I punched him in the head and knocked him down). I was never bothered again after that. I think respect and self-respect are two very important characteristics in any person.
Mother of Bully Body-Slammed in Video Demands Apology From Her Son’s Victim
Gale’s mother, Tina, says she and her family are the victims, now that the video has gone viral, and she says Heynes owes her family an apology.
“We don’t need this posted everywhere,” she told Australia’s Seven Network on Wednesday. “I would like him to apologize.”
Tina said while was “shocked” at Ritchard’s behavior, she didn’t think he deserved to be slammed to the ground. Neither boy suffered serious injuries in the fight.
“I actually snapped, and grabbed him, and picked him up off the ground, and threw him to the ground in self defense,” the 16-year-old told Australia’s “A Current Affair” in an interview that aired Sunday.
“I wasn’t really thinking, I was just like, ‘Yeah, finally it’s over,’” he said of the experience. “I was scared.”
:) Most adversity can be turned to your advantage, altho not always. I had an extremely supportive family, which is probably key. In hindsight I wouldn’t trade my upbringing, altho I do sometimes feel a twinge of jealousy when friends talk about their tightknit community upbringing. I don’t have *roots*. However, I’ve lived everywhere, I’ve seen lots of things, and I have a very different perspective of things than most people. So...it’s all good. Just different.
bttt
One of my children is heaavy. Always has been, beautiful but big. Since the time she was three or four she has been verbally assaulted about her weight by other children.
Now as an adult she gets it less and there are certain men who just relish her lushness. And she is beautiful in a big lush way.
Prediction:
With three D and holographic viewing coming up I predict that round heavy people will come back into style. Thinness has been in style because of the two dimensions of tv. As that barrier is broken I think that lush large bodies will prevail.
They choose who they choose for a reason. You may not know what it is, but that is not the same as there being none.
“I didn’t realize how much trouble he was actually in until I saw that video,” Heynes’ father, Colin, told “A Current Affair.” “And he said ‘Well, that goes on every day, dad.’”
Heynes and Gale have both been suspended because of their school’s “zero tolerance” policy regarding fighting.
The teen doesn’t regret lashing out at the bully, even though he admits he could have seriously hurt the younger boy.
“I just wanted it to stop,” he said.
While many are praising Heynes, his father fears the fight video will only invite more bullies to target his son.
“There’ll be reprisals from other kids in the school and he still has to go to school somewhere,” he said, Australia’s Daily Telegraph reports.
“He’s not a violent kid, it’s the first time he’s lashed out and I don’t want him to be victimized over that.”
When you go into what school?
Possibly because of his size, physical conformation. Not that that excuses the bullies, but might in some degree explain their actions. He was different, and by his custom of not responding belligerently may have caused his tormentors to think they could continue to bug him without consequences.
Even as a former school teacher, I think home schooling is fantastic. Baring that, something along the lines of one room school house with small groups of mixed ages is probably a much better situation. Putting large groups together as we do now just is not a very normal or natural way for kids to interact. It probably is the most cost effective way, but I think we need to sit down and have a conversation as a country and decide if schools are there to, educate kids, baby sit kids or be jobs programs for adults. They cannot do all 3 of those things effectively, so we need to choose. At the moment, it appears that a small group is pushing for them to do #3 to the detriment of #1. I don’t think the American public has really come to grips with that fact.
Good point here. If you get the chance to page through Saul Alinsky's book it's really a "how to" manual for bullies. We know Hussein was bullied as a kid (he said he was anyway), now he's getting back an the world by bullying the country on a massive scale.
I guess liberalism really is a mental disorder.
From about 5th through 8th grades, my life was turned inside out by bullies.
I was exactly like this young man from Australia — a big, good-natured kid, very studious, just wanted to be left alone.
My worst tormenters were almost always smaller than me — an interesting parallel to Third World politics as it has been played for as long as I can remember.
Ultimately, I weighed the reality of daily insults against the possibility that I might get blamed for “picking on” a smaller kid.
So, I simply wrestled them to the ground before they could lay a hand on me, then sat on them until they gave up. They suffered no lasting harm and never bothered me again.
But it wasn’t entirely that simple. A simple take-down worked well against garden-variety smartmouths.
With real delinquents, the old maxim that “bullies are cowards” doesn’t apply. Some kids learn at an early age that life’s greatest pleasure is hurting others, and they get really good at it.
I knew a few like that, but fortunately never had to go head-to-head with one. But I came close enough to realize that the forces of righteousness don’t always win.
Actually the newspaper that reported that took her statement out of context. She wanted her son to have the opportunity to apologize.
Thanks for the info. I’m glad he fought back instead of doing something to himself. Wish the other kids parents would take this as a learning experience and say something along the lines of, “This is what happens when you pick on someone. Go apologize and make friends.” And, I suspect the media would make a human interest story of that and in a short while it wouldn’t be an embarrassing story for him any more.
So are skinny kids. When I was a skinny kid in grade school back in the late 50s we had a bully who picked on me and several other kids starting in the first grade. One afternoon when we were in 3rd grade he pushed me over the line when we were walking home and I found myself on top of him beating the crap out of him in a scene very similar to the one in the movie Christmas Story. The jackass never gave me any trouble again.
Oh great, just when I lose weight! Why am I always on the wrong side of the trend? ;)
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