For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for November 13, 2012

Not living up to Richard Starkey’s song, Lawrence and other kid are. (Best of luck to you, Michael Patterson.)

To quote Snoopy in today’s Peanuts strip, “It doesn’t take long to find out who your friends are!”

Mike needs some larger friends.

Yep, easy to see that bullying starts in the lower grades, not just high school. Nows the time the school should be paying attention and nipping these ‘threats’ in the early stages. However, a bully always knows when he won’t be seen and how to issue a scary threat. Michael should have his dad visit the school and then they can all confront this bully in the principal’s office together.

Friends – always there when you need them!!! Sometimes!

Why wait till later. Let’s get ready to rumble. (I got suspended from school for fighting)

Oh, man…I’ve been there! When I was in high school I remember one day so clearly. A girl threatened to beat me up for an imagined slight. I literally BEGGED some of my “friends” to walk with me. I KNEW the other girl would leave me alone if I WASN’T alone. However, no one would. I got a severe beating that day.

Didn’t have any problems when I was young. I had 5 brothers and Bullies did not mess with any of us.

well mike did bean Brad with the eraser . Brad is probably all talk

That stinks. It’s always easier to deal with a bully with a crowd. The bully is less likely to mess with you when he/she knows there’s more than one to deal with.

About 10 or 15 minutes before class ended, I used to tell the teacher I had to go to the bathroom so I could leave class early — and then run home instead. That was the only way I could avoid the bullies.

I wish in the 70’s & early 80’s that I got support for bullying too, in elementary and ESPECIALLY Jr. High! Say, isn’t Brad the kid who grows up to be a cop & he gets nicer?

Also, here in the Cleveland area, a 16 year old girl died because she got into a fight with another girl and the other girl went too far, and caused several internal injuries.

Teach the kids to box. All mammals have to learn to “protect” themselves, this what “playing” with one another is. This establishes a pecking order. Yes, some are at the bottom of the food chain, but that is life. If kids fight it out when they are young, they should learn that no one wins in a fight and they then find other ways around it. A frustrated kid that has never learned a pecking order will soon pick up an equalizer and then it starts. Kids need to scrap.

Not that I agree with the attitudes of Michael’s friends, but then again, neither Lawrence nor Gordon flicked the eraser. They are Michael’s friends, not his henchmen.

If public schools are rife with bullies and lowlives, then it is times like this I was glad to be a military brat who was homeschooled because my dad moved from duty station to duty station.

I’d have an easier time believing Brad as a bully if he’d been the instigator here. Michael DID hit him with an eraser…and anyone who’s ever had the words “DID TOO!!!!!!” pass from their lips has no room to condemn Brad for not believing Michael’s denials.

Fortunately, I was tall for my age and no one wanted to “try me”. If they had, they would have found that size didn’t matter. They could have kicked my butt so often, they’d lose their shoe in it.

KICK HIS A$$ Seabass!

When I was in Junior High there was this girl who had a rep for turning on her friends and beating them up. She actually picked me for a friend, I was nervous but was a true friend. Until one day I did something that made her mad. (still not a clue as to what) I was walking in front of her out of gym class and she tried to smash my head in with the cast on her arm. As I’m sitting on the ground crying, she bent over me and told me not to tell a teacher or else. I was so scared I didn’t know what to do, but a teacher found me. I couldn’t lie, I told the teacher what happened. So I got taken to the princapals office, and they actually left me alone with the girl in the office for a little while. Guess they were spying, cause as soon as they heard her tell me she was going to kill me after school they showed back up and then had her arrested and expelled her from school. They sent me home and I got x-rays of the side of my head and ear. Did you know you can actually break the cartilage in your ear? I didn’t til then.

As far as Michael’s friends are concerned . . . discretion in this instance is the better part of valor!

Oh my this is going to be interesting. Good luck Micheal.

Well, as a kid still in elmentry school, i’m used to bullying.The worst thing I have eever done was shove this boy into his locker. He got stuck in his locker for over 2 hours until someone heard him screaming. I got suspeneded for over 2 weeks. But, the boy kept trying to kiss me. I was sick of it so I shoved him into his locker. I live in Ohio and my school usd to be high school, now a middle school. Bein 12 and 5’10 is really annoying. Also the fact that i am blonde. I’m not dumb. I have heard so many blonde jokes it’s not even funny anymore. I’m either being picked on by brunettes or girls with black hair. Only red heads side with me bcuz they’re tired of being called carrot heads. Some times being a bleach blonade isn’t that fun…

Some things never change, apparently.