Damn...my friend got bullied pretty bad

I met this guy about 8 or 9 years ago in a programming chatroom. I’ve actually met him several times in real life (though I haven’t seen him in 4 years or so) and even though he’s very strange, I consider him a friend.

I always knew that he got picked on a lot when he was younger but I just took it as a given; we never really talked about it. Tonight we got on the subject somehow and it was pretty damn upsetting.

Let’s listen in:

me: did you ever have a good/happy relationship with your parents?
him: uh sometimes
me: sometimes still
me: or only when you were younger?
him: yea… school beat it out of me
him: for the most part
him: until i just dropped out and said enough is enough
me: dropped out of high school you mean?
him: yes
me: that sucks man
me: you dropped out because people were mean to you?
him: yea man
him: i couldnt stand it
him: these kids hit my truck
me: that is really shitty
him: broke the front windsheild once
him: and then did it again and broke the passenger side window
me: [that’s] fucked up man
him: i know
him: kids are mean
me: kids are RUTHLESS
him: some were okay
him: i just hung out with the wrong kids
him: well, the good kids were segregated
him: they didnt want to touch me probably out of fear they would be picked on
me: why do you think they chose you to pick on?
him: so i was stuck being “freinds” with the ones who caused all the toruble
him: probably because i was happy as is and they weren’t
him: or i didn’t talk to them because they were ganging up on me
him: in high school i was always so pissed they said i looked like a serial killer
him: and it was a comment i got ALOT
him: and i would walk around during lunch time cause i didnt have somewhere to be
him: noone to hang around with cause josh and them had a different lunch hour
him: so eventually i begged my parents into letting me drive to school
him: then the rats came in
him: the ones who were suddenly my freind all of a sudden
him: oh god it was too much

The conversation wasn’t as one-sided as it looks. I took out most of what I said unless it was a question and a few little back-and-forths between us but this is the gist of it.

Like I said, I always kind of “knew” this, but it’s pretty upsetting nonetheless to have it confirmed.

That’s pretty sad. This sort of thing is one of the reasons that I want to do homeschooling when I have kids. Too many times, kids are allowed to run wild at school and those who are different are brutalized until they end up destroying themselves or lashing out at others.