Today, for the second day running I have been harrassed by some thugs from the local high school.
Yesterday as I was walking back to my office from my lunch break I saw them about 100 metres ahead sitting on someone’s front yard fence. As soon as they saw me I noticed one of the two nudge his pal and they got up and started walking toward me. Taking up the whole width of the footpath, neither of them would give an inch as they approached. As they passed I commented aloud about their poor manners, and then it started. I copped an earful of gutter-mouthed verbal abuse. I was repeatedly called a f***in’ poofter which is ironic since one of them suggested I should perform oral sex on him. As I kept walking the larger of the two then started to challenge me to a fight (‘yer wanna go do yer mate?’). So I stopped and turned around to see them take off like the cowards they are.
Today something similar happened but this time there were three of them. I was sitting on a chair outside the post office and all of a sudden I hear them (‘wot are you lookin’ at, yer f*in’ red-edded ct?’) Once again they continually challenged me to fight. I reckon they are trying to provoke me into violence so they can get me into some real trouble. I just sat there and took it until a bystander threatened to call the police and be a witness for me. After a few more choice words once again they took off like cowards.
It is a very upsetting, depressing situation. I really do not know what I can do. I am not a violent person. The last time I got into a fight was back in '76 in high school. And even if I were violence against children is out of the question.
I feel completely powerless. If I knew their names I could go to the school and speak to the principal. Even so I’m not sure what he could really do about it. I may have to give up going out for my lunch break as well as give up walking to and from work.
Talk to the principal anyway. Keep walking that way, and get a photo of the kids if you can - if they try it again. Holding a camera phone up to them should be enough to make them think twice. The principal will be able to find them wit hthe photo. Be polite to the principal, but tell him that if it continues you will be going to the police.
Whatever you do, don’t stay locked in your office during lunch break because of these little scrotes.
I’m curious to know what they’re doing on the streets in the middle of the day anyway. I reckon the principal would be too.
I’m sorry you’ve been treated so badly.
You’re quite right not to consider violence (they’ll claim you started it; they’ll bring their friends etc).
But you should contact the School.
I teach at a private school in England, which obviously can be different. Nevertheless we would be horrified to hear of such behaviour. We would probably know the likely suspects and measures taken would include speaking to the family and suspending the pupils (with threat of expulsion).
Go to the police. You may not be the only victim and they may already be aware. They may actually park an unmarked cop in the area to catch them in the act (it would be easy enough to do).
Fuck them. You don’t need to fight and you don’t need to take it.
Although it’s not totally clear, I presume that the same kids were involved in both incidents.
Anyway, this precisely what the police are for. I agree with the others here that the OP should give physical descriptions of the harassers to both the school Principal and the local police, then let them handle it. There is no reason whatever to tolerate unprovoked abuse, verbal or otherwise.
This truely does suck. I really feel for you. They are being bullys as even if they never lay a hand on you it still hurts to have to deal with jerks like these. Yes, they are cowards.
I say, continue to ignore them. They have not done anything to physically hurt you up to this point. The threat level is still low, so continue to do what you can to have the authorities (school or otherwise) take care of the situation… But if they raise the threat level and start physically assaulting you, go ahead and beat the crap out of them.
I really do empathize with you. Please keep us updated and let us know how this turns out.
The only thing I would say is be careful waving a camera or a camera phone around in their faces… At the moment they’re all mouth and no trousers, but the phone may have the opposite effect from the one you want - that may be enough to rile them into stealing the phone, if not trying to hurt you in the process.
I agree, though, that you need to speak not only to the principal of the school, but the police as well. If they keep harassing you, keep making noise until something is done about it.
Just remember that eventhough you don’t want to escalate the situation to be physical, you still have the right to defend yourself should they provoke it to that point.
Don’t let those thugs run you off. You have just as much right to be there as they do. Get the pictures of them if you can do so safely and discreetly. Go to the principal AND the police. Do you have a way of perhaps recording the words they say to you for evidence? (Maybe your phone turned to video in your pocket or some such?) I agree with others who said this must stop. Those thugs would take a child’s pocket money and probably worse in time. I would strongly push for them to get counseling and sent to a course to teach them respect for society’s laws. They are on a path to no good if they continue this type of thing unchecked. Write down all that you can remember of what they said and did the times you have encountered them and put the date that they happened too, as a form of written record, and write down any more incidents as soon as you can too, in the same notebook.
My dad got tired of a car racing up and down his secluded, dead-end street, so when he saw them go up to the turn-around, he went out to the street with his digital camera. They clearly saw him taking pictures of them as they came back. They didn’t appear again.
Just an observation: Taking the picture of the punks might anger them. I might not do it unless I had a place to retreat to if they came to take the camera away from me.
Dunno if these are just jerks, or actual Junior-Thugs.
I’m not one to promote violence but something along the lines of this would probably do the trick. Non lethal and legal (at least in my area) .The sound of it discharging alone is pretty scary and if you have to use it you can be reasonably surhttp://cgi.ebay.com/900-000-Volts-Stun-Gun-Worlds-Most-Powerfull-Guns_W0QQitemZ9706538248QQcategoryZ79850QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewIteme they won’t die.
If this continues, perhaps you could have a friend follow some distance from you. If the thugs start harassing you, your friend could take pictures from a safe distance. It would help if he was big and intimidating so they would think twice about trying to grab the camera from him. But also, since you two are separated by a distance it would appear that he was a stranger noticing a nasty situation developing. The punks would probably run away, as they have before, rather than taking the time to retaliate against you.