Who were you in Junior High School?

What role did you take?

In USA – Junior High – class clown. In Russia – elementary a little a clown a little a bully.

Those are the only alternatives?

WOW – forgot

–None of the above

You’re missing a lot of categories.

I was in a group of popular girls, but we weren’t mean about it.

I am sorry I do not know about girls’ experiences.

In my own experience, I focused too much on conflict.

Complete class clown. I only had one fight in junior high (because I’m a wiseass :)), early on, where this kid kept trying to kick me and I’d grab his leg and flip him. Basically I held him off for a couple of minutes until a P.E. teacher came running and broke it up. Nobody bothered me after that, though I really didn’t do all that much.

I was the art major who didn’t fit in with the group of popular girls. I had my own style, which was different from theirs.

Yuck. Victim of bullying. Nasty, nasty part of my life.

I love the “Its Gets Better” movement, trying to pass along encouragement to victims. A lot of suicides happen at that age, and it is well to try to offer them some hope, instead. In my case, the bullying stopped, cold, when I got to college. The entire environment was safer and saner. Out of hell, to a normal world, in one single step.

I was the fat dumpy nerd nobody liked.

Things were probably just simpler back then. I would’ve included:

[ul]
[li]outside agitator[/li][li]femme fatale[/li][li]contrarian[/li][li]master of ceremonies[/li][li]ombudsman[/li][li]entrepreneur[/li][li]shrew[/li][/ul]

I fought bullies with such a joyous, wild abandon that I never got into a fight after the 7th grade despite my horned-rimmed glasses. I was renowned for my ability to *completely and utterly lose my shit *that there were, frankly, much easier targets (sorry Brian Hambrick!) even if you did outsize me.

I know, right? Only occasional, mild bullying occurred in my school, and what little there was wasn’t physical. I guess I was just lucky to live in an innocent, heavenly bubble.

Shy, dorky, wallflower girl.

I wasn’t bullied, I wasn’t really noticed I guess.

None of the above. I was shy, almost to the point of being scared, except in French class where I was a star. I got good grades, had a few friends, and dreamed of being popular.

I figured things would change in senior high. They didn’t…

I was bullied through 7th grade, and significant part of 8th grade. The bullying faded away over the course of 8th grade. I don’t know whether it’s because the assholes were maturing a bit as they aged, or because I began punching the little fuckers; I suspect it was a little of both.

Nerd.

My elementary school went to 8 grades and HS was 9-12. No bullies I was aware of in either school. When I finished 8th, all the remaining 8th graders, 7th graders, and the second half of 6th graders also left the school to attend the brand new JHS that just opened, so I was among the very last who skipped JHS.

Discrete class clown. I was the one who rolled “joints” using minced pencil shavings from the pencil sharpener, then surreptitiously left them where they could be discovered by an adult, leading to a massive “Drugs are infesting our school” freak out.

None of the above. Actually, very few of the above in my schools.