Violence and verbal assault
Tormenters create 'constant state of fear' for targets
By: Megan Harris
Issue date: 12/3/09 Section: News
A dancer since the age of 4 and a budding actor, the University of Memphis senior said he always expected to catch a lot of flak for his choices, both on and off the stage.
The National Education Association estimates that more than 160,000 students stay home every day from school because of bullying. For McCollum, that kind of negative behavior didn't stop on the playground. It's something he still deals with on a daily basis.
The theater major said he found a way to express himself safely that didn't go with the norm of 'jock' or 'cheerleader,' and though he said it did give him a tough skin, he wishes the bullying wasn't something he had to deal with.
"At age 4, I was getting made fun of by the girls in my own dance class," he said, blaming part of that on being a heavy-set child. "But then I got better. I was cast as the lead in 'Godspell' in 7th grade, which was great for me, but also sort of expensive. It cost me a lot on the popularity ladder."
Former U of M student Marcus Marqui Somerville said he never knew why bullies chose to target him.
A black man fluent in Spanish and Arabic, Somerville described himself as an "ethnically diverse kid" who didn't always have the easiest time in Memphis public schools.
"Bullying was a huge part of my childhood," he said. "I had to figure a way how to deal with them. Conversation didn't work, so we would move to a different place, but that never solved my problems either."
Somerville, now 26, said he learned to engage those people by addressing the problems directly. More often than not, he said, the kids taunting him couldn't come up with a rational reason for their behavior.
"It took me a while in a setting to be able to say, 'I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I didn't know what made them angry. Was it something I said or did?' And then one day I got it," he said. "You don't have to do anything. Some people are just going to act like that because they don't know what else to do. Being mean is all they know."
The National Education Association estimates that more than 160,000 students stay home every day from school because of bullying. For McCollum, that kind of negative behavior didn't stop on the playground. It's something he still deals with on a daily basis.
The theater major said he found a way to express himself safely that didn't go with the norm of 'jock' or 'cheerleader,' and though he said it did give him a tough skin, he wishes the bullying wasn't something he had to deal with.
"At age 4, I was getting made fun of by the girls in my own dance class," he said, blaming part of that on being a heavy-set child. "But then I got better. I was cast as the lead in 'Godspell' in 7th grade, which was great for me, but also sort of expensive. It cost me a lot on the popularity ladder."
Former U of M student Marcus Marqui Somerville said he never knew why bullies chose to target him.
A black man fluent in Spanish and Arabic, Somerville described himself as an "ethnically diverse kid" who didn't always have the easiest time in Memphis public schools.
"Bullying was a huge part of my childhood," he said. "I had to figure a way how to deal with them. Conversation didn't work, so we would move to a different place, but that never solved my problems either."
Somerville, now 26, said he learned to engage those people by addressing the problems directly. More often than not, he said, the kids taunting him couldn't come up with a rational reason for their behavior.
"It took me a while in a setting to be able to say, 'I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I didn't know what made them angry. Was it something I said or did?' And then one day I got it," he said. "You don't have to do anything. Some people are just going to act like that because they don't know what else to do. Being mean is all they know."