Are deaf kids bullied/harrassed more frequently than hearing kids in mainstream?

I wasn't bullied for being hoh, because my classmates didn't know it, but the social isolation resulting from difficulty keeping up in social situations made me a very easy target. There were a lot of threats and insults and rumors and physical intimidation. It sucked. I wanted to drop out in high school, but I'm glad I didn't because if I had then my options would have been seriously limited.
So I guess my answer is yes. We get bullied more because it makes fitting into the social scene harder and kids without powerful cliques to back them up are really easy victims.
 
Yeah, I wrote my story and decided to delete it. It's not that I don't want to share it, it's just VERY LONG, too long.

Some of the things I had to deal with in a mainstream school. I've dealt with a lot, my peers were brutal. There was so MUCH I dealt with in Middle School and High School. Those of you who posted your hardships, I really feel for you. I really do and it makes me cry inside. Because I totally understand where you are coming from.

Just like you, I hated school. I hated people in general. I hated and blamed myself for my deafness. I've got so many scars from fights with kids in my school. It wasn't even funny. I wasn't looking for a fight. I was looking for a way OUT of a fights. Kids would surround you and prevent you from escaping your tormentors. They would even keep teachers OUT who tried to stop the fights. People have no idea. I've been stabbed, shot at with BB guns and beaten. And because I kept a promise to myself that I will never snap, so I just took it all.

I thought RIT/NTID would make me feel welcome. I'm sorry to say. I wasn't welcome. I was an Oral HoH trying to fit where I didn't belong. And I really do not think I belong in the deaf culture. When I quit RIT/NTID, I only made 1 friend. La Neal. I miss him, he was the one person who never judged me. He is HoH too, but he hears better than I do. I truly wish I would have done more at RIT/NTID. Interacted with those in the deaf culture, but I was afraid. I still am. But because of my isolationism. I couldn't open myself up to make friends. La Neal was able to break through my wall and get me to like him. Didn't help that he had a crush on me(damn you pervert, I'm straight!!), but I still love the guy. Sucks that he lives in Miami. I wish I could move down to Miami or any other location and start over. But I can't. I got a 10 year old daughter that I lovely dearly, here in Buffalo. Maybe in a few years when she's older, I can leave this hellhole of a city I grew up in and start over. Clean slate and hopefully new friends.

I hope by joining AD, I hope I can make a few friends who has been there like I have. In the process of learning more of the deaf culture.

I don't want to be afraid anymore. I am tired of being angry all the time. I need to make friends who can make me happy and make me smile. I have enough demons in my life, I'm tired of all the negativism. I hope you guys and gals at AD can help me achieve that and hopefully help me break down my shyness I have when meeting people face to face. I know it won't happen over night, but I got time.
 
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I moved to a very small elementary school in 3rd grade. The kids hated me. They called me retarded. Dumb***. They kicked me, beat me, and isolated me. They would lie to the teachers and say I had done something bad, when I was just trying to get out. I was too timid to fight back. I ran away from the conflict. The teachers took special delight in tormenting me. I wanted out, but I never told my parents. Dad had scored an amazing job, and mom was happy. We moved away 3 years later, so we could be with family. Here, I am more accepted. After the first two weeks of 6thgrade, I knew I was safe. People tried to hurt me, but not as much. And then they learned I wasn't to be screwed around with. I was tough then, but love came back to me. I still don't trust people. I can still tell with a look at them if they're going to cause trouble for me. But I'm learning to. Hugs for all of you :cuddle:
 
Oink said:
I moved to a very small elementary school in 3rd grade. The kids hated me. They called me retarded. Dumb***. They kicked me, beat me, and isolated me. They would lie to the teachers and say I had done something bad, when I was just trying to get out. I was too timid to fight back. I ran away from the conflict. The teachers took special delight in tormenting me. I wanted out
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Sums up my entire academic experience from Kindergarten to high school...and being a student in the Special Ed program, one of closest friends gave me the nickname that stuck: "Dummy." Memories......

Laura
 
Lau2046 said:
Sums up my entire academic experience from Kindergarten to high school...and being a student in the Special Ed program, one of closest friends gave me the nickname that stuck: "Dummy." Memories......

Laura
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That wasn't a friend. Just sayin...
 
My experience wasn't traumatizing as most have posted, though perhaps it's a generational difference (28 years old). I was a fat kid with hearing aids that people generally left alone. Aside from standing out academically, I had a knack for being invisible and was a general loner. I got on OK with classmates but we weren't friends, just friendly. Had I come out as gay in high school that probably would have changed though.

A lot of the worst that I've read brings to mind the case of Jamie Nabozny, a gay teenager in late80s early 90 who faced ridiculous abuse- he was mock raped while his 7th grade teacher left the room, ran home distraught, and was punished for leaving school grounds. High school saw him in the ER multiple times.

I'm probably being both naive and cynical in saying that kids represent the absolute best and worst of humans. I don't think its a matter of "Let's make life hell for deaf kid" for the most part so much as "Lets hate on this kid for not being like us and being an easy target", as experienced by by generations of young blacks, GLBT, other ethnic minorities, though there are exceptions.


Posted from Alldeaf.com App for Android
 
Lau2046 said:
Sums up my entire academic experience from Kindergarten to high school...and being a student in the Special Ed program, one of closest friends gave me the nickname that stuck: "Dummy." Memories......

Laura
Click to expand...

OK, you were in special ed and you know nothing about Deaf Ed, but yet you still think you got a better education/oppertunties by being mainstreamed?!?!?! That is really sad.....what's even sadder is that it's still going on......kids are shuttled to special ed (where they're taught by teachers who have very little experiance with teaching dhh kids. Most public school sped is targeted towards LD and mentally disabled kids. It doesn't do well with low incidence kids sadly.)
 
deafdyke said:
OK, you were in special ed and you know nothing about Deaf Ed, but yet you still think you got a better education/oppertunties by being mainstreamed?!?!?! That is really sad.....what's even sadder is that it's still going on......kids are shuttled to special ed (where they're taught by teachers who have very little experiance with teaching dhh kids. Most public school sped is targeted towards LD and mentally disabled kids. It doesn't do well with low incidence kids sadly.)
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You may get a better, "deaf" education at a deaf school, but it's not a real education unless interact with the people you are going to have to deal with for the rest of your life. You can't take college classes today without group projects for a very good reason, human interaction.

So, while academically you may get a better education(and I do not dispute this at all), socially you don't get a feel for what the real world is going to throw at you. And, you cant understand what hearing people go through with no special care at all or why they don't like people treated specially.
 
VacationGuy234 said:
You may get a better, "deaf" education at a deaf school, but it's not a real education unless interact with the people you are going to have to deal with for the rest of your life. You can't take college classes today without group projects for a very good reason, human interaction.

So, while academically you may get a better education(and I do not dispute this at all), socially you don't get a feel for what the real world is going to throw at you. And, you cant understand what hearing people go through with no special care at all or why they don't like people treated specially.
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Not a real education? I thought deaf people are people and deaf kids do interact with each other and they are all people.

I was mainstreamed and I never learned how to engage in debates, did group work or any of that because I was LEFT OUT in those groups so all I did was sit there and pretended to go along with whatever the groups did. I learned nothing.

Pls tell me that I got a "real" education. :roll:
 
Back to the "bully". I can't get over thinking that the members of any target group think they have it worse than the others simply because they are most familiar with what happens to their group.
 
deafdyke said:
OK, you were in special ed and you know nothing about Deaf Ed, but yet you still think you got a better education/oppertunties by being mainstreamed?!?!?! That is really sad.....what's even sadder is that it's still going on......kids are shuttled to special ed (where they're taught by teachers who have very little experiance with teaching dhh kids. Most public school sped is targeted towards LD and mentally disabled kids. It doesn't do well with low incidence kids sadly.)
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What is your educational background? You really seem to attack people on the board that don't agree with you...perhaps jealous because you missed out on things? Where do you get off assuming what I know or don't know. You spend half your time on the forum reminding people of your sexuality and comparing deafness to gay sex. Yes, I do have better opportunities having been mainstreamed and I'm delighted my parents had nothing to do with the deaf community since it spared them from people like you that had nothing nice to say to anyone that didn't rise to your standards.
 
Lau2046 said:
What is your educational background? You really seem to attack people on the board that don't agree with you...perhaps jealous because you missed out on things? Where do you get off assuming what I know or don't know. You spend half your time on the forum reminding people of your sexuality and comparing deafness to gay sex. Yes, I do have better opportunities having been mainstreamed and I'm delighted my parents had nothing to do with the deaf community since it spared them from people like you that had nothing nice to say to anyone that didn't rise to your standards.
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Your comment about the Deaf community makes me happy I don't associate with audist people anymore. Not everyone in the Deaf community are the same. I am not Deafdyke and she is not me and I am sure people like Frisky feline, AlleyCat, Jolie, and others would agree that they aren't Deafdyke either. They are also members of the Deaf community as well.
 
shel90 said:
Your comment about the Deaf community makes me happy I don't associate with audist people anymore. Not everyone in the Deaf community are the same. I am not Deafdyke and she is not me and I am sure people like Frisky feline, AlleyCat, Jolie, and others would agree that they aren't Deafdyke either. They are also members of the Deaf community as well.
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Which is why I bumped one of old threads...

Don't forget that audists have no problem with putting Deaf teens down because they're not so "prefect" enough! :roll:
 
Jane B. said:
Back to the "bully". I can't get over thinking that the members of any target group think they have it worse than the others simply because they are most familiar with what happens to their group.
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depend on familar on support anti bully reason how don't want to worst instead call anti bully don't want to increase that is why!
 
shel90 said:
Not a real education? I thought deaf people are people and deaf kids do interact with each other and they are all people.

I was mainstreamed and I never learned how to engage in debates, did group work or any of that because I was LEFT OUT in those groups so all I did was sit there and pretended to go along with whatever the groups did. I learned nothing.

Pls tell me that I got a "real" education. :roll:
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The key word in his post was "today"
 
shel90 said:
Your comment about the Deaf community makes me happy I don't associate with audist people anymore. Not everyone in the Deaf community are the same. I am not Deafdyke and she is not me and I am sure people like Frisky feline, AlleyCat, Jolie, and others would agree that they aren't Deafdyke either. They are also members of the Deaf community as well.
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Correct. You are not. This goes back to my posts months ago about militants giving the whole group a black eye.
 
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