Selkie’s in no mood for running gags.
It may not be very clear, but Lisa Miazelli is the principal's secretary. I figure calling the parent is something the principal would delegate while he finds out the details.
Selkie’s in no mood for running gags.
Discussion (145) ¬
Poor Selkie…
I wanna give her a hug!
So do I.
And I can’t believe that secretary just let her sit there. Get her a jacket or something, lady!
^^^^===This!
YES!
They’re a school. So why are they letting a kid sit there cold and exposed? :<
I was thinking the same thing!
…why had no one given her a shirt? Schools always have a lost and found…
Yeah I found this a little disturbing… I know it’s a comic and all but… she really needs to be clothed. I’ve worked at a few schools and the first thing that would have been done would be to cover her up.
I know the public school system isn’t perfect. It would be a bold face lie to say this could never happen… but really? You’re going to let a little kid run around topless?
its whats supposed to be done, but its sometimes not done…. I remember when I was in 5th grade, I was blooming early and one of the multiple bullies found out I was wearing bras. He told his group of friends who liked to torture me, and they created a plan. He broke into the bathroom where I changed for gym (I couldn’t wear the same clothes to gym and class) and in the group of bullies, one went into the bathroom, took my shirt outside to the group and they all ruined it with scissors, markers and glue. I had to go outside without a shirt crying. the group pushed me down and laughed at me before I ran to the office. I sat in the nurses without a shirt until my mom came in….. it kills me seeing selkies bullying because I went through some things she did (not exactly of course)
Even if no spare shirts, there are required (at least over here) to be blankets of some sort and maybe towels, too, because accidents do happen. If nothing else, I’d have thought one of the teachers would’ve volunteered a jacket/shirt. It’s one thing for guys to go topless, but it’s generally not considered ok for school-aged girl to have to do the same. Poor Selkie. 🙁
It’s concievable that she has or might have an allergy to soaps or something. If she’s aware of it, she might only wear stuff that’s hers, and thus rejected a jacket or something. She also might have been covered until she got to the nurses office and took it off to check herself or wash her gills, and realizes that a nurse is a professional and isn’t worried.
It’s also possible that there’s no female-top law there, or that the society doesn’t have the same value (to be fair, I didn’t even think about it until you guys brought it up.)
Just some ideas/counterpoints.
Oh, there’s definitely female-top laws out here. “Wisconsin drinks more beer per capita than the Republic of Germany.” Not having such a law would be sheer lunacy.
Good point about the soap, though.
Not just the Soap, but the Fabrics, the perfumes used in the soap, and the Fabric Softener or Drier Sheets.
When I was 6 and peed my pants, they had clothes set aside so kids could change. In middle school, I’m pretty sure they had emergency clothes for girls who had a surprise menstruation…I’m also shocked that Selkie wasn’t given a shirt.
I didn’t immediately think they would have spare 8-year-old shirts lying around, but a blanket or towel, surely.
Get the girl a sheet to cover up with or something! Bad adults! The nurse ALWAYS has something.
This brings me back to how cruel kids can be. I never had my clothes stolen, but I was still bullied pretty badly growing up.
One of the favourites of my bullies was to hide my coat (especially in the winter, when you couldn’t go outside without it). It got so bad I had to stuff it in my bag or – depending on teacher, some allowed this cause they knew of the bullying – bring it inside the classroom with me. I think one of the teachers eventually got it through to the principle or whatever that even if bullying itself wasn’t taken seriously, theft was another matter, cause there was a “not that we’re mentioning any names” thing in the auditorium, where it was made clear that anyone taking someone else’s clothes/other items would be considered trying to steal them. I think they threatened to bring police into it if it continued. Whatever it was (so many years ago, I can barely remember it even happening), it was scary enough for my bullies, cause they stopped instantly.
Just wish it hadn’t taken me 6 months of fearing for my items’ safety (and during wintertime, too!). I hope it stops here for Selkie, too.
And the tolerance poster in the background is practically insult to injury.
Well, all schools have those, regardless of if they actually enforce the policy.
I always found it funny how schools happily put up posters just like that “Tolerance” one, proceed to do as little as possible to actually back the values they purport to hold so dear, and then are shocked- shocked!- when their students don’t hold the same values that the school does. I mean, they put up a cute poster and everything! Surely the problem couldn’t be the administration and faculty failing to set an example! That would be almost like accepting responsibility!
My all-time favorite is one that said “Support Diversity!” At the time, there were maybe ten families in town that weren’t white. Someone asked, “What’s diversity?” and a fellow student answered “Something about math.” Pfff.
…I feel more sorry for the maths teacher for some reason… XD
Poor, poor Selkie…
If this isn’t a wake-up call to have her attend private school, then I don’t know what is.
And before someone beats me to the punch and say that it’s expensive, let me just say that good parents will do anything for their child, even if it involves enrolling them in private school. EVEN when it’s expensive. My brother’s ex-girlfriend went to private school because she didn’t get along well in public school, and was it difficult for them to make the payments? YES, but they did it because it NEEDED to be done to ensure the safety of their child.
I’ve seen it happen before on TV in George Lopez; he sent his daughter to private school after she was sexually harassed time and time again, and I’ve seen it in Glee as well when Kurt was sent to a private boarding school with a strict anti-bully policy.
While it was difficult for the parents to pay for the expensive tuition payments for the schools, they continued to do it for the well-being of their child.
… All in all, Selkie still needs a hug, though. 🙁
I can quote a real-life scenario like what you describe.
Me. 😀
I had a few socializing and emotional stability issues in 5th-6th grade combined with bullying problems (one of whom pretended to be my friend then stole from me behind my back among other things), and spent two years in a religious private school because my parents were afraid I’d break in public school.
See, my parents just went the route ‘shut up and deal’ and nowadays get SURPRISED when they realize I’ve been suicidal for almost a decade and would rather perform intercourse with a cactus than spend time with them.
The kicker? My mom WORKED for a private school, and got a 50% discount on enrollment. 1 YEAR of school would have cost me less than I spend on rent these days.
Basically, my parents’ opinions were as follows: Everything that I want I must have my way RIGHT F*CKING NOW or there will be hell to pay! But you can just go ahead and kill yourself for all I give a shit.
(best example- 2 years I spent living with Dad, during which time my depression and suicidal tendencies began. He made absolutely no effort to even attempt to increase my quality of life AT ALL, despite me being bullied so badly I wound up having to be pulled from the second half of my classes every day. Who gives a crap? But oooooh, the principle gets replaced and all of a sudden he’s going on ‘medical leave’ because he’s ‘too stressed’ and the moment they do something he doesn’t like he decides screw it, he’s going to retire early. Personally, while living there, nothing in the entire world would have made me happier than watching my dad drop dead so I could move back in with my mom and maybe have a chance of having a life)
Hun<3 I don't even know you, but I hope you don't go offing yourself. Bad parenting is the shits, I can relate. There's better out there for you, I hope your world continues to expand beyond your unhappy roots.
Please don't have intercourse with a cactus either 😛 If avoiding your parents I'd rather you come hang at my house and we'll go on adventures!
Hon, live your life well. I too will go on adventures with you and get you back some of your lost childhood – we can go camping and we can fly kites or ice skating or rollercoasters or anything and we can do all the fun things that were impossible before and your parents cant stop you anymore, and the school jerks no longer exist.
That’s a little bit scary, actually, Dave, in that the exact same thing happened to me; same grade and everything.
Well, except for the fact that it wasn’t a private school per se, but a Catholic school in the same village with a population of 50 kids (despite my not being Catholic, and so going through more awkwardness at that school), and that the bullying at my previous school started… to be honest, I don’t really remember.
Selkie most definitely belongs in a private school where they can work with her. As effectively an “alien species” she is most definitely deserving of “special needs” teaching (and I do not mean this in a negative way). Some place where they will help her figure out who/what she is and how to relate to it in a positive way. She just needs a bit of help.
And, by the way, both my kids are in private schooling– it took a long time to find the right ones, but they are out there. It is worth the costs (and where I live we spend the cost of a small Lexus on our kids’ education every year.)
My personal solution was a specialty school (charter), neither private nor public. It was an art school where everyone was creative, in some way, shape or form- and mysteriously, no one bullied me anymore. It’s not to say that there was no teasing going on, but I do think being teased occasionally is good for you, and being bullied is bad for you (it’s the sense of degrees, and context).
While I don’t see entirely how this page transferred over to the idea of private schooling versus public schooling. I just want to point out that private school isn’t always the answer. I went through some pretty vicious bullying for about five years, because the kids were from “donor families” while I was just an awkward kid with a learning disability. It was at public school where I finally got the proper treatment from staff and students, and am now doing much better than ever before.
Just want to point out that private school is not a cure-all solution if a student is having issues. And that TV dramas or sitcoms are certainly not valid evidence for said solution.
And sometimes there is no ‘better’ in private vs public. I started off in a religious private school. It was more or less ok, despite an incident involving D&D books on school grounds (horrors!), until 5th grade, where I got a bully for a teacher…
I finished the year, but not before developing some psychosomatic barfing issues… My parents moved me to public school because they felt things weren’t going to get any better for me where I was (they were probably right, my sister had switched the year before to avoid their high-school). And thus I ended up in a school with a crap-tastic principal, and a nearly-as-bad vice principal, who made sure I got the bad end of the stick for any ‘incidents’ whatsoever (probably because I (gasp!) fought back). I had a bulls-eye on my head for every bully in school for a couple years. And then 8th grade featured *two* bully teachers…
I’m just glad high school was a significant step up in quality from either one.
I’ve been reading this Private vs Public school thing and it’s really not all it’s cracked up to be. I spent my first 10 years (3-year-old Preschool all the way to 7th) of school in a Christian private school, and those were the worst years of my life. The *entire class* (no joke) would harass me and my twin sister because we wore hand-me-downs, didn’t have expensive books and toys, and even for bad habits we ended up developing there. My parents had to move us to public school to get away from those monsters.
I still look back on those years and sob. I developed suicidal tendencies which I’m only now recovering from, and I’ve already graduated college! It’s not private vs. public school. It’s policies vs pricks, and which side of the equation is bigger at which school.
I actually had a better time at public school, because there were more people involved and, even though the bullying thing followed me most of my school career, the public school was at least willing to get involved. I was given counseling and eventually hospitalized, but at least I survived. It still amazes me how monstrous kids can be…
I wish that I could have met the end part of that scenario when I was younger, but it wasn’t that payments were hard, it’s that we straight up didn’t have the money to get me into a private school. However, my parents did the next best thing, they found, and enrolled me into a charter school that was so strict about bullying, that some of the smallest (not physical) of bullies were suspended, or even expelled over what they did.
My daughter gets bullied for being physically small and slow. In first grade, they put the bully in a different class, which ended the problem. In second grade, they were in different classes, and my daughter purposely didn’t work hard so she wouldn’t have to see him at recess. This year, due to a regime change, they’re in the same classroom with no recourse. Something happens between them at least once a week… The private schools around here cut tuition if you join their church, but I’m keeping that as a very last resort.
Good luck, Danzier, and try to keep at them. The local public school moved a bully out of my kid’s class mid-semester (and apparently had a TALK with him as well, so he did not seek out a new target in the new home-room). There’s a decent chance you can go to the principal’s superior if necessary. (If they have a decent, friendly Special Ed there, try to befriend them; those are the people who are used to having to advocate for “their” kids, and you may be able to get a “Don’t say where you heard this, but drop this title/name when you talk to them…” recommendation.
For that matter, if you have a diagnosis, and the Special Ed people are good, you can get an IEP which can really make a good stick; I got my kid pulled out of a math class last year where the teacher was a bully, and she did an online course instead, in the Special Ed room.)
And, most importantly… Good luck, and try to keep reminding your kid that the bully is the one in control of the bully’s own actions; it’s their choice to be a jerk, not her fault that they’ve picked her.
We’re on the second IEP. 😀 The district people here are… well… a few years back there was a district superintendant who took the job, then took all 90 days of leave consecutively and used them to look for a better-paying job. Not kidding, and it hasn’t improved much. Principals are the first line of defense here. The special ed reading teacher has been volunteering her time to help out, too. There’s been progress–the bully doesn’t hit any more, and always has supervision so there aren’t any more his-word-versus-hers disagreements.
Thanks for the good wishes 🙂
As a parent who only makes $850/month on a good month I am deeply offended by your comment.
As much as I was trying to prove a point, I didn’t mean to offend anyone with it. It was simply the point I had to make because I knew two fictitious situations that dealt with it while I was in no position to elaborate on my own personal experience (as I’ve seen so many people do now…)
The point I was trying to come across was the fact that parents sometimes do things even if they’re difficult. I know my parents did it; they almost had to enroll me in a new school because of the trouble I had with an ex-friend, being excessively quiet to the point that I was thought to be mute and unable to talk to my teachers without crying, and bothered over people not being able to tell if I was a boy or a girl at first glance.
I made the decision not to go because of the few friends I had and classes I enjoyed, even though I knew my parents were willing enough to enroll me and had already started on the paperwork in case I ever changed my mind. Which I didn’t.
That situation went on three years ago, and my father has been unemployed for almost six years which would have made the new school difficult to pay for with my mother being the only person able to pay for the bills and put food on the table.
Again, I never meant to offend you or anyone with my comment, and I apologize for that. I just felt like I needed to stand up for where my idea came from. My parents had to deal with a difficult situation like that with the problems that arose when I was in school, but luckily it didn’t rise to the point where they would have had to struggle to keep me safe in another school.
Here’s a hint:
“Parents do things even if they’re difficult” is an incredibly thoughtless and dismissive response to people pointing out that the money simple IS NOT THERE.
I hate this meme that private school though expensive is suppose to be a the ideal place to take your kids for education and to escape bullying.
Antendotal experiences are just that. No school system is the best, they all have drawbacks even private education. I spent most of my childhood in a Catholic school. Everyday I was bullied because of my learning and cognative delays. By the time I was 13 I was suicidal and highly vitrolic because over medication. On top of it, it took Columbus education to figure out that I had a SEVERE learning disability with mathamatics. There was no such thing as “special ed” in my school. Which yes, is ok because of inclusive education….but the point is that there was nothing back in elementary to help me catch up with my peers it was obvious that I wasn’t being “Lazy” as my teachers assumed. I was impaired.
It took the PUBLIC system to figure that out and put me on an IEP and I finally graduated with the diagnosis of an autistic spectrum disorder and good grades.
The point is, public education worked for me and allowed me to make friends. But this is just my experience and it certiantly doesn’t invalidated the people who had better experiences in charter/private schools. But it doesn’t work for anyone. Looking back on it. I should have been in elementary school for children with delays. Like the one I work at. I would have the one and one tutoring that I need and the therapies that I lacked. I would be with kids that share my problems as well as with peers that treat me like I am human. By middle school, I would have been ready to be with peers and mainstream.
I didn’t get that advantage
What works for one student doesn’t work for anyone.
Unfortunately TV and reality are very different things. There’s just as much bullying in private schools as public schools. As I’ve told clients again and again, running away from the problem won’t make it go away.
I think that the best way to deal with this would be for Todd to advocate for her. Make it clear to the administration that he’s the kind of parent who won’t take that crap. That’s how change happens.
And Makokam: I feel for you. My mother wanted to send me to a private school. Unfortunately she was busy making sure I had food, clothes, and a roof which were more important. Parents do the best they can. Just because they can’t do the same as other parents, doesn’t make them worse. I got bullied from first grade all through high school, but having a loving and supportive mom made a bigger difference than private school would have.
I’m going to disagree with you on one thing. That it would be best for Todd to advocate for her. Oh he should, but she does need a private school. One set for physical differences. Oh they wouldn’t be expecting Selkie’s issues, but one with a track record of taking care of special issues like diet, health, environmental issues.
As for me, I mentioned that in public school I snapped and hurt my bullies a few strips ago. We couldn’t afford private education and we were constantly moving around. So I wouldn’t have been able to settle down in one school anyway. Everyone’s deal is different. No one size fits all solutions out there.
As some one who spent 9 years (K-8th grade) in privates school under the tyrannical control of three popular girls and had absolutely no actual friends the entire time….private school is not the problem solver I keep hearing people hoping for.
I went to a public high school and the only difference between the two was: no church on Fridays and after the first semester or two of my freshmen year, people left me alone.
But, then every school and class is different.
There’s something to be said for them, sure, but there’s no real reason. A dedicated parent can stand up to a school and get things changed if they have a bit of spine and know the applicable laws (schools fear lawsuits~).
I’m quite happy that my mom would stand up for what she thought was right and have things changed. Yes, I was a “special needs” student, but not because I had developmental issues, just because I’m different. I have aspergers, we later discovered, and am highly intellectual and simply think differently from other people. Living in Texas while not being normal was hell itself, for me, being punished daily for not adhering to the bullshit they cram into kids, but living with my mom was another story altogether, but at least then it was the kids being cruel, and not the school itself (oh, the stories.)
School has the ability to shape a large portion of a kid’s life, extending well after school. I have issues I’m still dealing with because of how I was treated in the Texas school system, though at least I’m aware of them and *can* deal with them.
Long story short: How well this goes is up to Selkie and Dave. With the tone of the comic, I’ve little fear that Dave’s going to fix things, both with Selkie and the school.
AS I TYPED BEFORE AT MUCH GREATER AND HEARTFELT LENGTH, I was severely bullied in private school (Waldorf) with non-intervention and, it turned out, active under-the-table encouragement by the staff, who felt that my self-driven academic development was a sign that I “wasn’t properly reincarnated into my body.” Additionally, in the standard two years of kindergarten and the half of first grade I attended, we were taught virtually no useful academic skills (they believe in holding back on that stuff), and thus entered third grade halfway through the year with an adult-level reading skill (self-taught), only a basic conceptual understanding of arithmetic, and writing in all capitals at about five words per minute.
Private schools aren’t a Magic Bullet Pill. Magic Bullet Pills don’t exist.
Stupid kids. I don’t feel bad that the wrong one got blamed at all. Those who support bullying are just as bad as the bullies themselves. And as the others said, yea why doesn’t she have a shirt yet (Though to be fair the Secretary doesn’t seem that sharp, what with saying um every third word and messing up Selkie’s name)? On a more positive note, your drawing style has greatly improved since the start of this comic and you’re keeping the story interesting! Keep up the good work.
Keisha wasn’t supporting the bullying in this instance, she was speaking out against it. If you want to change things for the better, punishing a kid for trying to start doing the right thing isn’t the way. I can understand being mad about what happened to selkie; I’m mad too, but punsishing a little girl who was trying to do the right thing is bad too.
Yeah, but she was the only one of the three not supporting it. She said “Give it! I’m telling!” right before they ‘caught’ her. Not the most eloquent of protests, but she was hardly supporting them.
Keisha still bullies Selkie. Just cause she had a backbone and conscience this time, doesn’t mean she wasn’t a bully. Of course it’ll be sad if she gets the fall for this – and I should hope it doesn’t make her kill off her conscience entirely – but she’s still a supporting bully in the bully ring.
I also switched to a private school halfway through my sophomore year and fully for the rest of high school. Best school years since elementary ever. I say that because after entering 7th grade, out of fish bowl I spent seven years in from K-6th grade; and the fact I went to a school where I only knew a few people going in and-well my home town’s public school district sucked big time, and that I went to school before all the serious anti-bullying programs are being implemented.
I feel for Selkie, and I wanna strangle the secretary for not giving her a blanket from the nurses office, have someone bring a coat SOMETHING!!
oh Selkie honey *huggles her*
And an Early College one to boot ^^
Aw hun…
I agree on the “they always have something” one–my daughter’s school nurse says it’s for kids who spill milk or something on their clothes. They’ve got a giant dresser in the office with a bunch of different sizes. But if Selkie’s shirt is just gone, not wet, I could see a really mean authority figure not giving her one from the dresser.
I got the reverse–I started in private school and then moved to public. There were bullies in both, so I learned to ignore people in general. I’ve done the sitting in the office waiting for mom bit at least fifteen times.
On another note… I wonder how Selkie would do if she could wear around a wetsuit under her clothes? Would it help her skin and gills, or just be a problem?
A suit that is wet or a human wetsuit which keeps water out?
I was thinking the one with water in it. Maybe a specially designed one to use in gym class 😉
I don’t know how well a wetsuit would work. She breathes out through her gills, so depending on how airtight it is a wetsuit might actually suffocate her if the carbon dioxide can’t escape.
Now I’ve got this image of Selkie in my head, she’s wearing a wetsuit, and it’s blowing up like a balloon around her while she’s trying to get the zipper open…
Wet suits aren’t water tight so I doubt they would be air tight either. They might be a good solution for selkie but they would be a bit bulky. Only a drysuit, much less common much more expensive, keeps water out. A wet suit works by letting water in and keeping it next to the body so the body heat can warm it and it then acts as insulation. I guess for selkie it could be vented in some manner to let water pass through the sides. Though that would be more for swimming then dryland use.
I have to say Dave, this story is really getting places and is well written. That conversation between Selkie and Todd made every parental instinct inside me roar. And I don’t even have kids yet!
So keep up the good work.
-Peace!
I want that tolerance poster for my wall.
I sniffled at that last panel, poor Selkie! I hope Todd goes down there and raises some hell >:)
Am I the only one who wants to hug selkie and keep her safe for the rest of eternity when she says Nos. Public schools do nothing about bullying. I’ve had a bully who is two years younger than me and atleast a head shoulders shorter than me(I’m 5”6), he thought he could bully me, I told him multiple times to leave me alone, when didnt abide I started crying and screaming(always freaks boys out) and pushed him, not hard, but enough so, he’d be surprised how strong I am(I’m pretty skinny) and have to take a step backwards to compensate. Kid didn’t bother me again.
On the other hand, there’s this asian kid(I say this in the least racist way possible) who is as smart as Sheldon Cooper(big bang theory) with out the social ineptness, who is a complete dick to me and anyone who isn’t “cool” for no reason other than because he can. I’m pretty sure he’s stronger than me and knows some form of martial arts( he’s mentioned he goes to a karate school near by) and I can’t take the simple pleasure in knowing I’ll be better off in later life, cause he’s smarter than me.
Just, I’m an easy target, it’s so annoying, that everyone thinks they can do this to me and my friends, and anyone else, it’s so annoying.
Whilst I cannot offer unreasonably good advise, as I myself only managed to get through the bully issue via utterly destroying my own reputation (I had everyone convinced I was the columbine kid, whilst there were plenty of whispers, there were no incidents of direct complaint before too many months of me being just plain discomforting), I can state that I feel for you, and I hope that things get more pleasant soon. Also, I would like to state that people who limit themselves to such groupings do have to worry about the ‘less popular’ kids getting back at them in other ways after school.
I can’t offer any kind of reasonable advice, because my worst physical bully only stopped (after 4 years of torture) when I whacked his face several times with a baseball glove (I’d reached the end of my sanity and something just snapped) and would have, if not for the intervention of other kids from my class (who funnily never did anything to stop the bully), continued with a baseball bat.
He never bothered me again.
(Of course that was just one in an army of bullies, but he’d been the worst of the physical type, making long bus-rides to school a paranoid hell.)
Depends on where you live if the school does anything. Also, parents can make a big difference just by informing the school there *is* an issue. Most states have bullying laws, and since you are required to attend they *must*, legally, keep you safe. law suits scare them, and if they have to keep an eye out for people who are, as you say, good targets, then it shouldn’t be much to shoulder the burden.
I just stopped caring and used the position of “bottom of the barrel” to put myself out there during my senior year: I did what I wanted, when I wanted, and everyone be damned. I walked on eggshells for eleven years trying to be normal, and not until I realized that normal sucked could I take flight as someone awesome.
Hmm…
My 7th grade school did nothing about the bullies–they considered it normal behavior. I finally got the teacher’s attention (after being pushed off the top of the bleachers) by “using inappropriate language”. I said I was getting “p’d off” about things like this always happening. It was public school and swaring went far and away beyond what I said–but that was the first time I swore in school. They sat the whole class down in a circle and talked about how people are supposed to treat other people. Useless. They also called my parents about me having made a huge disturbance.
My dad’s retired Navy. He chewed them up one side and down the other for being idiots. We moved out of state a month later.
Good parents are worth everything. I hope I’m that good for my kid.
The law suit scare would work only in the States – elsewhere suing isn’t as easy, common or effective.
Am I the only one who wants to hug selkie and keep her safe for the rest of eternity when she says Nos. Public schools do nothing about bullying. I’ve had a bully who is two years younger than me and atleast a head shoulders shorter than me(I’m 5”6), he thought he could bully me, I told him multiple times to leave me alone, when he didnt abide I started crying and screaming(always freaks boys out) and pushed him, not hard, but enough so, he’d be surprised how strong I am(I’m pretty skinny) and have to take a step backwards to compensate. Kid didn’t bother me again.
On the other hand, there’s this asian kid(I say this in the least racist way possible) who is as smart as Sheldon Cooper(big bang theory) with out the social ineptness, who is a complete dick to me and anyone who isn’t “cool” for no reason other than because he can. I’m pretty sure he’s stronger than me and knows some form of martial arts( he’s mentioned he goes to a karate school near by) and I can’t take the simple pleasure in knowing I’ll be better off in later life, cause he’s smarter than me.
Just, I’m an easy target, it’s so annoying, that everyone thinks they can do this to me and my friends, and anyone else, it’s so annoying.
A person can be intelligent, and attractive, and popular, and still be a bully. The presence of one attribute doesn’t exclude the presence of any other, and certainly doesn’t excuse it.
Oh, but Alice, it’s not about living better, only about living well. You’re under no obligation to measure your own success against that of an enemy- life isn’t a competition unless you make it one. Let this person come to mean NOTHING to you. Do as well as you can FOR YOURSELF and, if you meet this guy in later life, be very polite while giving the impression you have no idea who he is!
Am I the only one that wanted to cry and hug her for the cruelty she must endure? 🙂
Don> they can also be bullied for whatever they are. My children’s names, for example. My son’s name made MSN’s worst baby names of 2011 for goodness sakes! He’s bound to get some flak. What’s important is that no matter where he goes or who he meets, he’ll have his mom and his dad and his big sister. She’ll have him and us. We’ll have the both of them. That’s what matters.
You are beautiful, Jade Griffin.
Slightly appropos: I picked up Skyrim on a Steam sale, so now I finally get all the “arrow to the knee” and “fus ro dah” jokes I’ve been seeing around. 😀
Dovahkiin is a great name! Honestly, I think if people didn’t know it’s based off a video game they probably wouldn’t have an opinion on it.
I read that list and it mentioned someone naming their kid Facebook. I admit I laughed a bit when I read it, until I saw the reasoning and it made more sense.
Oops, oh well, sorry everyone. : )
Last panel seems weird to me. She’s hiding her chest in all the previous panels so it seems off to me that she would slip up and expose half her chest for that part.
I think it’s more her wanting to curl up and hug the phone, as she’s hearing her dad’s comforting voice. I’ve done that same thing, I know how she feels. When you do emotional withdrawal, concentrating on the one comforting thing, you forget about physical considerations.
Public schools vary so widely in how they treat bullying. I went to a public school that was very strict towards bullies. A stunt like this would have had the entire class taking sympathy and diversity training instead of music and art class.
My parents didn’t consider the local private schools after seeing just how screwed up the kids were that came out of them and researching their academic performance (they weren’t as good as the public school), though *A LOT* of this depends on where you are.
I’m told that on the East coast, anything other than private school is a bad idea. Whereas, if you’re living in downtown Dallas, you either send your kid to private school or you move to one of the suburbs and then send your kid to public school.
I know sympathy and appreciation for diversity classes are pretty unusual for a public or private elementary school, but most public schools will at least let a kid transfer to a different class or building within the district as a less drastic alternative to private school. Though, again, I guess part of that is where you live.
So far, Selkie has had one really bad experience (that we’ve seen), but it seems like her dad would be hard pressed to figure out if this is an isolated incident or if she’s a regular target from just this. I’m curious to see how he and the administration handles this.
A shirt or towel for Selkie would be a nice start.
The where is about as important as when. When I went to school, bullying wasn’t taken seriously over here at all, despite studies and everything. Then when I graduated gradeschool (over here it’s 9 years long, and it’s the whole mandatory schooling regiment), later that year, there was a case where a 12-years-old boy, who had been bullied since first grade, brought his father’s hunting rifle to school, shoot his bully and then himself.
After THAT they started to take it seriously and do the diversity stuff and such… but it was way too late for my generation. 16 years later, I find myself going to therapy to finally start and deal with this shit from so long ago, to stop it poisoning my mind. If that’s possible.
I believe it. Even with the diversity classes, there was an incident at my school in 7th grade. A boy waited until the teacher stepped out before barricading the door and starting to beat up another boy. The boy he attacked was a year younger than everyone and truly brilliant, if painfully shy. When hit, he curled up in a ball on the floor and tried to shield his face. I grabbed the bully’s collar and pulled him off enough to step in the middle.
I was really, really lucky. It turned out the bully had enough of a crush that he wasn’t willing to attack me to get to his victim and I wasn’t moving. There was a little standoff before he let me clear the door and get the teacher back inside.
Unfortunately, the victim of all this was too embarrassed to talk to the teacher about it. So the teacher (who didn’t see the start of the fight) said he’d be watching everyone and any future trouble would mean suspension. The bully got a warning and the kid who’d been attacked glued himself to my side for the next three years.
It seemed to take that long for him to work through the fear and start building true friendships.
Unfortunately stuff like this happens at almost any school, but it is getting better. In most places, progress is occurring.
I hope you can find some closure and resolution. Therapy can be a wonderful antidote to such poisons.
it *is* possible, and yeah, things changed from the time I was in gradeschool and bullying was encouraged (as “negative reinforcement to make everyone fit into societal standards” bullshit), and now there are many more laws and protections.
I’m on the East Coast, and our public school has been generally pretty darn good. (Having the diagnosis so we could get an IEP was the best part, really. That allows me to say things like, “You wouldn’t let a teacher say mean things about a kid with only one leg, who couldn’t walk; that teacher can’t say mean things about a kid who has an emotional control delay, either. RIGHT?” And indeed, the answer was, “We’ll get your kid out of that class immediately.”)
When I was in Austin, I was in private school, and THANK SOMETHING for it; the local public school would’ve been hellacious, even if I did love their library full of vintage SF.
I did a rotation in school nursing when I was in Nursing School, and the school nurse /always/ has spare clothes on hand, because kids bleed, and vomit, and urinate, and defecate on their clothes, and you can’t have a kid hanging around naked.
Also? Give the poor kid a break… there are some adults… like school nurses… who actually listen to kids names!
Is the secretary supposed to look bored? That´s really the icing on the cake… depositing her in the office, alone and still topless, then telling her dad they´re “taking care of her”.
We can only hope that they aren´t “taking care of the situation” in the same way.
See, I’m hoping Selkie will tell Todd, if he doesn’t see this for himself. She’s obviously a parrot, that school nurse wannabe, reciting what she’s supposed to to placate the parents. Selkie is NOT being taken care of. She is alone, angry, so very sad it is heartbreaking, and still topless with the blaringness of her non-humanness for the world to see. Nothing like this should be tolerated.
Dave> you got a knack for the emotional stories, friend:) Hate to play devil’s advocate but I hope that Todd’s ex is NOT a homeschooler in any capacity.
Sure she´ll tell Todd, no question. What I hope for is that she (or Todd) will tell Lillian… I mean, Mrs Haversham-Zhang. I imagine that she will have some choice words with the principal and the secretary…
But first I want to give Selkie a hug, too.
Speaking of schooling, my best friend moved to a charter school when we were in the fourth grade. She and her mother now talk smack about my school on a regular basis, EVEN WHEN I’M THERE. Now that I moved to middle school, they still talk about my school, and they’ve NEVER gone there!
…Sorry, it’s just that the way they talk about my school really drives me over the brink sometimes, and with all the talk about privet schools and charter schools, it was bound to come out somehow.
… Once again, sorry for that… sometimes a little ranting can make you feel a whole lot better.
I’m surprised no one has commented on her, now rather obvious, gills.
And seriously, she’d be in the nurses office, not sitting in the school office.
I thought she’d gone to this particular school before – they were aware of her dietary restrictions and bathroom needs and such… maybe she already knew of her gills.
I didn’t get that they already knew.
Short version is that the school doesn’t have the full information. I’ll go over the details in next strip’s commentary.
So this is a new school? Somehow I got the feeling from what was said in the earlier strips (when Selkie’s school was first mentioned) that she’d been to this school before. Looking forward to next commentary now. 😀
Any change in the school’s hierarchy (from Principal to nurse to janitor) and info gets lost. I swear they keep the filing drawers as backup for days when someone has a headache. 🙂
Based on the background in the first panel, and the fact that Selkie is sitting on a gurney, tells me that the front office and the Nurse’s office are one and the same.
I thought that was what she was hiding – not her chest.
But why is Todd still on the phone, at the house? My response, if the school called and said my kid was at the office because someone has stolen her clothes, would have been “Call you right back”, hang up, and be dialing my cell as I head for the car to get to the school.
So who says Todd is on the phone at the apartment? Maybe he’s calling from the car.
I was almost afraid to read this morning’s trip because I was so worried about Keisha, actually.
That second-to-last panel seriously made me tear up too. And I find it great (even though the circumstances are horrible) that she seems to really know that she can rely on Todd, up to admitting she’s not doing “just fine”. That takes a lot of trust to admit, even to your own parent(s). We’re taught all our lives we should manage on our own, to grow up fast and be tough – admitting you’re not tough enough and that you really aren’t doing ok isn’t all that easy.
Heck, Selkie will be lucky to learn it at her age. Some of us have to go to therapy as adults to be able to admit that much.
i got most of my education at schools on or around military bases. Public-ish, but we didn’t get a whole lot of townies. Crap went down, but for the most part it was pretty light….and any antisocial behavior was usually directed at the establishment, not each other. (our satellite buildings were set on fire 2 years in a row) i only went to a non-military attached school my senior year…and that was in Raleigh NC, wich is VERY mellow compared to most major cities. Then again, i was a white upper-class (officer’s brat)male, so i probably don’t know crap.
But yeah..the teachers in here are freaking morons.
I went to schools that didn’t have much bullying… At least of me. I was not popular, pretty, overly smart, dumb, etc. Nope. But I stood out like a sore thumb because of how I thought. I was such a bizaare quantity that people avoided me. I didn’t look odd but I talked more mature, had unusual interests (dinosaurs, for one, and loving the outdoors — and I’m a girl), and I honestly did not understand my peers one lick. I felt like a complete alien. A loner, and some times an outcast. I wouldn’t change to fit in and I didn’t like to socialize because of it. Things I did that made perfect sense to me either were frowned down on or got me the oddest of looks. That was my social childhood. At home, with my siblings? We were the same, we accepted each other, and that’s what I know for a fact my kids will have. I can only hope for the best in schools, or the ability to make people change for the better.
You were very lucky. That felt like you were describing me (who doesn’t love dinosaurs and know the exact names of at least 50 when they’re children/teens???), but you weren’t bullied. You were very lucky. *hugs*
I hate to say this, and I am not in any way condoning the fact that Selkie got her shirt stolen, but at least she has concrete proof that she’s being bullied. If you don’t have any proof, it can be difficult to convince teachers of what’s going on, or, even if they do believe you, that it hasn’t stopped once they’d “taken action”, and the group just gangs up on you later. Physical things can be easily detected, but if the bullying only occurs via spoken word when alone, or by completely and utterly ostracizing you from everyone else to the point where those not in the group want to have nothing to do with you (even, once, having one of them outright admit that she only became friends with another girl who’d been nice to you to take her away from you so that you wouldn’t have a friend), well, you end up reading alone on the playground with teachers and family members making JOKES about it, like it was your choice to shun everyone else.
… Sorry, I shouldn’t be unloading my past on you guys. I’ll spare you the rest of the story (suffice to say moving to two other schools did not make it any better) and go back to lurking.
Please, do keep unloading. As long as Dave doesn’t mind use using the comment space as group therapy session, I for one feel better reading about other people having gone through the same hell I did – makes me feel like “oh, maybe it wasn’t my fault back then after all?” (It’s not just others that blame the victim, the victim does at least half the blaming themselves. :()
It made me feel better too. As a kid, you just feel so isolated and alone against bullying that it’s kinda amazing to see everyone’s stories. If there are other people out there that want something better for their own children, then it makes me hopeful that it can happen.
I am pretty sure I was bullied… But it was never this serious… So I feel I shouldn’t have anything to say really. I just basically forget the time I spent in elementary school simply because high school was, and is, SO MUCH better. So many people that share my interests, many of them funny, and if I get crap from enough people, I can just transfer classes. Around where I live, nearly everyone agrees high school is better than elementary… At least among my friends. But maybe that’s because we formed our open ended group that anyone can join, and those like us usually do, and those who are weirder out by us usually don’t. Now we talk about everything, from anime, to ponies, to certain video games, to movies of all kinds, etc. For Selkie, my only advice is to hang onto her friends. Cause they’re the ones who make school better despite craps like this.
i was bullied every day as a child in elementary school i had no recourse because the kids that were bullying me were the children of the recess aids and teachers even when i told them and showed them that i was being beat up and bullied they refused to believe their “little angels” were the perpetrators and i was considered the trouble maker when i would try to fight back they said i was mentally retarded and had ADHD i was so tortured i could not concentrate in class and would just break down and throw things around the room they said i could not read or write and they attempted to medicate me my parents realized that i was not the problem and took me off the Ritalin finally at one point i had rug burn on my face from being held down by the principle at the time. my parents switched me to another public elementary school i retook the 3rd grade but it ended well by 6th grade i was top 10 in my school was helping others by being a conflict mediator and had a reading level of a senior in high school now I’m a senior in college and emotionally stable helping others as a resident advisor
I’m glad that Todd is such a caring father to Selkie. That’s the kind of support Selkie needs to get through all of this nonsense. It was the support of my parents that got me through Hell in a CATHOLIC school. This boy just enjoyed seeing me squirm when he made fun of me, and when my best friend transferred there for 6th grade he thought it was funnier when he made fun of her mom because my friend told people she died of breast cancer. That waste of DNA made my skin crawl. Granted he had a bad home life, but I hated that he’d act that way toward people. He just did it for his disgusting enjoyment. I started trying to scratch my wrists, and it probably wasn’t long until I tried using a blade, but my mom said he was a punk who wasn’t worth it and dad said he could whip him.
Now I’m not far from graduating high school with my boyfriend. When we started talking he told me how he had been bullied, gotten little support from any of his family, and went through grade school with no real friends. It put a lot of bad thoughts in his head. The same kind of thoughts I would have. He never really talked to anyone, not even to friends when he finally met some worthwhile people. For a while he had moments where he thought he should have ended himself and that he had no future thanks to all those years alone and feeling like no one cared about him. It shows how much the kids need their parents in times like this. Otherwise this could mess up their future.
Luckily, my friend now has a job, her own car, and enjoys being with her love; I’ll be going to Japan like I’ve always dreamed in June; and my boyfriend talks easily with anyone now. And I can’t remember the last time he felt depressed at all. Everyone has been a lot better off.
I agree. Parents can make all the difference. After my siblings died, my classmates decided that either I was cursed or had killed them.
Either way, it made my life.. hard.
It was because of my parents’ support that I survived elementary school and because of their example that I began to heal myself and protect others when I could.
They talked with teachers to make sure I wasn’t in classes with students who would try to hurt me. They took time to just talk to me at night and listen.
I’m so glad your parents were supportive and you are getting to travel. That’s wonderful. Growing up and getting to choose where you go and who you interact with is truly marvelous. Isn’t it?
Absolutely. I’m glad you made it through your troubles. My friend would know exactly where you’re coming from. Long before she transferred, kids messed with her at her old elementary school because her mother died. It’s a sickening thing to think kinds would do that. She had lots of friends who loved and supported her though. Her dad was strict, but he supported her too. I’m sorry about your siblings. I’m sure they’d be happy to know you’re still going strong. 🙂
ive never wanted to punch a child before, this is making me want to punch one then throw her out the window.
also great art, you really caught emotion with the sniffling and such
First, I just want to say I love this comic so much and I feel for poor Selkie so much.
Second, I am also surprised that they don’t have spare clothes or at least a jacket around! Usually schools will keep around extra clothes especially if they have a dress code.
However that is beside the point. Everyone must now give Selkie a hug for she needs it. I mean, it’s her first day back to school and her shirt got thiefered. If it were me, I would never want to go back!
I love that everyone feels comfortable enough to share such personal stories with the other readers. The reactions to these last few strips have really been insightful into the impact bullying can have on a person.
I don’t think it will be any surprise for you all to know I had my own bully problems. I became very emotionally withdrawn when my grandfather died while I was ten. My fourth grade teacher found it too difficult to get me to contribute to the lessons, so he placed me at a desk next to the coat room between two filing cabinets and told me to just keep to myself. I couldn’t see the blackboard from there and spent the whole class day drawing robots. Drawing robots and failing tests.
Fifth and Sixth grade I picked up two bullies who made my life miserable, and one of them pretended to be my friend for awhile so he could steal from me and feed confided information around the school. It got so bad I started talking about jumping out of a third story window just to not deal with everything anymore. Luckily a teacher overheard this, told my parents, and I went to therapy for awhile.
I did the private school thing as a result of being too emotionally unstable to risk further bully pressure, but it had it’s own issues with bullies (albeit not as bad as the other ones, these bullies were just general jerkwads and didn’t go for the personal attacks as much).
By the time I got to high school I was the quiet kid who learned not to draw attention by answering questions in class, sit in the back row and shrink down to a small unnoticeable size, and I started ditching the cafeteria during lunch after I ate to go to the library and read Gargoyles fanfiction online.
First time I actually enjoyed school was college, where I got a roommate who was as much of a geek as I was and got to choose classes I actually had an interest in learning. He and his then-girlfriend now-wife are still among my closest friends.
TL;DR: Bullying sucks, but it does get better in the end. 😀
You don’t even KNOW
How many hugs I wish to give you.
Me too.
Virtual hugs from me as well. My own experience wasn´t quite as bad as yours, but I can relate to what you write.
Speaking of bullying… there was a group of bullies in 7th grade who called me “fishface”, too, and I´m human. So seeing Selkie being called that conjured up some memories…
If I were you I´d take it as a big compliment on how realistic your story is that people can relate to Selkie being bullied so well.
Yeah, thumbs up from me for hearing your story. Must admit I was quite curious.
I could write a manuscript, but mine wasn’t just bullying, the hardest thing about mine was that I was actively punished for being different by the school system itself, which had much worse psychological implications for me, so it’s a different shitstorm to the same tune.
And yeah, things do get better, if you can get through them.
What kind of robots?
Hey, this makes 101 comments! In less than two days! Dave, you’ve really tugged a collective heartstring with Selkie.
I wasn’t even watching the numbers, but wow you’re right! O_O
I mostly drew rectangles with chainsaws and lasers. XD
I would love to see your robot drawings 😉
Sorry, I was too young to learn the value of keeping old sketchbooks. 😀
I second Madrigorne. If you’ve saved any, you could scan them and show us? 😉
Virtual hugs here too. Demona was my favorite until I discovered DBZ.
TL:DR… what does it mean?????
It stands for “Too Long; Didn’t Read”. On some of the forums I trawl, it’s used as a quick summary for a long post.
Why haven’t they given her a loaner shirt? She shouldn’t be made to sit there without an shirt on! Surely someone has a spare shirt or jacket for her to cover herself with! What kind of brain-dead school officials are we dealing with here? My school always had some spare clothes lying around, either in the lost and found or just stored away for emergencies. Someone at least give the poor girl a blanket!
Never before has Selkie been more human. It tugs at my heart strings so badly. When Selkie says she’s not alright in a weapy emotional and (I can imagine) dry-mouthed squeak of a ‘no’…. well lets just say this is one of the most emotional Selkie strips I’ve seen yet.
If that was my kid… sitting there shirtless… There would be pain. Lots of pain. You’d be amazed at how many people you can get fired all at the same time if you are *really* determined, *really* pissed off, and *really* clever.
Momma bear my ass. Watch out for daddy bear the grizzly.
I feel like if a school handled a situation this badly — they’re having a girl sit in the front office without a shirt?? — someone would lose their job. This is so obviously inappropriate.
I do like the poster in the first panel, though — it’s a nice touch.
Something just occurred to me about Keisha. The gym teacher is currently talking to the principal… so when Mrs Afkhami takes Keisha to the principal, wouldn´t either the gym teacher realize that Keisha had been in the gym while the crime was committed, or Keisha would tell the gym teacher?
And even if that doesn´t get cleared up right away, I assume Mrs Haversham-Zhang is going to get to the bottom of it; there has got to be somebody (Georgie, Sandy, Wu, Tony, Ricky – I wouldn´t quite trust Amanda in this) who can confirm that Keisha didn´t leave the gym. Keisha is one of her charges, and she´ll want her to be treated justly.
Keisha might be catching hell now, but I am pretty confident that her name will be cleared eventually. And I feel that, especially if she gets to see how distraught Selkie is, this incident will send her down the road to stop bullying Selkie.
Sorry for spamming the comment section, but I just thought of yet another thing.
Suppose it finally comes out that Heather is the culprit, and she is punished. Her adoptive father is the son of Todd´s boss. Let´s say the boss comes to the conclusion that his new granddaughter, that perfect innocent angel, got into trouble because of the wretched misbegotten freak that is his employee´s new daughter, would there be trouble for Todd?
I suspect so…
But an archetect worth his eraser shield/autoCAD program could start his own independant company, no sweat.
The Fairweathers to me seemed the type to get angry with their kid if she was a bully and thus made them look like bad parents… maybe they’re not, but that’s how I feel they’d react. (If/when they believed Heather WAS a bully, that is.)
Funniest thing happened to me the other day. I came upon a picture of a middle school bully and 17 years later, she looked 20 years older than our current age and super burnt out (probably a life of too much smoking and drinking). Actually I’ve seen 50+ yos who look better. Funny how that works out.
One of mine is an army medic now.
Guess that one turned out all right. Probably just had to find something to fight for instead of against.
There’s a lady here in town who’s the spitting image of a bully from my middle school years in Massachusetts. I’m terrified of her. She has no idea. My town’s small enough that we occasionally pass each other in the grocery store or gas station, and it’s awkward.
I’ve got to say, this storyline has been very emotional, and apparently not just for me. I got bullied really bad in elementary school. People say that kids at that age can’t be as bad as the older ones, but I beg to differ. I had my life threatened, I was bushed into blackberry bushes, I was once stabbed with a piece of glass, but no one did anything to help me. In fourth grade, my teacher told me I was retarded and all I would ever do in class was slow people down. (I’m currently going for my PhD). My parents insisted that that wasn’t possible, that any teacher who said things like that to kids would be fired, because I apparently live in a Shel Silverstein novel.
Todd seems like a great dad, and even if he’s new at this, no one can deny that SOMETHING happened to Selkie. I just hope that they do something, and that no one even dares to say to that she’s so different nothing else could be expected. I hate it when people say that. You can’t expect anything else because people who have that mentality are allowed to teach or be principles or god forbid parents. People with that mentality should have a restraining order against all of humanity.
I guess what I’m saying is that I can relate to Selkie and everyone in the comments, and I hope that it gets better for her, because it sure did for me.
First, I want to say that I feel for all of you who were bullied; I was never popular, but I was never really bullied, either, so I don’t have childhood experience with this. However, I recently discovered that my son was being bullied on the bus and playground – supposedly “minor” incidents that no adults were around to catch, and while we have since resolved the situation, it made me think about bullying in a different way… See, I am also a teacher, and I know how hard it is from the other end, too. Most schools around here (Central Ohio) have strict zero tolerance policies for bullying; the problem is that you have to have proof. Most incidents occur in the lunchroom, the hallways, the bathrooms, on the playground, or on the bus, where there is little to no adult supervision. Lots of schools have cameras everywhere, but they don’t have sound, so they don’t pick up verbal abuse, and they can’t easily differentiate between “friendly horseplay” and “minor assault.” As for the teachers who are the bullies, shame on them! Most people go into education because they genuinely want to help young people, but there are also bad apples who think, “if you can’t do, teach” and have no idea how much work (and often, emotion) it actually takes to be an educator. I think these are often the folks who get burnt out early and take it out on their students. If you are being bullied (especially by a teacher), find another teacher (or parent, or family friend) to advocate for you. I agree that often, threat of a lawsuit is the only thing that gets a district’s attention, but there is also generally at least one teacher who would be willing to go to bat for you and at least help get you into another class, if they can’t manage to talk to their bullying colleague. Private school/public school/charter school, it doesn’t matter: there are bullies everywhere, but there are also caring teachers everywhere. Sometimes, you just have to find them…
As to Selkie’s shirtlessness, she could also have emphatically said that she only wanted HER shirt, and refused to put on a loaner. It’s hard to say how a kid will react when she’s upset, and no secretary (I assume the adult is a secretary, since around here, most schools can’t afford full time school nurses) is going to then attempt to force a shirt onto an unwilling wearer.
And to reiterate what some of the parents have said; if Selkie was my daughter, there would be Hell to pay when I got to that school!
I read some of this topic of public vs. private school and, from what I’ve seen, both can be great or horrid. One girl who used to be my friend got so bullied in Christian religious school that she grew a huge stigma against Christians. When she found out my religion she kept trying to force me to convert up until she just completely rejected me. Then there was my public school drama similar to what a lot of people have already said here. I’ve had friends say private school was the same for them. The only type of schooling I’ve heard mostly praise for is home schooling.
BTW please get Selkie a shirt.
I thought I’d mention that I didn’t touch the private vs. public school issue for one very good reason: over here private schools are nearly non-existent. There are the Steiner schools and a few non-Finnish language schools, but that’s about it. Private schools are something one encounters in movies, books, TV-series, not something from real life. Over here the public schools are, generally, very good schools. But bullies exist everywhere. And I’ve heard it really has gotten better in the decade and half since I got out. Of course does little to help me, but at least I can strongly hope that no-one starting their school career now has to go through the same horrors I and many commenters here, did.
Also *BIG HUG* for Dave for letting us continue talking about this issue in this manner. It’s been very therapeutic for me at least. And made me love Selkie (both character and comic) even more. *hugs Selkie too*
I’ve been loving the openness of this commentary thread. And everyone’s been so understanding and empathetic, which I love because almost any other place on the Internet you’d get people trolling. >_<
I really don’t appreciate the comment I just typed about my experience with private school vanishing into thin air. If you’re going to have this clumsy spam filter thing, can’t you at least have it, you know, actually save the text it tells you to go back and enter the captcha before posting?
Sorry the captcha ate your post. I’ll try to find out how to make it save posts when the captcha flops.
If it helps– I always highlight the post and copy it before submitting, just in case the captcha is feeling hungry.
I just realized that bored secretary is doing everything in her power to reassure Todd that things are under control. Luckily, Selkie has refuted everything with one small “no.”
Todd, you should be *driving* to the school already. Now.
Late reply. I would accept “because it has better visual impact” for why she doesn’t have a shirt. I would also accept “because I want *my* shirt”. I would also accept “because I don’t want your shirt because you stink and your shirt stinks and the principal stinks and this school stinks and EVERYTHING STINKS!” (see if you can guess which is my favorite of these 3 theories)
Tolerance…