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I got in sooo much trouble in school for standing up to bullies. It was totally bizarre. NONE of the teachers understood basic bully psychology, and so when I hit back (after which the bully predictably left me alone for good), I was suddenly the bad guy. My first suspension was in kindergarten, and it solidified my disdain for most (but not all) teachers.

That's really what ruined school for me, and set me on an independent path. Actually, now that I think about it, that's probably for the best. I do my own thing no matter how nerdy and I don't take shit from anyone. Plus, learning to box was a big help.

Perhaps it was a different time, the '70s, perhaps a different location, very Red State and culturally part of the South extreme SW Missouri, but the teachers and administrators understood discipline and bullies. With one exception there were no repercussions when I fought back against bullies, who did indeed leave me alone for good afterwords, perhaps even becoming a bit friendly.

Once we were both sent to the principle's office and told to cut it out, that was a low level thing but in class (shoving a table in art class). And once in my senior year in high school I came close to possibly putting an assailant into the hospital, I was armed with a dog choker chain, but he ran away into a unoccupied part of the building guarded by a teacher.

He whined about my having that choker as I simply put it into my pocket in front of at least one teacher and 10s of students, and I was later told sub rosa that as far as the school administration was concerned, I could have beaten him up without repercussions.

Had a lot to do with who he was, who I was and how I'd never caused any problems in the high school. And again, the local culture, this is a place were a few years ago the police praised someone who had used lethal force against home invaders, and said she had an "absolute right" to do that, which is not a common thing for them to say elsewhere in the US.

But the less overt harassment I did receive had similar effects on me as with Jacques, maybe the physical bullying was limited because I steadily developed the CONSTANT VIGILANCE! one fictional character advocates due to it, and was generally known to be a hunter and target shooter (in my father's days in the late '40s/early '50 it was routine for students to store their hunting long guns in their lockers after early morning hunting or before hunting after school, to save time), and on the high school JROTC rifle team.

Who knows? Although one of the biggest disappointments in my life was having to credibly threaten lethal force to stop a hazing kidnapping in my first semester in college, despite it being the best school for its specialty in the world it seems people were still people....