Cornered
Authors: Rhoda Belleza
CORNERED
Other
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ILLFUL
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RAVE
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OVE
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ARE
20 Tales of Heartbreak and Happiness
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C
ORSETS
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LOCKWORK
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ISS
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EADLY
13 Tales of Paranormal Love
Edited by Trisha Telep
T
HE
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TERNAL
K
ISS
13 Vampire Tales of Blood and Desire
Edited by Trisha Telep
14 S
TORIE
S
of
B
ULLYING
and
D
EFIANCE
⢠⢠â¢
Edited by Rhoda Belleza
Foreword by Chris Crutcher
Copyright © 2012 by Rhoda Belleza (unless otherwise noted)
“Introduction” copyright © 2012 by Rhoda Belleza. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“Foreword” copyright © 2012 by Chris Crutcher. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“NEMESIS” copyright © 2012 by Kirsten Miller. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“On Your Own Level” copyright © 2012 by Sheba Karim. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“The Shift Sticks” copyright © 2012 by Josh Berk. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“Everyone's Nice” copyright © 2012 by David Yoo. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“Defense Mechanisms” copyright © 2012 by Elizabeth Miles. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“Sweet Sixteen” copyright © 2012 by Zetta Elliott. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“Like Kicking a Fence” copyright © 2012 by Kate Ellison. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“How Auto-Tune Saved My Life” copyright © 2012 by Brendan Halpin. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“The Ambush” copyright © 2012 by Matthue Roth. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“Inside the Inside” copyright © 2012 by Mayra Lazara Dole. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“But Not Forgotten” copyright © 2012 by Jennifer Brown. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“The Truest Story There Is” copyright © 2012 by Jaime Adoff. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“Still Not Dead” copyright © 2012 by James Lecesne. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
“We Should Get Jerseys 'Cause We Make a Good Team” copyright © 2012 by Lish McBride. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.
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ISBN 978-0-7624-4428-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011943133
E-book ISBN 978-0-7624-4515-8
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Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing
Designed by Frances J. Soo Ping Chow
Edited by Rhoda Belleza
Typography: Perpetua, Trixie, and Univers
Published by Running Press Teens
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D
EFENSE
M
ECHANISMS
by Elizabeth Miles
L
IKE
K
ICKING A
F
ENCE
by Kate Ellison
H
OW
A
UTO
- T
UNE
S
AVED
M
Y
L
IFE
by Brendan Halpin
I
NSIDE THE
I
NSIDE
by Mayra Lazara Dole
B
UT
N
OT
F
ORGOTTEN
by Jennifer Brown
T
HE
T
RUEST
S
TORY
T
HERE
I
S
by Jaime Adoff
W
E
S
HOULD
G
ET
J
ERSEYS
'C
AUSE
W
E
M
AKE A
G
OOD
T
EAM
by Lish McBride
BY
C
HRIS
C
RUTCHER
H. L. M
ENKEN ONCE FAMOUSLY SAID
, “There is always an easy solution to every human problemâneat, plausible, and wrong.” We would do well to remember that quote when dealing with the issue of bullying.
Bullying is as old as big animals and little animals, so it's not as if we're taking on a new problem, but since the Columbine shootings in 1999 we have forced ourselves to take a closer look at the nature of bullying, particularly in schools. (Never mind that later studies of the incident, particularly David Cullen's masterful book, titled simply,
Columbine
revealed that bullying per se wasn't at the heart of the shootings at all.) We wanted simple answers.
The stories in this anthology give us reason to open up a dialogue and search for the complex answers. Bullying may or may not lead to school shootings, but it certainly leads to misery.
In looking for those simple answers we may have set our sights far too low. Schools have developed anti-bullying campaigns that include zero tolerance, programs to help students identify bullying and step in to help the bullied, anti-bullying
4k runs, anti-bullying bake sales; all of which play to a greater or lesser degree of success. But most of the programs focus on the students themselves.
But bullying starts with adults. It starts with controlling parents who will do almost anything to maintain that control, and teachers who don't tolerate kids finding their ways through natural developmental stages.
Years ago I worked in a child abuse project in which my employer, Spokane Mental Health, coupled with a local Head Start program in order to work with abused kids at a young age, rather than waiting until they were out-of-control adolescents. A five-year-old I'll call Kevin taught me something about bullies I've never forgotten. He was the biggest kid in the room and by far the toughestâlittle Popeye forearms and thunder thighsâhe had
teachers
who were wary of him. He could have taken any kid in the class. Yet on his bad days he'd walk in, drop his coat on the floor, take in the room like a gunslinger and if you didn't intercept him, go after the weakest kid in the room; a little girl I'll call Jessica, who had been blinded in one eye by her mother's abusive boyfriend when he couldn't potty train her way before it would have been developmentally possible. My job in the project was to work with the parents, and I was painfully unaware of preschoolers' motivations and behaviors.
On one of those early days when Kevin got away, he surveyed the room to make sure no one was watching then stormed across, cocking his fist as he ran and brought it down
right in the middle of Jessica's back. The play therapist saw him go and sprinted to intercept him, arriving a split second too late. She slid across the floor on her knees, scooped him up, and then wrapped his arms. Several staff members scurried to comfort the wailing Jessica and I expected the play therapist to do the same, or lay a blistering scolding on Kevin. Instead, I heard her say, “You must be really scared.”
Kevin burst into tears.
It
felt
right to me, but I didn't understand why, so later during debriefing I asked her about it, and about why Kevin always went for the scared kid when he could have whipped the school janitor.
“He hates weakness,” she said. “When he sees it, he wipes it out.”
Wow.
“In Kevin's house,” she went on, “you do
not
show weakness or there is hell to pay. If he's scared or worried or anxious, he has to hide it because it is
not
tolerated. It is met by punishment and disappointment.”
Kevin had been taught to hate weakness. When he saw it, he rubbed it out.