Katie Butler - The Subtle Kind of Bullying
Sankalpa Gurung - No Voice
Nicola Kruger - The Power of Words
Clare Melville - Leave Us Alone
Teegan Robertson - Love is Just Love




The subtle kind of bullying
by Katie Butler, aged 16, Lisarow High School

Every day she rides the bus, dreading the moment it pulls up at school.
It isn’t the subjects that make school so awful, not the teachers or the assemblies…
No, it’s her friends.
It’s her so called friends that make school such a misery.
Whenever she tries to explain what is wrong, she’s never understood.
As far as anyone can see, her friends are lovely people.
The type of bullying she’s a victim of is a subtle kind, a kind that is skilfully administered without detection. It leaves no proof and when a claim is made it can be hastily explained away. All she has is mental scarring. She’s always left puzzling over what she’s done wrong. Fights come from no-where and there seems to be no explanation.
In class, her friends sit in the next row and she’s left sitting next to an empty seat. It’s the same at lunch time. Her friends sit around her, rather than with her. She feels like a cockroach that’s been sprayed
with repellent.
A whole lunch break can pass without a word being spoken to her.
Sometimes she tries to involve herself, but she’s talked over or just ignored. She’ll walk over to the group and within a few minutes the group has moved on, leaving her alone.
She gives up. She’s used to being alone, having no support and feeling useless.
She wants to get away, wants the bullies to pay, but she feels as insubstantial as an insect.




Leave Us Alone (I Know How it Feels)
by Clare Melville, aged 15, Prairiewood High School

Bullying is a habit which most teenagers give and receive as part of everyday life. It can cause you emotional distress after every single day at the hell hole they call school. Tears accompany every sad song, reminding you of every single phrase and action directed at you. Your diary is filled with emotive words and all the bad moments, making you hide it with your life. You can’t help but lay in bed and cry, pretending nothing’s wrong. I know everyone would be reading this, knowing this is exactly how you feel; you just never had the guts to put it into words. You would’ve always thought someone would read it causing all the pain all over again. I’m not scared anymore; you don’t even register on my mind. These bad feelings are all caused from bullying, losing friends who were your life. Say NO to bullying today, because I know we would all be happier without it. All we want are friends we can lean on when we are in trouble and ones who will always have our back, protecting us from bullies. We don’t want you to shape us, we want to be independent and learn about life, without the silly people who are unhappy with their life destroying ours. So to all you bullies, leave us alone to get on with life, being happy with who we are and not who you want us to be.




No Voice
by Sankalpa Gurung, aged 17, Cootamundra High School

“Asian Invasion!” a boy at the back of the room, with wild red hair and prominent orange freckles, yelled out with ostentatious obnoxiousness. His mates patted him on the back and laughed so long and loud that it overwhelmed all the other conversations in the roll call room. I cast my eyes down and hurried to the nearest seat. All heads were turned my way and I could feel, rather than see, the harsh judgemental eyes placing me into a stereotypical category, before even giving me a chance to introduce myself. My cheeks burned with embarrassment. Thankfully the laughter died down as I slid into a vacant seat that promised a more sense of belonging.

A black bordered clock hung above the blackboard. I wistfully watched the second hand and longed for it to move faster. I could hear conversations about me, some whispered, some shouted, some muttered, some giggled.

“Malaysian, Mongolian, Indonesian, Korean … jeez there’s so much Asian invasion.”
“JC is so funny, Asian Invasion, that’s a really good one!”
“I wonder if she’s Chinese …”
“I hate Chinese and anything Asian.”
“Hah-ha. She was definitely ‘made in China’.”
“Can she say six?”
“That girl has weird eyes – but then again all those Asians do.”

My heart thudded painfully fast and my throat began to tighten and burn. I bit my tongue and bitterly suppressed all the things I wished to say.


The Power of Words
by Nicola Kruger, aged 16, Northmead High School

Holding a red stained knife in her grasp, power consuming her, she once again gouged through her arm. She felt nothing. Watching transfixed, the blood pored down and engulfed her hand. This escape was nothing knew to her. Her head began to pound and her body ache; she was loosing control.

Power soon turned to panic as she looked upon something that shared only a minor resemblance to an arm. Mutilated. She began to fall through nothingness, logic far gone and life wavering in the balance.

Hours later, she found herself staring a bandage wrapped tightly around her arm. Her gaze continued towards her shoulder, the contrast between the white bandage and her black skin taunted her and at this she felt a tear trickle down her check and fall, ever so gently, beside her. She wanted more than anything to fall back where she came from, a place that cared nothing for colour.

Countless times the incessant need to rip, tear and destroy has corrupted her conscience. She felt the constant need to rid herself of the curse that had looked back at her in the mirror day after day.

She looked upon the world as a constant division; ‘black and white’. Told constantly of her inadequacies and worthlessness, she had begun to believe it. Equality was a word so astronomically far from her vocabulary that she thought it beyond impossible.

The power of words is a mystery. It can take just one sentence to change a life.. or destroy one.




Love is Just Love
by Teegan Robertson, aged 17, Belmont High School

We’d spend the rest of our lives together
We’d fight
But make up every time
We’d walk hand in hand along the beach
HOMOSEXUAL
I’d cuddle you while you cook
It would take longer
But it would be more fun

It was heaven in your eyes
Forever and a day
Always

Now I cannot touch you
Or kiss you or hug you
And you cannot hear me
I love you
With my heart, body, mind and soul
SHE’S A LESO

A closed casket
Your mother was hysterical
We couldn’t see your pretty face

I’m testifying tomorrow
Against those that took you from me
Their sad little lives
COME HERE YA DYKE
Never touched with love like ours

I pity them
All they have is hate and their silly little words
We weren’t together long as we planned physically
At least we were
And will be together again.

One of their faces was messed up
Thanks to you darling
Bit more than they expected
You fighting back wasn’t what they planned
But they still got what they wanted
WE’LL FIX YOU FREAK

I’m filled with love for us
And
I know who I am and I know that we were meant to be
Even if
It’s like this

You didn’t survive the abuse
Our love survives
I miss you with every breath
I know I will see you again
Our love just keeps getting stronger
Forever and a day
Always