Hi Sarah,
Thank you for writing to me, I can see how much this bullying has been affecting you lately and it’s brilliant that you’re talking about it.
First off, it’s important to know that nobody ever has the right to judge you or bully you about your sexuality, especially not at school. It sounds like this has been happening for a while and I can imagine it's making it hard to even want to go to school. Every young person has the right to feel safe when they’re at school and to go there without being bullied.
It can be really hard to think what to do when you are being bullied like this, and I can imagine it feeling like there isn’t anything that can be done to make a change. It’s important to remember that every school has what’s called an anti-bullying policy. This says what the school is meant to do when any kind of bullying is happening, and is something that all the teachers need to follow to help support you and make the bullying stop.
Even when you know it’s not meant to happen, it can still be really difficult to talk about things like bullying, especially if it’s around things you may feel sensitive about. It can help to think, first about the teachers that you may feel the most comfortable talking to, and about what you’d most like to say to them if you did decide to talk. Doing things like practicing what you’d like to say to the teacher, or writing it as a letter to stop you having to start off the conversation, can make it feel easier to talk to them.
One of the most difficult things about bullying can be if it still carries on even when you have told someone. Sometimes it can take time to make things change and it may be that the teachers doesn’t even realise that it is still happening. It can take a few times of letting people know it’s happening in order for it to stop. As hard as it can be to talk to somebody once, talking to someone a second time can be even more difficult, but it’s important to think about what it’ll be like if you don’t say how upsetting all of this really is for you.
It might be really good for you to take some time to look at the Bullying page in Explore for a little more information. Like I said before, it can be really hard to think about what to do, and it’s absolutely fine if you don’t feel ready to do anything yet. It might be really good to think about talking to a ChildLine counsellor. You can write to them like you did with me, come online and talk to them through 1-2-1 chat (which works a lot like MSN), or even call on 0800 1111 (it’s completely free and won’t show up on the phone bill). The counsellors will be able to give you time to talk about how school has been like for you, and can help you think about what you might like to do whenever you feel ready.
Take care,
Sam