hi sam i am 12 and i have moderate to severe hearing impairement. at school people deliberatly pretend to be deaf and lagh at me. i do wear hearing aids and people laugh at me because they have pink glitter in the moulds. what shall i do??
Hi there,
Everyone is different and nobody is ‘normal’ or has a perfect body. Many people have to live with disabilities. Some people have disabilities where they have a hearing or visual impairment, while others might have a physical disability and need help walking or moving around or have a mental disability that isn’t always noticeable to other people.
Whatever your disability, you shouldn't be bullied or discriminated against. Your rights also mean you should not be put at any disadvantage at school because of a disability.
Bullying is always wrong no matter what, but when it's about something to do with the way you look or about who you are as a person, such as being bullied because you’re deaf, it can be a lot harder to cope with. When someone attacks you personally, it might start to make you feel bad about yourself, which isn't okay. Nobody has a right to make you feel that way about who you are.
The first thing to do is write down all the things that have happened to you - who said it and when they said it. Keep adding to this whenever someone does or says anything mean to you. Once you have this you can speak to an adult your trust or someone at school about what's happening and you can show them all the times it's happened to you. This should mean they take what you're saying seriously and do something about it.
Your school should have rules against bullying and will have a policy of how they deal with it. You can ask to see this policy. Once you have this you can check to see if what they are doing matches what is said in the policy. If you don't feel like your teachers are doing enough then you can talk to someone higher up, like the head of your year, the head teacher, or even the school board.
You have a right to be at school without being bullied - and so does everyone else. It takes a lot of courage to stand up and say something is wrong, but with the right help and support I know you can do it. You might also find this tool on bouncing back from bullying helpful.
If you want to talk to someone at Childline about what you're going to say then you can talk to a Childline counsellor first and practice with them. You can do this by chatting online or if you prefer to talk on the phone and know sign language, you can use our SignVideo service.
You can also the Deaf Zone for more support or speak to other young people about what you’re going through on the Childline message boards.
Take care.
Sam
You can talk privately to a counsellor online or call 0800 1111 for free.
You can ask me about anything you want, there's nothing too big or small. I read every single letter but I can only answer a few each week. My replies are published here on my page.
