Hi, my name is Laurie and I was bullied.......

I was reading this week's article about bullying in People magazine and it brought back my own memories of being bullied in the 8th grade. I was moving from my mom's to my dad's - traumatic enough - and I remember making a few friends right away at school. I had a girl over for a sleepover and she started naming girls at school & asked if I liked them. I think I'd been in school a whole month. I didn't even really know who she was talking about. She wrote stuff down and took it to school with her. She showed it to these girls and an entire year of harassment ensued. Think being followed, being jumped by the girls and just general taunts. And the problems it caused me at home?? Don't even get me started. Somehow in the midst of all of it, I still made friends that I still have today and who never believed I did all the things this girl said I did. I even later became "friends" with the girls who had taunted me. I was lucky - I survived.

If the internet had been the way it is today, I am not sure what I would have done or what would have happened to me. These kids reacted in the best way they knew how. I can't get over what happened to Tyler Clementi, Phoebe Prince and the countless others. It's the worst possible thing I can imagine. I am not a parent but I can imagine how difficult and challenging raising children in this time is. Hats off to my friends who are. I commend you.