# Dumb Things Sighted Kids Did to You in Public School

Category: Cram Session

## Post 1 by Reyami (I've broken five thousand! any more awards going?) on Thursday, 22-Mar-2007 14:58:31

THis board is for anyone who is blind or visually impaired, who went to public school, and who have had the sighted population of that, (or those, if there was more than one), school do or say stupid things. I have never had things thrown at me, but I have had to use either my rolling backpack or my cane to get people to get out of my way when "excuse me" didn't work. I have even reached the point where using my elbows became necessary. Anyone else have to do that?

## Post 2 by Amethyst Moon (I can't call it a day til I enter the zone BBS) on Thursday, 22-Mar-2007 19:52:27

These are the absolute worst things I ever had done to me, and they were in my freshman and sophomore years of high school. On the way from lunc hto math class, a group of kids threw a couple apples at me and hit me square i nthe back. When I was in drama class where we had one couch that could hold like 3 people and a bunch of other folding chairs, I had been sitting in a spot on the couch and had to get up to ask the teacher something. I put my backpack in place of my spot on the couch and came back to find 15 people all crammed on the couch with my backpack on the floor beside the couch. I also had my locker vandalized. Kids broke into it, tore up every single one of my schoolbooks beyond repair, then closed the locker back up and hocked about 1,000 loogies all over the locker door and the combination lock. Needless to say, this drove me to self-injury and major depression and a switch from a 3,000-student high school to a 600 student high school.

## Post 3 by fuzzy101 (The master of fuzz!!) on Thursday, 22-Mar-2007 23:57:26

The worst I had to deal with was people tapping me on the shoulder for no reason.
They would then disappear and if ever caought act all inosent if they ever ggot caught.

## Post 4 by Reyami (I've broken five thousand! any more awards going?) on Friday, 23-Mar-2007 0:16:25

What a bunch of little--- something I'm not going to repeat here. I swear, middle and high school are always difficult times for people, ten times worse, if you can't see.

## Post 5 by purple penguin (Don't you hate it when someone answers their own questions? I do.) on Saturday, 24-Mar-2007 21:29:06

I go to ablind school but I also take 3 classes at the regular high school. Every time I walk down the hallway people are like "watch out" as if I'm going to run in to them or hit them with my cane on purpose. In class They never pay much attention to me. At least

## Post 6 by Reyami (I've broken five thousand! any more awards going?) on Sunday, 08-Apr-2007 19:12:18

That's good to know. I was walking to lunch once, and this girl was standing right in front of me, and her friend was like, "Melissa, watch out." Melissa was all, "huh?" I took that moment to give her a nice poke with the cane. She moved and was like, "Oh, I didn't know what I was looking out for." What an idiot!

## Post 7 by Belinda (Veteran Zoner) on Tuesday, 10-Apr-2007 3:05:40

what was WITH the Tapping on the shoulder thing???????? I never understood it, just seemed so pointless.... That was probably the MOST annoying thing, it used to happened all the time in my first two years

## Post 8 by Reyami (I've broken five thousand! any more awards going?) on Tuesday, 10-Apr-2007 7:04:28

I guess that's common. Sighted kids must think it's funny to tease the blind kid, or at least, some of them do. That's not right at all.

## Post 9 by matt02392 (Veteran Zoner) on Wednesday, 31-Oct-2007 13:07:20

I go to a school that is kind of a blind school and a main stream school in one. They can acomidate up to 18 blind and visually impared kids from all over the county. So there is kind of an awareness of blind people at my school because the kids see it all of the time. I am in year 10 now. I think that the worse thing that happened to me at my curent school was a year 7, a new kid, asking me if i needed help walking. He didn't do it on perpus to affend me and i new it. So it wasn't a problem. When i went to junier school though i used to get bullied all of the time. I was the only blind kid there and they just thought that they could get away with it and they did.

## Post 10 by Gilman Gal (A billy Gilman fan forever and always!!) on Sunday, 11-Nov-2007 19:32:30

I never had much trouble. but I can tell you once, I was walking down the hall, and a kid stepped in front of me. just to do it. of corse, that got me all desorreanted, and I got lost and was late for class, but at least I didn't get hurt, right?

## Post 11 by Librated dilapidation (Zone BBS Addict) on Thursday, 29-Nov-2007 20:36:53

I think it’s so hilarious when kids jump over my cane and act like I’m a disease or something. I had a crazy experience a couple weeks ago after Spanish class. All the students usually sit along the walls in the halls in each building because we don’t have many benches. So I was walking down the hall and accidentally kick some guy’s folder. I said that I was sorry and he proceeds to mock me. I have a fast temper when it comes to stupid people and called him a nasty name and continued on my little way.
I had the same sort of experiences when I was in high school. I had a teacher in my senior year that was an absolute ass wipe to me. I can’t understand why he turn me in to his little personal punching bag. I think it was just simply because I had a “disability” I still can’t understand how a man who went to college to help children treated a V.I student like udder shit. I am disappointed to say that my horrible experience came from a teacher who is supposed to prevent that sort of taunting.

## Post 12 by Hilikme (Veteran Zoner) on Friday, 30-Nov-2007 21:15:07

I've gone through similar stuff, and it didn't seem to change from grade 8 through 12 in highschool.
I've had rocks, scissors, and pens thrown at me, my cane grabbed from, kicked away from and otherwise stolen right out of my hands while navigating the hallways, people trying to trip me on a regular basis, etc..
Besides that, most people, including some teachers, always talked to me really slowly and loudly, and assumed I was not only blind, but hearing and mentally impaired as well.
*sigh* I'm glad I'm out of highschool.

## Post 13 by HotPerro (I live and breathe the board) on Saturday, 01-Dec-2007 2:05:34

For a few days in Middle school, a group of guys would go in to the bathroom while I was there, and throw paper towels at me. I was a little fed up with it, especially since my aim wasn't so good, throwing them back over the stall wall. So I proceeded to dip the paper towels in the toilet, and ran out of the stall, and grabbed a couple of the closest ones, and rubbed the wet towels on their clothes and faces. I got in a bit of trouble for it, but people never messed with me again.

## Post 14 by BrailleNote Nut (the Zone BBS remains forever my home page) on Monday, 31-Dec-2007 16:27:38

I've actually had not many problems yet, but ya never know. I'm only in 7th grade, got a long while to go so something might come up.
One annoying thing everyone seems to do is rush out of my way if I know they're there, as if I'm gonna hit them with my cane. Nah, don't think so! Anyway I don't know they move because the halls are crowded and all, so i usually just go around them and hit them by accident anyways, because I think they're in one spot... It's difficult to explain.

## Post 15 by Toonhead71 (move over school!) on Monday, 31-Dec-2007 16:44:02

I really had a lot of fun with the kids at my school when they did ignorant shit like that. When one of them did the whole, "how many fingers am I holding up?" trick, I used a really high number like 27, or 21.5 and it confused some of them. when one of them said, you don't have 27 fingers, i said precisely. now stop asking me so many stupid questions. Another thing they would try to do is tell me to go left when i was supposed to go right but I never listened. and I remember this one girl who talked to me in that really loud voice some people use, aparently i'v lost my hearing? but I would just answerin a regular voice or wouldn't respond at all, because I figured if she was gonna make herself look like a total ass she was doing a pretty good job without any help from me. So if I had any advice to kids still going through this crap, get really good at having a snappy comeback, or show them how stupid they look when they do this stuff. Kids can sometimes be meaner than adults can.

## Post 16 by battle star queen (I just keep on posting!) on Tuesday, 01-Jan-2008 15:21:17

During sixth grade I was walking through the lunch room because I had a class in a separte part of the building. Well anyway Some dumb eighth grader tripped over my cane on purpose and bent the hec out of it.

## Post 17 by dream lady (move over school!) on Friday, 01-Feb-2008 14:29:09

Well, in the eighties when I was attending college, a history professor made me leave my cane in his classroom because he thought I could stick notes in it and cheat. No kidding. I told him to his face I would turn him in for discrimination when he wouldn't let me use but one one sheet of paper at a time when I was taking an exam. The other students had notebooks, and he changed his mind when I told him that.

## Post 18 by louiano (I'm going for the prolific poster awards!) on Friday, 01-Feb-2008 20:32:03

rofl! that last one was really funny. Well, i can relateit to a classmate i had who asked me if he needed a screen reader to send me an e-mail message. i have had most of my hard times not through high or middle but rather through elementary school. Most of the things mentioned above: tapping on the shoulder without response, messing with my setuff, asking stupid questions about finger count (to which I would stick out the middle finger and ask them the same question instead); a lot of trouble with most teachers. nOt because they though t I was mentally impared but rather because i face a lot of discrimination for being blinnd and they wouldn't help at all. by discrimination I meant: (a) i wanna play a game witha team of four and there are only three, response: "it owuld be too hard for you to play" or just silence. Other times when there would be different games i always got the response "we cannot fit anyone else into this team". (B) during group activities I didn't get to give any input and was often asked to help, I didn't anyway. Now is when I am having the best times around. I got to a smaller school (about 700 students) and all of them seem cool with it. I am their first blind kid also. The bottom line here is thatregardless of how much trouble they give you, don't give up. You demounstrate how capable you are without worrying or showing any disgust whatsoever because the ones doing such things are retarded anyway. I have some friends who tease me on a regular basis (although its not the mean stuff) and it gets fun at times. It all depends how you look at it; generally I ignore it when people tap my shoulder and walk away. Its really funny other times when they make faces at you as well.

## Post 19 by saxmonger (Generic Zoner) on Thursday, 06-Mar-2008 13:25:36

I went through school in the 1980s, and nothing ugly was ever done to me physically. I had a great high school experience, being totally blind. I was in band and on the wrestling team, and although I was embarrassed when hundreds of kids would say high to me and I didn't know their names, I still had a pretty cool experience. I learned quickly that the pretty girls would just politely turn away when I asked them out, but there was lots of plain Jane ones who didn't care what her group of girlfriends thought about her going out with the school's only blind guy. The snobby rich kids wouldn't talk to me, but everybody else did.

## Post 20 by Miss Prism (the Zone BBS remains forever my home page) on Friday, 07-Mar-2008 2:24:37

My best friend in elementary, blind also, had her cane taken away, "betcha can't find it." type of thing, and though it didn't happen to me directly, it upset me. I had a little bit of vision at the time, though not enough to be of any help.
My own most memorable unpleasant experience involved a V.H. teacher, unbelievable as that seems. It was sixth grade, and my vision was deteriorating rapidly. I have always been only a Braille reader, yet they were determined to get me to wear these huge, magnifying glasses, which were uncomfortable, and worthless. I did not need them in order to get my work done. Well, to prove that I *did* need the glasses, one day as I was walking down the busy school corridor, my VH teacher stepped directly in my path. I saw her and tried to step aside, and she also stepped to the side, so of course I ran into her. She nastily said that if I'd been wearing the glasses, that wouldn't have happened. This was an outrage, and unfair. At any rate, I lost all of my vision the following year.
The other incident happened in a Theater Arts class, a class I regretted having signed up for almost from the start. This was also in 6th or 7th grade, and the class was led by a young teacher-she was no more than 24, and not much more mature than the students. We were supposed to lip synch to a song, and I, not having the faintest idea what that meant, thought I was supposed to sing. Well, everyone else hadn't been singing aloud, so I sang mine as softly as possible, when my turn came. The woman gave me a barely passing grade on that stupid project, because I didn't lip synch! My feelings were hurt, but I said nothing, and felt, privately, embarrassed at not having understood, and at not being able to explain the situation.
Anything else was just the same sort of thing everyone else here has said--people nearly shouting at you, screaming when they see you coming toward them with a cane... typical high school stuff that can make you feel like a freak because you're blind.

## Post 21 by lauralou (Account disabled) on Thursday, 10-Apr-2008 22:50:16

well there's this kid that just stops in the hall and sticks his arm in front of my face so i hit it, but its really not like he's trying to be mean, he just thinks he's funny.
but this one kid punched him in the balls for it. that was pretty great, but sometimes he steels my combination lock, but i just knock his books all over the place in return.
no one is down right mean to me. I've grown up with all of them and I think they're just used to it. I think that makes a difference. High school should be interesting though...

## Post 22 by The Elemental Dragon (queen of dragons) on Thursday, 15-May-2008 12:13:07

High school was interesting. the worst thing I can remember was that I was waiting for my friend to come out of class but turning out that she was sick that day, any way... a kid came out and went into the If you trip me crap like he usually did, but then he said because I was walking down the hall and he was in front of me and I didn't know it, I hit him and he turned, raised his fist to me and he said, do you see this, I'm going to beat you up after school. and he had a bunch of his friends around, and they were laughing. I went to class and my art teacher saw me shaking and he asked me what was wrong and I told him what happened. he told me to go see the principal so I did, told him what happened and he told me to go with him to tell one of the security officers we had there. i told him and you know what the guy said, he said that the kid was just joking.
Excuse me, but that is not a joke. I didn't say anything to him because I didn't want to cause anymore trouble.

## Post 23 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Thursday, 15-May-2008 22:44:16

Most of the things that have happened to me have just been the random tapping on the shoulder, and that sorta thing. Some kids like to mess with my combination lock, but I just reset it, and keep on going. People yell, and say to their friends "watch out, he's blind" when I'm walking past, and I just laugh to myself. I don't know y, but I really find it funy when some freshman or sophmore goes "o shit" when they nearly get hit by my cane. I do have some vision, and some kds go "yo man, he's not blind, he can see" and I guess they think I can't hear them, because its always right after I walk past them. Apparently, some kid wanted to fight me when I was in the ninth grade. I found out when my frind who sat behind me in spanish went "hey mike, did u hit some kid with your stick?" I told him I didn't think so, and he was like "well, he wants to fight u." I told him to bring it on, but he said that he had already "talked" to the kid and everything was cool. I guess sighted kids don't think I can fight either. Y, I don't know, but its their choice. I'm not saying that I want to fight someone, but if I have to, I know how to.

## Post 24 by The Elemental Dragon (queen of dragons) on Saturday, 17-May-2008 22:13:42

same here. I'm one belt away from being a black belt in Hapkeido

## Post 25 by hamster (Zone BBS Addict) on Monday, 16-Jun-2008 12:43:39

I never have any big problems - on my elementary school.
It was a private school and I have group of friends - when someone tried to do something to me - they acted little as my bodyguards. We are good friends now.
Now I'm on bilingual grammar school, and it's great. It can be clearly seen, that lots of people didn't pass exams. Never had any problem with people taping on the shoulder or something like taht. Only on elementary school and only a little.
Now I have girlfriend and nobody have problems with it.

## Post 26 by GreenTurtle (Music is life. Love. Vitality.) on Wednesday, 18-Jun-2008 19:49:47

When I was in elementary school, people used to steal my books, steal my cane, and tap me on the shoulder. I think the worst thing that ever happened to me was in 6th grade, some did pulled a chair out from under me when I tried to sit on it. When I was in middle school, people just pretty much acted like I didn't exist. I swear I could go through a whole day without talking to a single person. That's probably why I'm so quiet now. I guess I got used to it. People would also ask me how many fingers they were holding up, and I would give them the middle finger, and that made them walk away pretty quick.

## Post 27 by blindndangerous (the blind and dangerous one) on Wednesday, 18-Jun-2008 22:13:15

You were quiet? um...quiet u? Dez? hmmm. Not at ideal u weren't. :D I guess that works, giving the finger when they try and to aht, but my wrestling coach asked me that, (the one who I'm really not too fond of), and I told him "however many u want to have up", and that got him to shut up pretty fast.:)

## Post 28 by GreenTurtle (Music is life. Love. Vitality.) on Thursday, 19-Jun-2008 14:02:01

Lol Mike, well it depends on the situation, I don't talk much unless I know people really well, and I how people react to me, so yeah, sometimes I can be really quiet, it's just that at Ideal I felt comfortable with all you guys, so there wasn't a reason to be.

## Post 29 by Librated dilapidation (Zone BBS Addict) on Sunday, 26-Oct-2008 10:47:14

Don’t have any patience for people who will not respect you. It’s interesting that most of those kids that picked on us will have worse lives in the future. It’s amazing how the underdog ends up rising up in the end.

## Post 30 by Siriusly Severus (The ESTJ 1w9 3w4 6w7 The Taskmaste) on Saturday, 06-Jun-2009 4:25:35

Well, let me tell you it was a few weeks ago. This guy was trying to be funny at first, but I was already kind of a bit confused and frustrated as I somehow got myself confused as to where I was and he kept confusing me. He kept up the "Over there" "over that way" or "Over here" and I told him right in his face, I don't understand directions like that you'd either have to tell me Left, right, or cardinal directions such as North south and so on. He got mad and Now when he just shouts random directions.

## Post 31 by Feathered Serpent (I can't call it a day til I enter the zone BBS) on Sunday, 07-Jun-2009 14:35:18

well i just entered high school and all seams to be well. Though there are the kids that act like I'm diseased or something. I just ignore it. Then there are the kids who just say hi. But probably the meanest things that kids do is jump over my cane I hate it. But its just like this. kids talk to me or they wont do anything at all. As I was typing this I Just remembered that in alimentary school some kid just kept on taunting me but that was about it.