Real Boys' Voices by William Pollack

Author:William Pollack [Pollack, William S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-375-50583-6
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2000-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

EVERYONE STILL REMEMBERS

Brian Barenberg, 11, from Littleton, Colorado

When I was in first and second grades, there was this kid who always would make fun of me. He would just call me names, and I ignored him a lot of the time. I got really good at ignoring people. He was just mean, and I think it was because his parents were divorced and his dad was lazy and kind of mean, and he only got to see his mom like once a year. I think he was mad at that, so he took that out by being mean to me. I ignored him and told him to stop, but that didn’t help. I told my mom, and the teachers knew about it, and we even both went to go see this counselor together. The counselor talked to us and suggested that he should try not to be mean for a week, and that then we would get to play a game. Well, we played the game and then it went back to normal, with him being mean. I never saw the counselor again. I kept complaining to my teacher and my mom. He got in trouble a lot, but it didn’t really stop until his mom decided to move back here. Sometimes I think he was so sad, that’s why he was so bad all the time.

What got me through being bullied was the fact of going home every day. My parents supported me by talking to me about it. I really like my dad, but he’s at work most of the day. He likes to build things with wood, and a lot of times I just come down there and talk to him as he’s making things. My mom is there to take care of me, and I really like her. We watch football on the TV together, and she sings to me sometimes. I like that.

I didn’t really know anybody there at Columbine, but my brother, who’s two years older than me, knew Patrick Ireland. Patrick got shot twice in the head, I think. When the shooting happened, we were kept at school and we didn’t know why we couldn’t go home. I don’t think the teachers knew why either. We got to watch part of a Wallace and Gromit show. Finally around three o’clock, they said that there had been a shooting at Columbine, but they didn’t really describe it. At first they thought that like twenty-five people were dead, and our parents had to come and pick us up because they didn’t know where the shooters were. So my mom finally picked me up, and we went home and watched it on the news to see what was happening.

I had been mostly mad at first because I couldn’t go home. Then I was confused because I didn’t know why Eric and Dylan did it. I only kind of understand now. The gym teacher talked about it when some kids started yelling at each other in class.

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