I wrote this story when I was conducting an anti-bullying programme at a Primary School. The kids loved it and I hope yours do too. If you want to publish it in a magazine or whatever, let’s correspond about it and work out payment arrangements.
BAD BULLY BUTLER
Bad Bully Butler was the biffingest, bashingest bully in the whole of Bulldog Bay. Everyone knew about him even though he was still in Primary School. He belted boys, teased girls, grabbed baseball caps and threw them away, pulled ponytails, called people too small, too big, too fat, too skinny, too ugly think they’re handsome, thought they’re clever, thought they were smart, yellow, black, brown, pink, freckly, moley, sloppy, fashion-plate, big teeth, no teeth, curly, mousey, blondie, red, nerd, dropkick, dipstick, big-ears, big-nose, long-legs, short-stuff, twit, dweezil, idiot and everything else that bullies say. No one liked him but a lot of people pretended to so he would leave them alone and pick on someone else.
But Bad Bully Butler picked only on people who were different. What his “gang” didn’t realize was that everyone is different, so they were really surprised when it was their turn to be picked on. In fact, there was probably no one in the Bulldog Bay Primary who hadn’t been picked on by Bad Bully Butler. His favourite targets of all, though, were small quiet people with glasses and his very favourite victim was Gentle Katy Little. She was the smallest girl in Grade Six, she had red hair and freckles which all grown-ups thought were adorably cute, she was very clever, she had fashionable but thick glasses, and she was nice.
Every day on the bus Bad Bully Butler would tease Gentle Katy Little. He would sit behind her and pull her beautiful red ponytail. He would pretend he had burnt his hand on her “Firehair”. He would drop lizards into her lap (she did scream very, very well). He would ask her what she had for lunch and say “Ooh, yuck!” to everything. He would call her the teachers pet and say she cheated. He even used to cringe away from her and say she had “girl germs”.
At school he used to fire rubber bands at Gentle Katy Little when the teacher wasn’t looking. He would scribble on her homework books and grab them to cheat from the answers. When there was a queue for anything he would always shove Gentle Katy out of the line and take her place while she had to go to the back because he threatened to biff anyone who let her in. At sports he was always captain of the team because he was good at anything physical and he used to pick Gentle Katy Little last every time. She was becoming more and more miserable and finding it harder and harder to concentrate on her schoolwork. She sometimes felt so anxious about going to school that she was sick. She didn’t realize it was Bad Bully Butler that made her feel that way. Gentle Katy began to think she was a terrible person who deserved to be treated badly.
One day, some one came to talk to the schoolkids about bullying and how it affects people. He told them that lots of famous people were bullied when they were at school and they were all very miserable during those years of their lives. He said that maybe it is because they were different that they were special enough to become famous later on. He told them that bullies are usually very unhappy and that if they keep bullying when they get older they usually go to gaol. In fact people who bully in Primary School are much more likely to go to gaol than people who don’t. He gave the children some ideas about what they could do to stop people bullying. Bad Bully Butler just laughed.
At lunch time Bad Bully Butler wandered around bullying people and grabbing their lunches as usual but a lot of kids talked to each other about what they could do to stop bullying in their school. Gentle Katy Little’s friends talked the most of all because they did not like what Bad Bully Butler was doing to her.
The next day Bad Bully Butler went around doing his usual thing but he was puzzled because some of the kids seemed to be looking at him differently. But he just grabbed more lunches and pulled more hair. Gentle Katy was hard to find because her friends kept warning her when he was coming but he got her on the bus anyway. If he had been the sort of person who really paid any attention to others he might have noticed that some of Gentle Katy’s friends were going up to his “gang” members one by one and talking to them really seriously.
On the weekend there were a lot of telephone calls in Bulldog Bay. Kids could be seen going to secret meeting places in the woods and in backyards and in special places in houses. Bad Bully Butler couldn’t find his “gang” anywhere on Saturday and on Sunday all of their mothers told him they had tummy wogs and couldn’t play with him that day. The truth was that on Saturday a really unusual thing happened and Bad Bully Butler’s Bashers had a meeting with Gentle Katy Little and her Babysitter’s Little Sisters Club at an Ice Cream Parlour that was labelled “nerdy”. They made a plan.
The bus ride on Monday morning was the same as usual. Bad Bully Butler teased all of the kids on the bus and especially Gentle Katy Little. But there was a difference. His friends didn’t seem to want to laugh at what he was doing. By the time they arrived at school he was in a really bad mood. They went into class and he did as many naughty things as he could but he was too bold and was caught firing little pieces of wet paper through a pen tube at people. He was kept in at morning tea and didn’t get a chance to bully anyone. The day was not turning out well.
Lunchtime came and he was so angry he looked for Gentle Katy Little straight away. She was nowhere to be found and he was so busy looking everywhere for her that he forgot to pinch anyone’s lunch. Then it was playtime and he quickly ate his own.
He spotted Gentle Katy Little at the far end of the playing field near some trees. She was just playing with a ball by herself and he ran over to tease her. He stood quite near to her to make her scared and didn’t say anything, knowing that she was just scared of him being around. Strangely, she just looked at him. He began to feel a bit uncomfortable with this small person looking at him and thought he would make himself feel better by saying something really nasty and then giving her a push. He was just opening his mouth when Gentle Katy Little shouted! “NO! DON’T BULLY ME!” Bad Bully Butler just about fainted. This had never ever happened to him before.
It was about twenty seconds before he recovered enough to realize that Gentle Katy Little was still standing looking at him. He decided there was only one thing to do to save face. He would hit her. He was just about to when he heard a noise behind him. He looked over his right shoulder and discovered that Katy’s Babysitter’s Little Sister’s club had appeared from nowhere and they were all standing behind him. He heard another noise and looked over his left shoulder and saw that all of the Bad Bully’s Bashers were behind him too.
He grinned and said “You take care of that lot and I’ll fix this little twerp”. He lifted his hand to shove Gentle Katy Little. Suddenly Gentle Katy Little, the Babysitter’s Little Sisters Club and Bad Bully’s Bashers all yelled, “NO, DON’T BE A BULLY. BULLYING IS BAD, BULLY BUTLER!” Can you guess what happened next? What would you do if you were Bully Butler?
Yes. He went as pale as his mother’s sheets on washing day and turned and ran. He felt all mixed up inside and went and sat by himself for the rest of the lunch break. He tried to cheer himself up by annoying someone in class but it looked as though everyone had heard the story of how Bad Bully Butler ran away. They all looked at him when he did anything and looked as though they were getting ready to shout, so he stopped straight away. He felt awful.
When he got on the bus there were three boys sitting in the seat behind Gentle Katy Little and three girls in front and three in the seat across from her and they said, “You sit up the back Bad Bully Butler, and leave our friend alone.” So Bully Butler sat in the back of the bus all the way home and felt miserable. All of the boys and girls surrounding Katy Little stayed on the bus till her stop and got off with her. Bully Butler felt rotten.
He didn’t have any tea that night and in the morning he felt so sick in the stomach even his father told him he could stay home.
On the next day, Wednesday, his mother said he had to go to school. When he got on the bus he went straight to the back seat. Katy Little and her friends all got on at the same stop. He moaned to himself that some of them used to be his friends. He just sat by himself all that day and wished he had never bullied anyone. He had lost all his friends and he was sure that everyone hated him.
The next day, at lunchtime, he was sitting by himself on the furthest bench when he saw Katy Little coming over to him and something weird happened. Bad Bully Butler began to cry. To his surprise Katy Little put her hand on his shoulder and said “Do you need a friend?” He couldn’t believe his ears but he nodded and said, “I’m sorry I bullied you Katy Little. I’ll never do it again.” Katy said “I know, no one will do that at this school again,” and she lifted her hand and waved.
All of the BSLS Club and the ex-BBBs came running over and his best mate, well the one who he thought was his best mate, said, “Now you’re friends with Katy we’re your friends again. We never liked you bullying but never had the courage to stop you until Katy got a good idea. But there are lots of things about you that we like.”
Katy said, “I think I’ll call you Best Buddy Butler now.”
He laughed and said to her “And you are Tough Katy Little from here on. You’ve certainly taught me a lesson.”
And they were best friends from then on.