I’m still being tormented by my college bully at uni

Being a teenager can be tough. There’s pressure to do well in your academic life while maintaining a good social life too. Life can get even tougher if you’re a victim of bullying. NSPCC figures show that 46 per cent of children are bullied during their time at school or college. A high percentage of which are bullied every day.

We spoke to Louise, who was bullied in college and is still being targeted today, even though she and her bully are both at different universities. This is Louise’s story:

While I was at college, I became friends with a guy in one of my classes. I’d been close friends with him before he became involved with his girlfriend, and remained that way throughout their rocky relationship. He’d speak to me for advice whenever she’d hurt him and I’d always give the same advice; if you love her, stick with it. So I wasn’t a threat, or so I’d thought. Apparently my friendship with him was a big threat in his girlfriend’s eyes, and so began the bullying.

The girlfriend (now ex) had been made aware of abuse I’d been subjected to as a child, and of course used that against me. There were times that I feared for my safety in and out of college because she’d screamed a cruel nickname in my face on more than one occasion.

Eventually, my friends pushed me to report her to the college. I only did so because I was told that she would face severe consequences, even losing her place at the college. However, when the college realised who the bully was, they did nothing but talk to her. And why? Because she was set to go to one of “the best” universities in the country. And they simply could not lose their statistic.

After reporting my bully to the college, she continued to harass me. Not only targeting me, but sending messages trying to convince my ex-boyfriend of the lies that she’d come up with – that I’d cheated on him. At which point the police became involved, and she was given a warning. My bully did not head that warning and to this day, still makes comments on social media. Even now, while we’re at opposite ends of the country, at separate universities, I’m still being bullied. She seems to find any way to cause disturbance in my life, and it’s always close to exams. She’ll write nasty comments on social media, or still try to make people believe her sadistic lies about me. I’ve been called a copy and I’ve even been told that doing a degree in mathematics is “shit”.

I suffered in silence for a long time where the bullying was concerned. It was almost two years before I spoke to someone. I was scared to walk around college on my own, and that was after they’d “dealt with it”. The reason that she got away with it was silly, her university would not be happy to hear about the kind of things she’s said to not only me, but others as well.

Being bullied and targeted over social media can be quite a hard thing to deal with. It’s hard to sever all ties. Especially when you have mutual friends that seem to want to stir the pot by telling you every detail of everything your bully says, whether its about you or not.

My advice to anybody that is being bullied over social media is to put all your profiles on lockdown essentially. Nobody is better at blocking people than me, anyone that tries to keep me involved with my bully or could be passing on what I post is blocked straight away, no exceptions. Change your Instagram and Twitter to private and make sure all your Facebook posts are set to “Friends Only”. With regards to other social media, well I don’t have any others but I’m pretty sure they’ll have a similar system. If you still feel that you are being targeted, then obviously going to the police would be the next step.”