On Tuesday, April 20, 1999, two students in Columbine, Colorado killed twelve students and one teacher, and wounded twenty-three others before committing suicide. Both boys were reported to have a long history of being bullied by other students.

In her novel Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult tells a similar story.
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Seventeen year old Peter Houghton has endured years of physical and verbal abuse by his classmates. His one time best friend Josie Cormier is struggling with the fact that she is pretending to be someone that she is not in order to fit in. Both become involved in an act of violence that devastates their high school.

A friend who comes from a large family told me how he defended his brother from bullies who took his lunch by hitting them with a tray.
"You have to learn to stand up for yourself," he said. "If you don't you wind up like those kids in Columbine.

I was an only child and didn't have a brother to defend me. Little girls weren't supposed to fight. If someone abused them, they were supposed to tell the teacher and risk getting a reputation as a tattletale or crybaby. I transferred to a new school at the age of ten. From the beginning I was a square peg unable to fit into a round hole. Every day I was told that I was ugly and smelled bad. No one wanted to lend me a pencil because I had cooties.

Once, when I stayed after school for play practice a boy named Gerry told me that he didn't know why everyone didn't like me; there was nothing wrong with me. But the next day he was making fun of me along with all the others.

When I was in high school a girl named Diane asked me to be her debate partner. I really didn't want to be on the debate team. I was much too shy for that. But in the end I agreed because I knew that she really wanted to be on the team and would not be able to find another partner. She was another bullied kid. Back in middle school she was teased because she was overweight. Once a classmate had a party and she and I were the only ones not invited. In high school she still didn't fit in. She was an artist and had a fondness for opera. Not exactly a recipe for popularity.

On November 11, 1963 I started recording my thoughts in a journal. I saw myself as the Lone Wolf. I didn't think anyone was interested in any thing I had to say. I wanted to have the freedom to be myself but at the same time I longed to find a place where I belonged. Maybe that part hasn't changed.

They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Back in the sixties I picked up a pen instead of a gun. I probably wouldn't have known where to get a gun anyway. But that little notebook helped me get through some hard times. I've filled up more than ten notebooks now and they are still helping me.