JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Too lazy to type.

Every week we post a quote from the Twisted series, which turns 25 next year.

Thanks to www.wesellit.ph for powering the Twisted25 project!

This goes out to every normal-seeming person who, in the grip of passion, turns into a completely different creature. Basically I turn into The Hulk. Question: Which one is the real you?

I’ve been wanting to write about this case of bullying for months, but my friend stopped me. She wanted to give the school officials the chance to do the right thing. Months passed and they did nothing despite several meetings with my friend and her son, in the presence of psychologists and lawyers. They said they were concerned with “fairness”, which is this case means inaction. In the end my friend decided to just take her son out of that school, away from the bully who had tormented him for years, and the school administration that enables and protects this bully.

My friend’s son has Asperger’s syndrome (an autism spectrum disorder). When he is anxious, he fidgets and mumbles to himself. Otherwise he is your typical 20-year-old college student. He can look after himself and takes public transportation to school. He gets good grades. My friend enrolled him in that college because it claims to be sensitive to the needs of students with developmental disorders.

Two years ago, one of his older classmates began bullying him. This older classmate would draw penises on his schoolwork, make loud sexual remarks and act out masturbating in order to embarrass him in public. This happened often and regularly. My friend’s son was traumatized by this bullying.

My friend documented all the instances she was aware of. On three occasions she reported the bullying to the school administration. They made vague promises, but did nothing. Finally she demanded a meeting with the school officials, the bully and his parents. The bully and his parents did not appear, and the school officials did not censure them. The school officials even made excuses for their absence.

My friend asked for yet another meeting, and to underscore the seriousness of the matter she brought her son’s psychologist and her family lawyer. I attended the meeting to lend her moral support. The school officials were pleasant and reassuring. They said they would get back to her in seven days’ time.

Three weeks passed.

After 22 days, the school administration handed down a memo. My friend’s son and the bully were asked to sign an agreement that they would “refrain from acting aggressively toward each other”. The memo recommended that my friend’s son, the student who was being bullied, “control his behavior” and that he be “accompanied by a companion or a shadow” inside the school.

Not only did the school administration refuse to enact any disciplinary measures on the bully, but their memo made it sound as if my friend’s son, the boy with Asperger’s, had brought this ill treatment on himself.

After several more attempts to contact the school officials, my friend decided that she had had it. She was tired of being given the runaround by the very people who were supposed to have her son’s welfare in mind. It was clear that the school had no intention of censuring the classmate who was bullying her son. And she could not bear the thought that her son would continue to go to that college and endure emotional torment. She transferred him to another school.

My friend’s son is doing very well at his new school. My friend has decided to let the matter go, but her stomach still turns when she thinks of what her son had to go through.

I take a personal interest in cases of bullying. I was bullied in high school and I am still furious about it. While it was going on, no one stuck up for me for fear of being bullied themselves. Adults actually hinted that it was somehow my fault. I do not think it was funny. I do not attribute it to youthful shenanigans, nor am I amused at the effort of otherwise intelligent people to describe it as “a character-building experience.”

I am writing this because I want my friend’s son to know that he is not alone.

The Key to Dreams by Rene Magritte

I had this dream a few days ago. (I’d woken up at 8am and gone back to sleep.)

We were filming the travel show in Texas, right after Hurricane Harvey struck. The high-rise office building we were in was flooded up to the second floor. We did not mind the conditions, being used to typhoons and monsoons. I had a dog with me, a brown askal which ran off to play with the other dogs taking refuge in the upper floors. The dog did not respond when I called him, so I figured I’d pick him up when we finished filming.

On our way out I tried to get the dog, but a security guard barred me from looking for him. I started arguing with the guard. I told him I could not possibly leave my dog, and he said I had to leave the building. I was getting very upset.

You know that scene towards the end of The Usual Suspects, after the detective has let Verbal Kint go? The detective sits in his office drinking coffee and looking at the pictures tacked on the walls, and he suddenly realizes where Verbal got his stories. That’s what happened in my dream.

I was yelling at the guard when a series of thoughts popped into my head.

How did I transport my dog from Manila to Texas?

Wait. I don’t have a dog.

Then I woke up.

Read How to Remember Your Dreams

Read How to Raise a Reader.

This tip worked in my case. My mother used to read fairy tales to me. Then I would repeat them to my stuffed animals. Eventually I got tired of telling the same stories so I looked at the books myself.
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Drogon Targaryen-Targaryen explains the ways of the household to the new cat, Jacob Totoro Howlett.

Take the Lonely Pets Quiz.

Additional question:

When you’re at the computer:

– The cat sits on the keyboard, preventing you from typing.

– The cat immediately goes to her favorite websites.

– The cat ignores you to play with his imaginary friends.