Bullying

David Webb: ‘Spaz’


David Webb was born in 1951 in Winchester. He spent his entire school life attending various boarding schools apart from three years which he spent in hospital from the age of seven and then continued his education at Worcester College for the Blind.

Here David describes himself and other children being called names and taunted at school.

  • David Webb
  • David Webb
https://howwasschool.allfie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/spaz.mp3

Transcript

Worcester was a tough school. Kids were, I was the only one there with a second disability and they even, even my friend who I went out with for a drink last night, there were times when he got sucked in to sort of doing taunts, he says he's really embarrassed by some of the things he said at the time. I mean you know my nickname for about a year was 'Spaz'.

But it, it taught me to be tough, I didn't, I mean there was more sensitive kids who were bullied through being sensitive and they didn't cope with it so well. There was no, there was nowhere for them to, there was no sort of, I said there was no pastoral care there for them, anywhere to go to, you just ... to be honest I don't know what happened to them. As I say, some of them were extremely sensitive and one I can think of was, didn't like boarding school so he'd cry in the dormitories and of course that set, you know, 'cry baby' taunts at him and things like that.

And I think there was, there was a guy there from Northern Ireland who had a really strong Northern Ireland accent and, despite most of the kids coming from working class backgrounds, Worcester kind of posh, poshified you up a bit and so anybody with a strong accent was taunted a bit.

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