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Twenty years after being bullied, man touched to receive apology

For many people, bullies are just another part of growing up.

Whether you’re from a big city, a cosy suburb or small town, there is always one person in school who can pick apart the rest of their classmates without much resistance.

But what happens when bullies become parents and have to see the effects of bullying first hand?

Chad Michael Morrisette, 34, says he was bullied as a student in junior high school while growing up in the US state of Alaska.

“The entire football team bullied me,” he told Yahoo Parenting. “It wasn’t one guy, it was six or seven guys who would follow me in the hallways, harassing me, insulting me, threatening my life.”

The California-based designer and brand consultant left his small town at the age of 15 and never looked back until one of his tormentors reached out to him via text message.


Louie Amundson wrote that after talking to his 10-year-old daughter about bullies at school, he had to face the music of 20 years ago to recall the time when he was a bully.

“She asked me if I had ever bullied anyone and I sadly had to say ‘yes,'” Amundson wrote.

Morrisette said he can’t single out Amundson as his only bully, but did acknowledge the gesture brought up dormant feelings he hadn’t acknowledged in almost two decades.

“It unlocked something in me I didn’t realise I’d been holding onto,” Morrisette admitted. “I cried a little bit… It was so moving.”

Morrisette said thinking about Amundson’s honesty with his daughter made him emotional.

“There was something magical happening between dad and daughter, that she brought the apology out,” he said. “And that he was honest with her that, yes, he bullied — good for him. I’m quite proud of him.”

Amundson admitted he did not know what to expect when he contacted his old schoolmate, but he knew that apologising was the right thing to do after making Morrisette’s childhood so unbearable.

“I owed him that apology, he did not owe me his forgiveness,” Amundson said. “The fact that he was able to forgive me showed that I may have been the bigger kid, but he is the bigger man.”