Mike Cox In the food chain that was my high school, Thomas was basically plankton. The entire school population used him to feel better about themselves. I never saw anyone else befriend him, not in the four years I went to school there. And no one knew why.

He acted a little strange, but so did half the school. His grades were okay, and he had no repulsive habits. He just came into junior high with the outcast reputation and did nothing to change anyone’s opinion of him.

There has been a lot of emphasis on high school bullies and such since Columbine. Television, as it usually does, has blown things out of proportion and given the impression all high school kids are insane killers or tortured victims.

Socially, high school is tough. It’s a wonder any of us survive. Everyone is going through hormonal changes. Peer pressure is unrelenting and unforgiving, and kids think life will end if the least little thing goes wrong. But teenagers have been surviving for a long time, and will continue to do so, no matter what Without A Trace says.

During my junior year, Thomas got into an altercation in gym class with a guy named Rusty. Most of the middle class liked Rusty. He was a borderline thug but had some friends in the middle class. The belief was he could take care of himself.

The two boys squared off during calisthenics. Everyone assumed Thomas would cower and retreat; that was his reputation. But he stood his ground. One of the coaches appeared and did something horrible by today’s standards.

He didn’t explain to them how violence never solved anything, and he didn’t send them to the school counselor for a lecture on respecting other people’s rights and a dose of Ritalin.

He produced boxing gloves and an exercise mat and allowed them to solve their differences like savages. The entire PE class, including me, was thrilled. We were about to see something we all secretly had been hoping for. Thomas was getting his butt kicked.

But the fight transpired like most fights in high school, organized or not. The two combatants threw wild punches as long as rage and pride controlled them, then danced with each other when fatigue sat in.

Thomas held his own and gained a little respect from the crowd when the coach separated the two and called the match a draw. Rusty suffered no lingering emotional effects but never talked about the fight again. Our opinion of Thomas may have been altered a bit, but he didn’t move up the food chain any.

It would be uplifting to tell you Thomas became popular after the fight, but this wasn’t an episode of Joan of Arcadia , it was real life. Thomas continued his lonely road until graduation, and I haven’t heard anything about him since. Like so many others in so many places, Thomas seemed to disappear after high school. I wonder how he turned out.