6-foot-7-inch student bullied from campus

6'7" Matthew Ridley victimized by school bullies (courtesy London Telegraph)

One glance at 15-year-old Matthew Ridley of Wiltshire, England, and you might think he'd be likely to intimidate fellow classmates.

Ironically, the 6-foot-7-inch, 250-pound rugby player has had to withdraw from classes at the Kingsdown Secondary School due to incessant bullying from others.

Ridley is now going public with his saga, saying the verbal and physical abuse went on for three years.

"Older lads used to come up and push me and try to start fights with me," Ridley told the Press Association of Britain.

"They used to do it to make out like they were hard and bigger and better than me. I didn't hit back because I could have done them some serious damage. They were half my size and had no muscles, just skin and bone."

He also withstood the temptation to swing back because he's looking forward to a career in law enforcement, and didn't want to jeopardize it with a criminal record for assault.

"Bullying is a very complicated thing and just because I am big people think 'how can he get bullied?' but it's not just about size," Ridley told the Guardian.

"I lost all my confidence. I couldn't speak to anyone when I met them, I just locked myself away. In the end, my mum and dad decided it wasn't worth sending me to school. It's been a big thing for me because I've missed out on my exams, but I've got my confidence back now and ideally I want to go to college and study there."

He added more needed to be done to address the problem.

"People get away with it because no one really talks about it that much. I reported it to teachers but nothing happened, maybe detention or something, but it didn't stop them."

A spokeswoman for Kingsdown school told the Guardian: "We always take cases of bullying seriously because it can have far-reaching consequences."

"It would be extremely unfair for us to comment upon an individual case," she added.

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