Susan Boyle: I Was Beaten Every Day at School
“You’re looking at someone who would get the belt every day. ‘Will you Shut up, Susan!’ – whack!”
By DANIEL MACHT
Updated 8:20 AM PDT, Tue, Nov 17, 2009
Long before Sharon Osbourne apologized for saying Susan Boyle was "hit with an ugly stick," the Scottish singing sensation was an actual target of schoolyard bullies and teachers who used to beat her with a belt.
In an interview with the U.K.'s Mirror tabloid, the “Britain's Got Talent” breakout star said teachers would strike her daily.
“You’re looking at someone who would get the belt every day. ‘Will you Shut up, Susan!’ – whack!” Boyle said. “I was often left behind at school because of one thing or another. I was a slow learner. I’m just I’m a wee bit slower at picking things up than other people. So you get left behind in a system that just wants to rush on, you know?”
The 48-year-old former homebody has talked about being deprived of oxygen as a baby and growing up with a learning disability. She said she now understands that back in the day “there was discipline for the sake of discipline.”
“[But] it’s all very different now,” Boyle told the Mirror. “I think teachers are taught to understand children with learning disabilities a lot better.”
Despite her achievements, Boyle revealed her childhood tormentors had left a mark.
“There’s nothing worse than another person having power over you by bullying you and you not knowing how to get rid of that thing,” she recalled.
Boyle’s debut album,“I Dreamed a Dream,” hits shelves next week.
First Published: Nov 17, 2009 4:17 AM PDT
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