The rotten kids made Melissa sad. She got support from Sarah.

      One of the few people that were kind to Melissa was a girl called Nicole Mills., whose father was Mr. Mill’s, one of the few nice teachers in Sayville. One person, Matt,  who was called “very unpopular” by most of the other kids said, “Nicole was a friend to many people. A shy sweet all round intelligent, wonderful person, would be a great friend to anyone.” Nicole was known as someone that was a friend to the friendless. Melissa said about her childhood, "trying to fit in but feeling somehow ... different" and "I had a lot of frustration when I was a teen-ager." Furthermore, school “was pretty bad.” 

      According to Kimberly, who sat at her lunch table, “No, people did not make fun of her, she's (Hart) full of it. However, in a later email she said, “We were the honors students.  Melissa was too.  We had a very nice, down to earth circle of friends,” and  “Lots of kids were mean to all of us at various times growing up.”  Also “She wasn't Miss Popular.” Kimberly said that she was not per se singled out of her group, and it was because she kept talking about her acting which got people mad at her. Many kids from this town think that this type of cruel behavior is normal. Doesn’t people act like this everywhere? Well, no. 

       Not everyone was mean to everyone else. What happened was a group would be singled out for torment. Every single person that was treated badly was treated that way because “it was his own fault.” For example, Melissa was proud of her acting, another person was fat, someone else was new, or just because everyone hated that person, it made it alright. It was always somehow the fault of the victim. Reasons given by schoolmates why they tormented her every day were: she was short, one of her eyes did not open all the way, her teeth next to her two middle front teeth were missing (This was later surgically corrected) and she was overweight. What infuriated the kids in Sayville the most was she would actually fight back. She would say she does have friends, important actors like Sarah Michelle Geller, and she was not what they said she was, and they were just a bunch of Suffolk County bumpkins.  In Sayville, the chosen few that was picked for abuse are not suppose to fight back. 

Sarah Michelle Geller told Melissa to fight for her rights.

       For this small percentage life was not so good. The boys would be hit, and the girls would be touched inappropriately. One boy remembers, “being held back while others pounded me,” and I still bear a scar on my forehead from when a bully named Reland B. slammed into me from behind and drove me into a trophy case.” This is something written by a girl meant as an open letter to those girls who were not “unpopular": “Your body is valued more. People are concerned with how you feel. People are afraid to hurt you because they know everyone would be more outraged that they are touching you. People don't care what they do to me.”  

    According to Sayville student Jennifer M., “Everyone hated her; she was… rude,” and she “was ostracized by almost everyone else.” What happened was she decided to fight back and tell the snotty people off. That is why she was called a “bitch.” It has been proven more than once that there were parties that she was not invited to. What Melissa used was her wit and her acting talents to defend herself. When people lose, they get mad, which is why she was so hated. But not hated by everyone. A student that was described by the others as being a loser said, “She was always nice to me.” Something that she had on the others was that after school she was in the world of Broadway and T.V. Constantly people ridiculed her because she was short, her lazy eye, and she was seen as an easy target because she was shy. In this village, it was determined that she was at the bottom. It had nothing to do with jealousy. On a web site put up by a former Sayville student he said, "You tell people you went to school with Melissa Joan Hart and then realize that's not really something to be proud of." However, Melissa did not think this way and she was a fighter and did her best to tell them off.  

       Here is a testimonial from one of Melissa’s few friends, Matt, “She definitely felt like an outsider and outcast. She was a little proud of her accomplishments but deservedly so for all her hard work, she totally deserves the credit. She wasn’t a happy child and was always teased especially for her height. She was the shortest girl by far in school and always was. She was an outcast, for sure. The kids that liked her were at the same level she was, outcasts, unpopular, not in the right social group and could see her position in the social hierarchy and could understand what she was going through. She had no chance to defend herself against the social masses against her, she was a lone solider in a fight very many, a fruitless fight.” and “definitely one of the most unpopular and disliked kids in school.” 

Movie about the nice kids versus the rotten kids in Sayville. Nice kids, who are vandals, win!

      When she was antagonized, and for example, someone would say, “Everyone hates you,” she would respond by saying, “Actor William Hurt and Martin Sheen doesn’t hate me, maybe its only nobodies like you that hate me.” This is what turned mere contempt and disrespect into pure hatred. She would not play by their rules, which was shut up and just accept it. Sarah Michelle Gellar recognized her as a “Chosen One.” In Sayville, they choose who will be the most hated for each grade. But the reason why Sarah called her the “Chosen One” was because she was the one whose fate was to fight back for the ½ dozen students that would be ridiculed, spit on, and hit every day. 

     If you watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, you will remember Buffy was the “Chosen One.” Sarah was also a lonely child, but not because of a town full of mean kids, but because she was a full time child star from age 4. Sarah’s friendship with Melissa goes back the furthest, and for a long time Melissa was her only friend in the world. Each time Sarah heard how Melissa was treated, she was very upset. As Sarah did not go to anything approaching a normal school, she would always want to hear all the details about Sayville, and imagine what it would be like to be a real student there. For very long periods of time Sarah would be around only adults and she would pretend she was with Melissa in Sayville playing in the schoolyard. For Melissa’s bravery, the town that Buffy lived would be changed to Sunnydale (SHS), which is a play on Sayville. For Melissa was the “Chosen One” who led the fight against evil in the town.  

     Melissa also was a vandal in the school district where she was mistreated. According to the Chicago Tribune, Sunday 12th May 1996, Melissa said, "In 5th grade I broke a thermometer and didn't tell the teacher..." She had a right to do this, as she was mistreated. Her favorite cartoon was "Ren and Stimpy." The Sayville cartoonist was one top artists on that cartoon, and he wrote the "Happy Happy Joy Joy" song. He was one of the hated outcasts of Sayville also. They both did shows for Nickelodeon at the same time.

      In Sayville there is always a kid that leads the fight against the rotten kids. In Melissa’s day it was her time. She stood in the same position that the other had years earlier. After Melissa came Mathew G. 

Melissa told them off, so they called her a bitch.

        Melissa was pushed around in school, and Sarah’s attitude was give em’ hell. This was part of the reason why Melissa dared to fight back. Sarah would tell Melissa that if people are mean to her, fight back, and fight back hard. After all, Melissa knew many famous people and was constantly on TV, and the kids that ran the school in Sayville were nothing than a bunch of nobodies. So tell them off!  

         According to Bikini, 1999 issue, Melissa said, "My dad's not really been in my life. He works like crazy, and I never really get to see him. But he didn't abandon us, ... And my mom, she became a big club queen in New York, went out at all hours, and I had to stay home with the kids, babysitting. And if she wasn't home the next day, I had to get them up and get them ready for school." Melissa as a child had to do all the important work in the house, as well as do her school work and put up with the rotten Sayville kids in school. She had a very difficult life that she faced with bravery and determination.

          Paula hart, Melissa's mother would often stay out all night in Manhattan. According eyewitnesses, there was alcohol served at these parties. This eventually led to the divorce of Melissa's parents. Her mother said, "This is not what I want to do with my life. And my children, mainly just Melissa, reacted badly." Melissa remembered, "I did get angry when she divorced my dad, but now, when I look back on it, I realize it was the best thing that ever happened to me."

         Melissa eventually felt the divorce was in some ways good, because it finally got her out of Sayville. "It took about two weeks to get used to New York, and then I just loved it. Suddenly, I've got a subway. I can go to the zoo, I can go to the park, walk the dog, meet boys. I met a lot of my best friends on the street. Basically, we got out of a small town, and I learned a lot about life and cities and about what I want to do. It gave me ambition, it showed me there's a whole world opening." 4

        About this time, she got the starring role in the show Clarissa. Melissa’s last two years of High School was at a special school in Manhattan. As her father and other family still lived in Sayville, she still to a great extent lived there and was often seen around town. And eventually she made it big in "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." Her early life was just like Cinderella's.

      After contacting students and teachers, my conclusion is that Melissa Joan Hart was telling the truth. She was tormented, but did have a few friends. It was not true that she was totally alone, as she sat at a lunch table with her few friends like Kimberly, but there was not much closeness with each other. I found in general that the more hated the other students had for a student, the more that student liked Melissa, and the more “popular” (powerful) a student was, the more likely the student hated Melissa.

    The "Chosen One"       She even looks like Cinderella.

As "Sabrina the Teenage Witch"

	The Sayville Players Many of these students actually acted with Melissa Joan Hart at her school.

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4  Bikini Magazine, October 1999 isengrim.com/melbiki.html

gay-cherry  gay-history  history-bayport   history-Hempstead bury  history-backup  history-holbrook history-oakdale nutsy  history-Patchogue football   foot-high  foot-LI  foot-Sayville     War of 1812    tristan  bury History of the War of 1812. Includes information on Battles, causes, and soldiers.  Tristan Taomino or Tristan Taormino ? www.puckerup.com puckerup.com. Wild lesbian author and writer for the advocate, writes about bdsm. Gay history and symbols, symbol, symbolism, lavender, rainbow. Info on Bayport, Hempstead, Holbrook, Oakdale, Patchogue, all of which are on Long Island, New York. NY. Long Island flag youth football. Scores, schedules. College and pro football scandals rapes and sexual assaults by basketball players in the NFL and NBA. Sayville and Suffolk County tourist info. Bury the Past book. Bury The Past by writer and author Jan Letoha Detailed Book Review. The truth of Jeremiah Ketcham in Amityville. Jerimiah Ketcham was weird, as well as Ron DeFeo. Long Island History and Legends. Al Capone Hardy Boys in Bayport, with info on Edward Stratemeyer and Leslie McFarlane.
 

gay-cherry  gay-history  history-bayport   history-Hempstead bury  history-backup  history-holbrook history-oakdale nutsy  history-Patchogue football   foot-high  foot-LI  foot-Sayville     War of 1812    tristan  bury History of the War of 1812. Includes information on Battles, causes, and soldiers.  Tristan Taomino or Tristan Taormino ? www.puckerup.com puckerup.com. Wild lesbian author and writer for the advocate, writes about bdsm. Gay history and symbols, symbol, symbolism, lavender, rainbow. Info on Bayport, Hempstead, Holbrook, Oakdale, Patchogue, all of which are on Long Island, New York. NY. Long Island flag youth football. Scores, schedules. College and pro football scandals rapes and sexual assaults by basketball players in the NFL and NBA. Sayville and Suffolk County tourist info. Bury the Past book. Bury The Past by writer and author Jan Letoha Detailed Book Review.giants   sachem Sachem High School, North and South, Sachem School district and athletics.

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