CHICAGO (WBBM) – At least half of Chicago’s mayoral candidates admit to being subject to bullying as a child.

As WBBM Newsradio 780′s Mary Frances Bragiel reports, the revelations were made public during a mayoral forum hosted by WTTW-Channel 11 Monday afternoon, involving hundreds of Chicago Public Schools students.

LISTEN: Newsradio 780′s Mary Frances Bragiel reports

Four of the candidates – Rahm Emanuel, Carol Moseley Braun, Gery Chico and Miguel Del Valle – met with the students. Three of them admitted to being the victims of bullies themselves, including Emanuel.

“The kids said some things on a racial basis, based on because we’d just gotten back from Israel, and took my bike away,” Emanuel said.

Del Valle says it happened because he was Latino, and he would have to slip out the back door of school “leading to the alley, because that gave me a straight shot at getting home.”

Braun said she was bullied until she went berserk.

“There was a girl… in my grammar school who would beat me up, until I got her,” Braun said.

All the candidates agreed that a zero tolerance policy regarding bullying should exist in every school.