And most recently last week, 11-year-old Bethany Thompson of Cable, Ohio, shot herself after she endured relentless bullying for her appearance from boys who attended school with her at Triad Middle School. A battle with a brain tumor when she was three years old had left her smile “crooked,” and this small detail gave the boys an excuse to insult and abuse her ruthlessly. She worked with a school counselor to offset the onslaught of cruelty, and even participated in an anti-bullying campaign with the school. But the harassment never let up, and finally she told her best friend she just couldn’t take it anymore. (Read more.)Share
The Last Judgment
5 days ago
3 comments:
This post fills me with horror, sadness, and rage. I was a tall, weird young girl and was bullied throughout my school years, especially by the boys, but I must say that the bullying has become much worse now, and is more likely to involve physical violence.Parents need to be aware that the cruelty and violence have amped up substantially since their own school days 20 or 30 years ago.. I would attribute the difference between my time,where I at least did not have to fear rape and other physical violence,to the much lower level of general civility that prevails now, and to the prevalence of social media. In the past, the kid could at least escape at home in the evenings, but now has no refuge.
Parents, be aware of what is happening with your children, and realize that if your child is a victim, she can't fight the battle on her own. It's very well to say "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", but the daily insults and nasty pranks have a cumulative effect and make school such a misery for your child, that her performance is bound to suffer substantially, while the psychological damage almost cannot be calculated. And please, please do not blame your child-don't ever, ever ask you child what he did to make them mad- do not suggest that if only she changed her behavior in some way, the other kids would treat her better. Any effort on his or her part to "court" these bullies will likely only result in more abuse, because it will be construed by the bullies as weakness. And be aware that your child may be in extreme physical danger.
I have no children of my own, but I daresay that if I had a child who was the butt of this kind of abuse, I'd pull him or her out of the school and home-school, but I realize that this is just not an option for many parents.
I sincerely hope your child can get the help he or she needs before another tragedy occurs.
I agree! My daughter was beginning to suffer so I took her out of school and we are homeschooling now.
Why didn't her parents take out of that school? It's seems that adults forget what school is really like when they graduate. A classroom is like a wolf pack. From day one everyone get's their assigned role in the pack and it never changes. The best parents can hope for is that the threat of expulsion forces the other kids to simply ignore the bullied child and that's not good either.
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