This makes me sick!

Wow that was just horrific. Even the anchorwoman couldn't keep disgust for what happened out of her voice.
 
I can't believe what's going on in our schools these days. For someone to bully you to the point that you just can't take it anymore and decide suicide is the only way out. This makes me very sad, and angry.

I worry about my nephews. They're 9, 6 and 2.5. I fear for their safety. I'm so afraid something is going to happen to them. Children should not have to go to school and worry about their safety or if someone is going to bully them because they're different.

I'm glad every one of those students will be getting some sort of punishment brought upon them. They knew what they were doing to that poor girl and yet they kept at it. Even after her death. Shame on them, and shame on their parents. :mad:
 
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Children can be so cruel. Now with the internet they have even more ways to be cruel and mean to one another. How sad that this child felt no other option than to kill herself. The punishment the other children will receive will hardly seem sufficient.
 
So sad and so worrisome, too. Unfortunately, these incidents don't seem to lessen the amount of bullying that goes on. I think the school administrators and teachers involved should be held accountable, too. It's there job to do something about this -- even if it means expelling the bullies.

Very sad indeed. :(
 
Our neighbors son killed himself two months ago after being relentlessly bullied at school and online. He was only 15, straight A student and musically gifted. The whole school watched this go on for months, and the administration turned a blind eye to it. The parents do not want to press charges as they don't want to ruin anymore lives. Some of the bullies were going around school the following day saying how happy they were he was gone.

Tragically the freshman class just lost another classmate in a car accident two weeks ago. These kids are so depressed and I don't see any out-reach to the students going on. A very cruel lesson for these kids at how unfair things can turn out.
 
The schools should be held responsible

The schools should be held responsible, for bullying on their property -- and off their property if it takes place with students walking (or riding on the bus) to and from school. Parents of victims should sue the school. The teachers at the school should monitor activity in hallways and during recess. There should be no tolerance for bullying. It is assault and battery.

Also, victims should organize. Does anyone know of a national anti-bullying organization, with teeth?
-- Davidj

p.s. There was bullying at my school way back when. I was always skinny and undersized, but I managed to talk my way out of bad situations. But other students were not so lucky.
 
Fembot, you must be in my area because what you described is what has happened at my step-son's high school. DH drove by that accident after it happened. I was watching the facebook page for the second boy and my heart just breaks for these kids.

I lost a dear friend to suicide 13 years ago and it still hurts to this day.

I too lay awake and worry about the kids, what they go through every day, what the future holds for them.
 
That is so awful! Children today have it very hard in so many ways. It drives me crazy that the schools are not protecting these children.
 
ITA that the school administration NEEDS to be held accountable for these incidents. My DS was bullied endlessly in Elementary School and the principal said "Well, it's a he said, she said situation. One student's word against another..." NOTHING was done! (BTW, the parents refused to believe their angel could be so cruel.)

Fast forward to middle school w/ a principal who gets it. The targeted kids are believed when they finally screw up their nerve to tell an adult. The bullies get detention, their parents are notified, they have to attend a series of behavior classes. They are then WATCHED for repeat offenses. Gee, you know what? When there are consequences, kids stop the bullying behavior.

If these schools think they can't afford to watch out for bullying as it requires too much supervision/personnel, I wonder if their budgets can afford the legal consequences. If they think it's not their job to keep kids safe from bullies, how can kids learn if they are under daily torment?

That they didn't look out for this girl when she recently moved here from a foreign country is unreal. At least one of the 9 students charged had done this kind of bullying before--not a big surprise. Bullies like their power but it takes a lot of people willing to do nothing to let them continue. It's just appalling that so many adults are among the ones doing nothing...
 
jonahnah said:
ITA that the school administration NEEDS to be held accountable for these incidents. My DS was bullied endlessly in Elementary School and the principal said "Well, it's a he said, she said situation. One student's word against another..." NOTHING was done! (BTW, the parents refused to believe their angel could be so cruel.)

Fast forward to middle school w/ a principal who gets it. The targeted kids are believed when they finally screw up their nerve to tell an adult. The bullies get detention, their parents are notified, they have to attend a series of behavior classes. They are then WATCHED for repeat offenses. Gee, you know what? When there are consequences, kids stop the bullying behavior.

If these schools think they can't afford to watch out for bullying as it requires too much supervision/personnel, I wonder if their budgets can afford the legal consequences. If they think it's not their job to keep kids safe from bullies, how can kids learn if they are under daily torment?

That they didn't look out for this girl when she recently moved here from a foreign country is unreal. At least one of the 9 students charged had done this kind of bullying before--not a big surprise. Bullies like their power but it takes a lot of people willing to do nothing to let them continue. It's just appalling that so many adults are among the ones doing nothing...
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Wow Joan what a great post. I totally agree about the parents thinking that their little angle would never do anything so horrible.

It REALLY breaks my heart about her story esp because she is from a foreign country, . . . they SHOULD have watched her like a hawk. I bet her parents didn't do anything because they didn't know what to do. The school should have known better.

My husband was teased and bullied terribly as a child. :(

It makes me so sad that this poor girl will never be able to grow up and realize that life is so much more than the horrible people in it. There is good and good things do happen.
 
janie1234 said:
I bet her parents didn't do anything because they didn't know what to do. The school should have known better.
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I had been wondering about her parents when I heard this story yesterday. I do think they complained to the school about the bullying, but man, you would have thought they would have done more. I guess like you said they just didn't know what to do. I think in this severe of a case, I would have taken her out of the school. It's just such a tragedy all around. I'm sure those parents will be asking themselves "what if" for a long time to come.
 
Where are all the parents of the bullies??? They need to accept some responsibility too. I don't think the schools can do too much because they are held back by some stupid government telling them they can't reprimand, suspend, expel students etc. But many parents are giving their kids access to technology that they are too young and immature to handle. The whole cell phone, text, chat thing is out of control. I believe that the schools need to step up the programs and make consequences for the bully, but if you don't know what your CHILD is doing on a MySpace, Facebook, IM site etc, then you are equally responsible.

I feel horrible for this young girl and her family. How tragic. Maybe they weren't aware of the extent of the cruelness going on.
 
Hey Liann how's the preggers baby belly doing? Give your tummy a rub for me. :)

Yeah, . . since I have parents who were born and raised in a third world country I can understand how they may not have known what to do. My parents would not have done anything at all let alone talk to the school about it. My parents are so paranoid about their English being perfect and get embarrassed of their "honor". It could have been a religious or a cultural thing. It just makes me sad that these parents had to pay the ultimate price. Sad Sad Sad. :(
 
Ellie - Most likely if you look at those kids' parents you'll find they are all chips off the old block.

I agree Janie, it's just an AWFUL situation. I feel so bad for the family. :( Makes me so angry when I hear about this sort of thing. There was bullying in my school and it wasn't fun (I can think of a few girls that I would love to meet up with in a dark alley now that I'm not a small shy little freshman anymore) but it was never this brutal.
 
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I homeschool my son due to his learning disability and how bullied he was in school. Kids in 4th grade would spit on his food at lunch and when he went to tell a teacher about it, they would tell him to sit down and eat and stop tattling. When we brought this up in an IEP meeting, they told us he was making it up. Our son's doctor requested they hire someone to shadow our son for two weeks and at our next meeting, the special ed. team was horrified to find he was being relentlessly bullied, even in the bathroom and they were shocked to find it was the "good" kids, the ones that were getting along fine in school, on sports teams, from upper class homes. It was an eye-opener for them. My son was an easy target and no amount of shadowing could protect him. He finally has his self esteem back, some of these kids aren't so lucky.
 
It is sickening .. and sadly mostly priviledged kids do the majority of the bullying .. they feel entitlement .. like it is a right of passage ... I was bullied in high school .. the "clicks" dont like when someone else gets attention that they think they deserve exclusivley .. and in my case .. most of the kids parents were oblivious .. they came from good families that just didnt have a clue how their children were behaving outside their house ...

.. but what these kids did to this poor girl ... is sickening .. what they did IS CRIMINAL ASSAULT and RAPE .. CRIMINAL STALKING and HARRASSMENT ... not just "bulllying" ..

the internet makes it so much easier for kids (and adults alike) to torment someone .. all the kids have so many devices and access to so many electronic communication and intelligence .. and are usually WAAYYYYY ahead of their parents .. no wonder the parents dont have a clue ..

and the kids today are more than just "mean spirited" .. it is like they are anesthetized to real emotions and the real value of another's life!! it is very disheartening and very forbidding on what the future holds!!!:(
 
It just breaks my heart to hear this story. Unfortunately I just learned that a classmate from HS tragically lost her 15 year old son to suicide last week! :( He was also a victim of bullying..makes me so angry!! :mad: He was such a handsome bright young man. I'm just at a loss for words trying to imagine the hopelessness and torment he must have been feeling. I feel the same way for that beautiful young girl! :(
 
This particularly hits home, because it's a few towns over from where we live. It has been nonstop in the news since it happened. My heart breaks thinking about what this girl had to go through. And she must have been so lovely, she's beautiful and with an Irish brogue.

If anything good has come from it, it has really brought up a lot of discussion about bullying amongst my boys. And schools and laws are changing.

I didn't watch the video, but did it mention that the TEACHERS knew what was going on? THAT kills me too.
 
It's not children "these days". I tried to commit suicide at 15 because of school bullying. I was bullied my entire life until I graduated high school, but this particular school's level of bullying drove me to the edge. I'm 39 now, so this has been going on a long time. None of the schools did anything about the bullying, before or after my attempt. Of course, neither did my mother, who once told me that I deserved to be bullied because people were right not to like me.
 
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