Our nation seems to want to allow this problem of Peer Abuse (bullying) to grow. There are children who are committing bullycide (suicide due to bullying) at an alarming rate. Some are becoming educated yet some still believe that this is some fact of life. How can something be a fact of life when it creates depression and suicide? Do we blame the victim and believe they could not take the heat or did not have enough thick skin so they took the easy way out? Or, do we look at the one who started the problem in the first place? Yes, that would be the bully. Or in this case the bullies.
In Massachusetts a 15 year old Freshman committed bullycide after a group of girls at her school slandered her in school, through text messaging, over the phone and on Facebook. Even after the girl died, they still slandered her on Facebook. Why did this happen? The girl started to date a Senior football player and this particular group did not agree with it. The girl had recently moved to America from Ireland.
A meeting was held in the community where this event took place. The school was under full blown attack by parents and others in the community as it had the reputation for turning a blind eye to this problem. The school has stated publicly that they will get to the bottom of this. Also, that they will use suspension, expulsion and even referrals to the police. Why did it take something like this to happen before the school did step up and decide to do something?
Our society needs to stop waiting on something to happen before taking any action. If this group of bullies had been stopped when the trouble started, chances are this girl would still be alive today. So, she dated a boy and they did not like it? It does not give them the right to push her so hard into depression and her taking her own life. We need to stop these bullies and quickly and not excuse their behavior. Why do we wait on tragedy to occur? If it has happened once, it can happen anywhere. Please, do what you can to stop this problem. Get involved and talk to people in your community. We all have a right to safety and it breaks my heart that another life has been lost due to the callous behavior of another. My condolences to the family of this girl.
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