Was a 10-Year-Old Honor Student Bullied to Death?

Was a 10-Year-Old Honor Student Bullied to Death?

In lieu of my previous post, it is shocking to me that schools always say that they have "zero-tolerance" when it comes to bullying. But how exactly is that accomplished? How will they know if a child is being bullied? Having been bullied as a kid, bullying is usually done discreetly. Nowadays, with all the social media available to kids, bullying can be done without having to even see your attacker.

As for this child in the article, she was called a "slut"and some other mean words. The mom said that she didn't tell her child what it meant as she's still young to understand it. Furthermore, as I understand it, the taunting has been going on for years! I mean, C'MON! What's up with this child's parents? What is their reason for not confronting this issue in the first place when it started happening? And to quote the victim's parent, "“I thought my kids were strong. That my words to them for guidance and advice would have more weight than what these kids were saying. I was wrong.”Are you kidding me? Your child comes to you in such desperation and that's all you give them? "Words of guidance and advice?"

I mean, is this the problem? Parents deluding themselves to thinking that their influence on their kids outweigh the influences of others around them? I mean, it's good in theory, but to accept it as fact when you see that your child is obviously affected by how others treat them, shouldn't that be a red flag that loudly says she/he doesn't care about what you say right now, but what you can do for her! That no amount of "words of guidance and advice" can compensate the pain of having to go though the taunting and bullying she/he has to go through daily! That you need to take her out of this situation RIGHT NOW! And the mom was worried about defining what "slut" meant to her child? She should have been worrying about HER CHILD! She should have been thinking of ways to HELP HER CHILD! Not to protect her from learning trashy words, but to PROTECT HER from being trashed! Obviously, she's a smart kid! I say too smart that she even knows how to kill herself-- and the mom is worried about defining what "slut" meant! Talk about priorities!

And as for the school, as this has been going on for years! YEARS! Don't tell me that no one has seen or even heard of this happening! Situations like this always has a way of presenting itself. So my question is, being a school with "zero-tolerance" policy against bullying-- WHAT THE HELL DID YOU EXACTLY DO TO STOP IT FROM HAPPENING!? What did you do as a part of your "zero-tolerance" policy that helped this kid feel safe!? And this is the best you can do? Provide grief counselors? You should have provided ways to make children feel safe to be who they are! You should have taught children the meaning of tolerance and acceptance of each other regardless of their differences. You should not have perpetuated ignorance by turning your other cheek and this situation should have been dealt with HEAD-ON years ago! There's a lot of things this school SHOULD HAVE done and providing grief counselors is NOT one of them.

We can't blame kids when things like this happen... after all they're kids. They only learn what we TEACH them and how we LIVE what we teach. In this case, the parents and the school should be blamed! And they should pay for what happened... I guess for the mom, a lifetime of guilt for the things she SHOULD HAVE done is fitting enough.

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/11/16/phoebe-prince-again-bullying-linked-to-suicide-of-10-year-old-ashlynn-conner/