9 Charged after girl kills herself over bullying

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by srmom

Absolutely. But, from reading this thread, there are some who have IMO "blamed" the girl who hanged herself for not "manning up". Others have said, and not just in this thread but on other blogs and message boards, that the parents should have done more, but in some cases (like the article I posted and in NUMEROUS websites about bullying) the parents HAVE done everything, short of selling their house and moving to another city, to try to stop the bullying, by going to school administrators and teachers and advising them of the problems, to no avail.

The parents didn't do everything they could do. They knew about it and more could have been done instead of, as I said before, relinquishing their child's outcome to the inadequate adults and stupid children at the school. Another instance of hindsight is 20/20.

Originally Posted by srmom

This kid's school supposedly has a "zero tolerance policy" for bullying, but even after the parents had complained, nothing was done. It isn't until someone is actually hurt - as in the torn rectum (it may have been from a wedgie, but geesus, does belittling HOW he ended up having to have his bottom sewed back up somehow make it okay??) that something is done.

If all the parents did was complain and wait, they didn't do nearly enough. I wager that most of these kids have inadequate coping skills because their parents have provided inadequate coping mechanisms. Kids are a reflection of their environments.

If the parents went to the police, that's all well and good but they shouldn't have trusted that the police would follow through? Since when do people trust the police to do more than enforce the law at the surface level?

I'm not blaming the victims so much as acknowledging personal decisions and encouraging people to do better with their children. We can't predict and control the actions of other kids. We have more control over what happens in our homes in preparation for what our kids may face in this crazy world. Inner city and minority kids have been taught about this crazy world for generations in order to teach about aspirations-and-disappointments as well as to buffer the effects of social strains and mental/emotional disorders. It's about time that other kids are raised to put the rose colored glasses down so they can know what to do when someone says "fuck you."