9 Charged after girl kills herself over bullying

[Prettyface08]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

Sadly, I started at 1pm lol



OMG YOU'RE RIGHT LOL SAD LOL <3 HAHAHA SAD!

Getcho ass outta here...

LOL!!! I'm starting to not like you. My ab muscles already hurt and you've got me laughing on top of that. I wasn't prepared for that as I was reading your post. LMBO

[agzg]

My opinion has already been covered here, no use bandwagoning.

And OMG.

[AGDee]

A few points (that I haven't had time to express although I've been reading and reading on this thread):

1) EVERY generation thinks the "youngsters" are out of control in comparison to them. I'm not convinced that kids in general are any worse than they used to be. There have always been bullies and disrespectful kids, there always will be some.

2) I spend an inordinate amount of time interacting with Joe Average Teenager because I have two teenagers of my own. I see a LOT of teenagers. The vast majority are great kids. The majority are engaged in healthy activities, are respectful and polite to adults, and are working hard to make something of their lives. They are FAR more concerned about the world in general than I think my generation was at their age. I'm not sure we had any idea what was going on with politics, race relations, or the environment. These kids care about things more than I think we did. Other than having Muscular Dystrophy carnivals every year, I don't remember ever being encouraged by society in general to think about charity or community service. Our schools encourage this from kindergarten with school wide community service projects and clubs dedicated to community service. I see a lot of bright, generous, thoughtful kids (maybe because both of my kids are Scouts?) who are going to lead us in the future. I think they are well prepared to handle it. I also see a lot of kids who are FAR more independent than we were. They have not had moms at home to get them their after school snack. They do it themselves.

3) Kids have fragile self esteem, especially during adolescence. One comment from a peer can be devastating to the self image. Studies show that it takes multitudes of positive feedback to overcome even one highly critical comment. I'm not talking about correcting or giving feedback on how to improve. I'm talking about the cruel types of comments. In 6th grade, I was far more developed than most of the girls and every year, they came in and weighed and measured everybody (and checked for head lice, but I never realized that's why they looked at our heads!). The most popular boy in our class sat in front of me (alphabetical order be damned!) and he turned around and said "You know you'll weigh less if you take the water balloons out of your bra". I was sooooooo humiliated that for all of junior and high school, I wore big baggy shirts, convinced my chest was a curse. In college, I realized "Hey, these things are an asset!" and wasn't afraid to wear shirts that fit again. One comment. I cannot imagine what a never ending barrage of harassment would have done.

4) Since Columbine, we have entered an era of "zero tolerance" for any physical involvement. Kicking the butts of the kids that are harassing you will get you suspended for an entire school year. It's not the way to handle the situation. School officials do have a responsibility to deal with these problem kids. In our school system, kids who act like this get suspended. If they continue, they get expelled. A letter came home from the middle school last year about a kid who had a list of kids he hated and wanted to harm and that kid never returned to our school. My kids have not witnessed the kind of bullying that we experienced as kids and I am glad for that. They have been taught early on, within the school district, that respect is expected always. They are also treated with respect by staff, even when they screw up. My son made a poor judgment call earlier this year and was suspended for a day. He was honest with the principal about his actions, was contrite and apologized appropriately. He knew he was in big trouble with his parents too. I told him that I was concerned that he had earned himself a "bad kid" label and he said "The principal told me he still respected me because I was honest with him and it was obvious that I felt bad about it." I think that was smart of the principal because, although my son did something he shouldn't have, he handled the consequences appropriately. He had to face his punishment, but he was also rewarded for the positive aspects of how he dealt with the situation.

5) Nobody ever really knows why someone commits suicide unless there is a note left that details the reasons. My cousin's son committed suicide one week after getting engaged to his girlfriend. He was working part time, successful in school, in his fraternity, in every way. He had overcome huge barriers of having a mother who was really messed up. Something led him to do it and we will never know what. We speculate that he had a schizophrenic episode because his mother was schizophrenic (which has some hereditary etiology) and he was at the age where it would usually show itself. My point is that there is no way to really know whether this young lady killed herself because of the bullying she endured. It is speculation. There are so many reasons that she may have felt the only solution to a problem was to end her life. Whether the bullying was that problem can't be known.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by AGDee

A few points (that I haven't had time to express although I've been reading and reading on this thread):

1) EVERY generation thinks the "youngsters" are out of control in comparison to them. I'm not convinced that kids in general are any worse than they used to be. There have always been bullies and disrespectful kids, there always will be some.

2) I spend an inordinate amount of time interacting with Joe Average Teenager because I have two teenagers of my own. I see a LOT of teenagers. The vast majority are great kids. The majority are engaged in healthy activities, are respectful and polite to adults, and are working hard to make something of their lives. They are FAR more concerned about the world in general than I think my generation was at their age. I'm not sure we had any idea what was going on with politics, race relations, or the environment. These kids care about things more than I think we did. Other than having Muscular Dystrophy carnivals every year, I don't remember ever being encouraged by society in general to think about charity or community service. Our schools encourage this from kindergarten with school wide community service projects and clubs dedicated to community service. I see a lot of bright, generous, thoughtful kids (maybe because both of my kids are Scouts?) who are going to lead us in the future. I think they are well prepared to handle it. I also see a lot of kids who are FAR more independent than we were. They have not had moms at home to get them their after school snack. They do it themselves.

agreed...every generation thinks that the world is going to hell in a handbasket because of the next generation. Sometimes it's good to put things in perspective!

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

agreed...every generation thinks that the world is going to hell in a handbasket because of the next generation. Sometimes it's good to put things in perspective!

It doesn't help that we only hear about the bad things the worst kids are doing. The Internet has good points and bad points. One of the bad points, in my opinion, is that we hear about things happening in other places that we never heard about before, making it seem like there are a lot more bad events than there used to be. The real difference is that we hear about them more.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by AGDee

A few points (that I haven't had time to express although I've been reading and reading on this thread):

1) EVERY generation thinks the "youngsters" are out of control in comparison to them. I'm not convinced that kids in general are any worse than they used to be. There have always been bullies and disrespectful kids, there always will be some.

The boyfriend and I watched "Rebel Without a Cause" last night; it's one of my all-time favorites and it was his first time seeing it. Those kids were really, really bad though. Troubled, yes, but bad asses all the same.

[Ch2tf]

According to the local news this morning there is a new report that Phoebe Price went to her schools administration the week before she killed herself and they refused to get involved/do anything about the situation.

[ThetaDancer]

An update from the New York Times.

[33girl]

The concept of anyone named Flannery Mullins or Sean Mulveyhill calling someone else an Irish slut is pretty ironic, actually.

[Ch2tf]

Originally Posted by 33girl

The concept of anyone named Flannery Mullins or Sean Mulveyhill calling someone else an Irish slut is pretty ironic, actually.

Thanks for my first laugh of the day. I needed it on this dreary and boring day.

[Kevin]

"Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book."
— Marcus Tullius Cicero

[christiangirl]

IDK if it's been mentioned but, the scarf Phoebe used to hang herself with was a present the little sister had given her this past Christmas. I feel horrible for that girl for that. On top of everything else, she probably feels guilty for having been the one who gave her the scarf (though she shouldn't).