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Suicides Increasing From Bullying

Students Are Finding Harassment Intolerable

Feb 16, 2008

Bully Targets Resort to Suicide, ablestock.com

How can students verbally and physically harass a peer to the point of suicide? How can schools tolerate it?

Lee’s Summit, Missouri

Brandon Myers killed himself at the age of 12 in February of 2007. His mother, Kim Myers, said that Brandon was the target of incessant bullying at school that teachers and administrators seemed unable to stop. Brandon had many strikes against him.

Parents divorced when he was 5.
Diagnosed with ADHD in the third grade.
Diagnosed with depression.
Taking medication for both.
Born with a cleft palate and had repeated surgeries for corrections.
Speech impediment.
Was seeing a private therapist.

Brandon’s parents have hired an attorney and plan to sue the Blue Springs School District. [Alan Scher Zagier, examiner.com, Jan. 15, 2008]

St. Louis, Missouri

More recently, Megan Meier, committed suicide after a cruel hoax involving MySpace and an adult neighbor. An adult, and not a child, created a male character as a prank. The adult had Megan convinced that she was a male and was interested in her. Then, the "male" told Megan that he didn’t care for her anymore. She couldn’t emotionally handle the letdown and hung herself in her room. Megan also had ADHD and was from a single parent home. Her parents are considering taking legal action against the person that created the hoax.

Mt. Washington, KY

Rachael Neblett, age 17, was being terrorized by death threats over MySpace. The frightening messages were anonymous. A few weeks later, she shot herself.

Tonganoxie, Kansas

A teenager in a small town was teased for years and accused of being "gay." Since 7th grade he had homophobic insults hurled at him until he left school without graduating. His family was awarded a $440,000 against the school for not taking appropriate action.

Tampa, Florida

A private school paid parents of a bully target $4 million because the school failed to guard their son against a known bully. Assaults by this bully were common and yet little seemed to be done until Danny Heidenberg had his arm broken in two places. He suffered permanent damage to his arm. His dream was to enter his parent’s medical practice. They are surgeons.

Lord of the Flies

William Golding’s novel about boys deserted on an island has similarities to today’s out of control bullying in schools and on the internet. There need to be rules to civilization. To have little respect for those around us, especially the weaker or different, is savagery. Without a code of ethics and behavior, we have chaos.

"Is evil innate within the human spirit, or is it an influence from an external source? What role do societal rules and institutions play in the existence of human evil? Does the capacity for evil vary from person to person, or does it depend on the circumstances each individual faces? These questions are at the heart of Lord of the Flies which, through detailed depictions of the boys’ different responses to their situation, presents a complex articulation of humanity’s potential for evil." [Grade Saver.com]

Lawsuits and school transfers will continue to flourish as long as bullying is not held in check in schools. Harassment toward adults is considered illegal activity. Children deserve the same.

Read previous articles on Educational Issues.

The copyright of the article Suicides Increasing From Bullying in Educational Issues is owned by Barbara Pytel. Permission to republish Suicides Increasing From Bullying in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Bully Targets Resort to Suicide

Schools Should Be A Safe Environment

Comments

Feb 17, 2008 12:39 PM

Jo Murphy :

As a teacher I find it very difficult to catch, identify and keep track of incidents.
Books I read say that when all is impossible the teachers must work consistently with the students who are the victims.

It is all very sad,
Jo

Feb 17, 2008 1:45 PM

Barbara Pytel :

Jo,
Our K-12 system began a written report of harassment. The target fills out an answer sheet asking when this happened, where it happened, who was involved, what was said or done, who else saw it, did you ask them to stop. I then interview the witnesses and the person doing the bullying. I then ask him/her how this can be resolved. The majority of the time, it just stops. I then tell the target to report to me immediately should it occur. There is something about having it on paper that really has an impact. A copy then goes to the principal and a copy in the children's file. Both the target and the "bully" because we want to keep track of patterns. While we thought we had bullying under control, this seems to be the icing on the cake. Our school is a pilot school for PBS, Posible Behavior Supports and this year we've implimented Steps to Respect by Committee for Children. However, this does not prevent bullying from going on the internet as soon as they get home.
~Barb

Feb 29, 2008 2:21 PM

Dorit Sasson :

I wasn't aware of how bullying takes on a different level when bullies feed into the computer screen. Wow.

3 Comments