Three teens accused in the bullying of a Massachusetts high school student who committed suicide pleaded not guilty to related charges Tuesday. In the indictments, returned last month, the Hampshire County grand jury charged Mulveyhill, of South Hadley, with statutory rape, violation of civil rights with resulting bodily injury, criminal harassment and disturbance of a school assembly. The indictments charged Renaud, of Springfield, with statutory rape. Kayla Narey, of South Hadley, was charged with violation of civil rights with resulting bodily injury, criminal harassment and disturbance of a school assembly.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/06/massachusetts.bullying.suicide/index.html
I chose this article because I think bullying has gone way to far these days. The school do not do enough to make children feel safe in school. "South Hadley Public Schools Superintendent Gus Sayer defended school administrators' handling of the matter, saying Phoebe had not alerted anyone to her situation." The Superintendent "defends" the school administrators because they know they did not help in this situation. Maybe Phoebe did not come right out and tell someone, but there are a million reasons why she didn't. First off, she is from another country and how we deal with issues here could be completely diffrent than her country. Second, she probably was scared for her life that if she said anything she would be bullied even more. Lastly, the school said they were aware of only two incidents and those children involved were punished for their actions. Obviously they were given a slap on the wrist because they were still allowed to attend school, and probably gave Phoebe more grief because they were caught. School should be one of the safest place a child has other than their home because they spend the majority of their time there. Schools should really take these situations more seriously because the children who suffer take extream measures as Phoebe did. There should be laws within school districts that pertain to these situation, so maybe if the children are given laws to abide by they may not do some of the things they do to each other. Many people say "kids will be kids," but this is just getting ridiculous. These kids need to be accountable for their actions.
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What happened to Phoebe was horrible. I think those bullies should be punished to serve as an example. No child should have to go through what she did.
ReplyDelete"Kids will be kids" is now just an excuse for bullies who have never been disciplined to do whatever they want (IE: harass the defenseless, quiet kids who are to afraid to stand up for themselves).
ReplyDeleteLike I said about the 12 year old boy case, lock them up. If you're old enough to be making the conscious decision to bully, sleep with, or hit another person, you're old enough to deal with the consequences.