13-Year-Old Boy Commits Suicide After Saying School ‘Didn’t Do Anything’ to Stop His Bullies - Polidicks

[QUOTE=A B.A. Survivor;50882709]A 13 year old hanging themselves? That's not right.[/QUOTE] My step brother attempted suicide at 12

I remember when I got in trouble for punching back because they had a "Zero Tolerance Policy." Schools fucking suck.

[QUOTE=Evanstr;50883182]I got horrible bullying due to my hair colour when I was in school and I went to the teacher and told them they where saying racist things to me, she proceeded to tell me I am not a race therefore what they say is not racist therefore she doesn't care. Proceeded to call said kids a N and punched them in the face and got kicked out of school for a month(prior to this I was getting 24/7 bullying and Fights arranged against me weekly)[/QUOTE] omfg exactly this. I wasn't bullied badly but I had an experience with a kid so stupid he had a personal helper in class and he called me mean shit because I'm ginger, obviously including calling me ginger (which is in fact bolla red hair is the best). I called him racist because I was like eleven and was trying to retort his insults, and his personal helper who should have put a fucking stop to it instead lectured me that gingers aren't actually a race. Well gee thanks a lot? [sp] The kid dropped out of school some time later so I guess now he's off being useless somewhere else these days. [/sp]

In my school I was told not to be a tattle tail whenever I told a teacher I or someone else was being bullied

[QUOTE=Bat-shit;50883500]I wonder how the bullies themselves feel now, like bad about it or good about it.[/QUOTE] Probably shit. I'm fairly sure they never had the intent for him to end up dead. I don't think I'd say I've ever bullied anyone myself, but there are certain people it's easy to talk shit about and have a low tolerance for. If I learned myself that something I had said / done caused a suicide, it'd haunt me for life. Perhaps I'm too naive, but I would assume that these bullies clearly know they've gone over the line on this one and most likely feel awful about it. A life is a life, no matter what you feel about the person.

Can't wait for people to start saying we should charge the bullies with assisted suicide. (Which frankly I think is dumb)

[QUOTE=CunningHam;50882783]All of middle school is trash. I've never met anyone who enjoyed it. Highschool was nice for me though.[/QUOTE] Im my expirience they're both awful but for different reasons. In middle school it's pretty straight forward, kids are just being dicks to one another all the time. In high school, it gets a bit more real-life like, so you know, snobism, talking shit behind ones back, lying, manipulation... You know, babies first Machiavellism in general. Anyway, It's really fucking awful how the average teacher has not the slightest comprehension of how huge of an impact bullying has on a child. It's a major problem in life for the child. It's all about relativity, the teacher doesn't realize that bullying for the child, is like loosing your job or having a divorce every day for you, as adult.

Thought I'd chime in. Yes, schools do not seem to do jack shit until it is too late or something serious happens like this. They should be held more accountable but they won't be. High School here was absolutely terrible for me. I was getting bullied throughout all my years there. If you try and report it, they don't do anything. It was just small things at first like name calling then it progressively got worse. More people joined in, they 'joked' about things about me like I was 'Harry Potter' as I wore glasses. At one point in class, people were sat across from me, taunting and pestering me until I was so angry, I just walked out the classroom. What happened? Not a lot, they just moved the people to another table. Another time, were in Science and someone physically came up and burned my face with a heating rod type thing. Little too late. Now? My confidence is at rock bottom, I have no self esteem, I've suffered from depression, I constantly think people hate me and are out to get me. I barely talk to anyone and keep to myself in fear of giving someone ammunition. I really don't think teachers, parents and government individuals realise how much small things can ruin a persons life but it's the same old situation as "It doesn't affect me so why should I care" or they just can't be bothered dealing with it.

[QUOTE=MaximLaHaxim;50884028]Can't wait for people to start saying we should charge the bullies with assisted suicide. (Which frankly I think is dumb)[/QUOTE] We should charge the school with manslaughter

I recall in middle school i was being bullied, i didn't say anything thing because i knew my principal wouldn't care. Instead, some other kids and teachers stepped up and told the principal that i was being harrased. I was called to the office, and asked if it were all true. I said yes it was. The principal then punished me on the account of lying.

[QUOTE=Whitewolf;50884090]Thought I'd chime in. Yes, schools do not seem to do jack shit until it is too late or something serious happens like this. They should be held more accountable but they won't be. High School here was absolutely terrible for me. I was getting bullied throughout all my years there. If you try and report it, they don't do anything. It was just small things at first like name calling then it progressively got worse. More people joined in, they 'joked' about things about me like I was 'Harry Potter' as I wore glasses. At one point in class, people were sat across from me, taunting and pestering me until I was so angry, I just walked out the classroom. What happened? Not a lot, they just moved the people to another table. Another time, were in Science and someone physically came up and burned my face with a heating rod type thing. Little too late. Now? My confidence is at rock bottom, I have no self esteem, I've suffered from depression, I constantly think people hate me and are out to get me. I barely talk to anyone and keep to myself in fear of giving someone ammunition. I really don't think teachers, parents and government individuals realise how much small things can ruin a persons life but it's the same old situation as "It doesn't affect me so why should I care" or they just can't be bothered dealing with it.[/QUOTE] This is exactly how I feel. I was never physically abused in school. Mainly called many names and told by countless people how ugly/retarded/weird I was. Now that I'm 23, I have little to no confidence in myself and I see no reason why anyone would like me or want to be around me. I have middle school and high school to thank for that. The times that I did go to a higher up official to get something done, they would constantly tell me that it's my fault for "letting them get to me" and how I should "just ignore them." Trust me, I tried so hard to pretend like I didn't hear them, but it's pretty difficult when almost half of the classroom is making fun of you and calling you names and throwing shit at you just so you'll react. Yes, it's good to stand up for yourself, but not every kid is going to have the will to do that. It's an unbelievably frightening thing to some, and it doesn't mean you're weak if you don't do it. And yes, often times, when kids DO stand up for themselves, the school decides most often than not to punish the victim instead of the actual perpetrator because apparently showing any kind of independence and courage means you're just as bad as they are or some shit. Bullying is most definitely the school's responsibility and they should be held accountable for shit like this happening. Being suicidal at 13 is nothing ANY kid in the world should go through. I'm semi-suicidal at fucking 23 years old and I can just barely handle it. It's despicable that schools will blatantly turn a blind eye to bullying because they don't want angry letter from parents that make them look bad. Bullying is a huge problem. A VERY huge problem. It is undoubtedly a life changing thing for a lot of kids and the way everyone has went about it is beyond wrong. [editline]14th August 2016[/editline] seriously the "just ignore it" solution is probably the absolute worst thing you can do. go out and tell someone with a gaping bleeding wound to just ignore it and see what happens.

[QUOTE=da space core;50884105]I recall in middle school i was being bullied, i didn't say anything thing because i knew my principal wouldn't care. Instead, some other kids and teachers stepped up and told the principal that i was being harrased. I was called to the office, and asked if it were all true. I said yes it was. The principal then punished me on the account of lying.[/QUOTE] that principal should go to hell [editline]15th August 2016[/editline] [QUOTE=Mysterious;50884197]This is exactly how I feel. I was never physically abused in school. Mainly called many names and told by countless people how ugly/retarded/weird I was. Now that I'm 23, I have little to no confidence in myself and I see no reason why anyone would like me or want to be around me. I have middle school and high school to thank for that. The times that I did go to a higher up official to get something done, they would constantly tell me that it's my fault for "letting them get to me" and how I should "just ignore them." Trust me, I tried so hard to pretend like I didn't hear them, but it's pretty difficult when almost half of the classroom is making fun of you and calling you names and throwing shit at you just so you'll react. Yes, it's good to stand up for yourself, but not every kid is going to have the will to do that. It's an unbelievably frightening thing to some, and it doesn't mean you're weak if you don't do it. And yes, often times, when kids DO stand up for themselves, the school decides most often than not to punish the victim instead of the actual perpetrator because apparently showing any kind of independence and courage means you're just as bad as they are or some shit. Bullying is most definitely the school's responsibility and they should be held accountable for shit like this happening. Being suicidal at 13 is nothing ANY kid in the world should go through. I'm semi-suicidal at fucking 23 years old and I can just barely handle it. It's despicable that schools will blatantly turn a blind eye to bullying because they don't want angry letter from parents that make them look bad. Bullying is a huge problem. A VERY huge problem. It is undoubtedly a life changing thing for a lot of kids and the way everyone has went about it is beyond wrong. [editline]14th August 2016[/editline] seriously the "just ignore it" solution is probably the absolute worst thing you can do. go out and tell someone with a gaping bleeding wound to just ignore it and see what happens.[/QUOTE] "it's just words hahaha like nigga just ignore them hahahaha" - dumb cunt logic

[QUOTE=Solo Wing;50883533]I'm not a professional psychiatrist but in my experience, they're probably laughing about it. "Haha, that loser offed himself and we didn't even get into trouble!" Probably not the case but I have a really cynical view of bullies. I dealt with bullies through middle school and into high school. It didn't stop until I began muttering how much I'd fuck them and the school up (using words I really regret using) and the school FINALLY got involved, but only because I implicitly made a threat against them. Surprise, I get kicked out of school for the year and my bullies only got a week's suspension.[/quote] [QUOTE=Omali;50883559]I imagine they're coming up with every excuse to not have to admit to themselves that they are a waste of space and an active detriment to themselves and others.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=junker154;50883847]Most of the time I'll say that bullying is an awful thing to do and would totally against it. But I can't help but notice that I bullied people myself, not physically though. But there were some absolute idiots at my class or at work. I can't help but to make fun of them and honestly I don't feel bad about it.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=PredGD;50884010]Probably shit. I'm fairly sure they never had the intent for him to end up dead. I don't think I'd say I've ever bullied anyone myself, but there are certain people it's easy to talk shit about and have a low tolerance for. If I learned myself that something I had said / done caused a suicide, it'd haunt me for life. Perhaps I'm too naive, but I would assume that these bullies clearly know they've gone over the line on this one and most likely feel awful about it. A life is a life, no matter what you feel about the person.[/QUOTE] Fascinating responses I gotta say, but thanks for expending the energy though.

I had the good fortune of going to a pretty sane middle school, I guess, because there wasn't really a bullying problem to speak of. There was one time a kid transferred in and tried to pick on a kid with aspergers and got laid out by a football player and that was pretty much that.

I feel like bullying is endemic to public schools, but I'm also from a shitty, densely populated east coast state with a diverse range of races mixed with a lot of inequality and decay of publicly-owned things. They're basically big conveyor belts shitting out kids unprepared for adulthood, and they draw from a huge set of people with no organic, community-based attachments to each other and are simply forced to go. This is complicated by our individual culture and prosperity, it creates an environment that doesn't properly socialize people and millenials have it written all over them. It's further complicated by divisions of class and race which I saw first hand, schools usually being the first time someone can see America's differences and where they fit in. That public schools are defining how people see themselves, not their free time interactions with other people that live around them, is probably part of the issue. Once there they memorize shit for a standardized test while things like recess time are cut down on and 'violent' activities like dodgeball are banned, reflecting an institutional attitude that just sees costs, results, and legal liabilities. That's where 'just deal with it' comes in, there's no incentive for them to deal with the on-the-ground human experience of going through this system. They just want to sit in an office and graduate one class after the other. It gets worse as you get more urban. It's part of a wider system of ours where the adult individual is supposed to pick up the slack for systemic failures and suffer where it's more 'angular' than 'flowing' for the greater good. It's probably part of the reason stress and mental illness is so high, particularly in 'fast-paced', expensive, and densely populated places like where I live. Most of our ancestors never dealt with anything like this, down to how many hours of the day they work compared to us.

I'd be suprised if the school could actually do anything. The bully's parents probably were the kind of parents that would sue the school district if they thought those "mean old teachers" were "persecuting" their little angel. My dad teaches middle school and some parents have told him that their kid deserves to be passed because they're on welfare and its the Government's job to give them everything they want/need.

[QUOTE=Headhumpy;50884221]"it's just words hahaha like nigga just ignore them hahahaha" - dumb cunt logic[/QUOTE] 9/10, ignoring doesn't work. It only makes them go to even greater lengths to get a rise out of you. And i dunno, maybe if you're an adult, this would be more acceptable, but kids are very impressionable. What you say to them often sticks with them for a very long time. People don't often realize the long term damage bullies really inflict.

[QUOTE=gawkermedia;50883295] Best advice: “You’ll be fine… These things will pass” [/quote] They clearly didn't for the kid in the article, and thousands like him worldwide.[quote] There is very little that any establishment can do to fix shit like this, its a simple fact of life. Sure they can try, but there is always a grey area when it comes to people's personal lives and how far you want a school to be involved.[/quote] I have an idea. 1: Throw them out of school for a week on first offense. 2: Throw them in the back of the SRO's patrol car on the second offense. 3: Do 2, but go on ahead with pressing assault and harassment charges. The little shits will either shape up or be in juvy, either way, they're not bullying anymore. Done. Heavy handed? Sure. But done. The light handed approach clearly doesn't work so we've got no choice. [quote]You get bullied for good reason usuall[/quote] There is no good reason to get bullied. Bullies are just insecure shitheads that think violence and torture are the way to go.

There is/was/never will be a good reason to be bullied or to bully anyone. Ever. Period.

[QUOTE=mralexs;50884315]I'd be suprised if the school could actually do anything. The bully's parents probably were the kind of parents that would sue the school district if they thought those "mean old teachers" were "persecuting" their little angel. My dad teaches middle school and some parents have told him that their kid deserves to be passed because they're on welfare and its the Government's job to give them everything they want/need.[/QUOTE] Superintendent should specifically call them into a meeting and tell them that the government isn't here to give them a free pass, that their kid has to pay attention and learn just like everyone else, and that they will be failed if they do not.

[QUOTE=mralexs;50884315]I'd be suprised if the school could actually do anything. The bully's parents probably were the kind of parents that would sue the school district if they thought those "mean old teachers" were "persecuting" their little angel. My dad teaches middle school and [B]some parents have told him that their kid deserves to be passed because they're on welfare and its the Government's job to give them everything they want/need.[/B][/QUOTE] That's an absolutely disgusting thing for a fucking grown ass man to say lol

[QUOTE=TestECull;50884405]They clearly didn't for the kid in the article, and thousands like him worldwide. I have an idea. 1: Throw them out of school for a week on first offense. 2: Throw them in the back of the SRO's patrol car on the second offense. 3: Do 2, but go on ahead with pressing assault and harassment charges. The little shits will either shape up or be in juvy, either way, they're not bullying anymore. Done. Heavy handed? Sure. But done. The light handed approach clearly doesn't work so we've got no choice.[/quote] If I had a dollar for every single story I've read on the internet where some kid stuck up for himself finally and then got suspended/expelled whilst the person who did the actual bullying got off scot-free then I'd be able to afford a private chartered jet on 24/7 standby to deliver a private army of bodyguards to protect kids that are being bullied in schools across the entire globe. [quote]There is no good reason to get bullied. Bullies are just insecure shitheads that think violence and torture are the way to go.[/QUOTE] That was on some level similar to the point I was trying to make.

Damn. That Family's probably devastated, especially after reading the note as well. The worst scenario. Anyways, I think another user in this thread pointed out how some bullies act out in such a fashion due to underlying issues. I think I can agree with that, in High School, I was tormented and harrased by some suicidal girl who shared 7th period with me - She even went as far to mouth off to the teacher how I was saying "kill yourself", "nobody likes you cunt", "drink bleach" and so forth. But, the school system is so faulty in that department that they failed to recognize that those words never came out of my mouth. Hell, I didn't even know her at all despite our small interactions, and from that point onward the School administration viewed me as some 'big bad bully who told people to kill themselves'. It really fucked me over. I'd constantly be falsely accused and have teachers respond to me in a condescending manner despite my obvious efforts to attempt to clear my name. It never worked, so, as time went on and I was entering 11th Grade. I grew really angry, I stopped paying attention to my grades and the only way I was able to make myself feel better was bullying other kids because it made me feel better, even to the extent of having both suicidal and homicidal thoughts. (Luckily, I never acted on these but instead went to a therapist. I personally think everyone should have a therapist at some point in their life, really helps - seriously.) However, as time moved on and I graduated. I realize how stupid it all was, and, how it could've been prevented if the School realized their obvious fault, swallowed their ego and got everyone to hop off my dick for something I never did -- This goes for not only me but the other students in the school who were tormented. You could say it was the bullies fault, but, they obviously didn't know better considering it was Middle School and their brains are still developing; I believe the School is to blame for not putting an end to the threat in order to maintain their bullshit reputation and "zero tolerance policy".

[QUOTE=TestECull;50884405]They clearly didn't for the kid in the article, and thousands like him worldwide. I have an idea. 1: Throw them out of school for a week on first offense. 2: Throw them in the back of the SRO's patrol car on the second offense. 3: Do 2, but go on ahead with pressing assault and harassment charges. The little shits will either shape up or be in juvy, either way, they're not bullying anymore. Done. Heavy handed? Sure. But done. The light handed approach clearly doesn't work so we've got no choice. There is no good reason to get bullied. Bullies are just insecure shitheads that think violence and torture are the way to go.[/QUOTE] What do you do for kids too young to be charged?

My school had a zero tolerance policy for bullying, but every kid there firmly believed in "snitches get stitches" so if there wasn't an adult looking, you just defended yourself. I had to swat a kid in the face with a rolled up newspaper once. Everyone kinda fucked off after that :v:

[QUOTE=MaximLaHaxim;50884567]What do you do for kids too young to be charged?[/QUOTE] Exactly. That too. School bullying is the junior cousin of he-said she-said. Lots of questions and very few answers.

[QUOTE=TestECull;50884405]They clearly didn't for the kid in the article, and thousands like him worldwide. I have an idea. 1: Throw them out of school for a week on first offense. 2: Throw them in the back of the SRO's patrol car on the second offense. 3: Do 2, but go on ahead with pressing assault and harassment charges. The little shits will either shape up or be in juvy, either way, they're not bullying anymore. Done. Heavy handed? Sure. But done. The light handed approach clearly doesn't work so we've got no choice. There is no good reason to get bullied. Bullies are just insecure shitheads that think violence and torture are the way to go.[/QUOTE] Mostly agree with your sentiment, but giving bullies a week off is not going to fix anything. If anything, they should be forced to come to school more, possibly on weekends or a couple hours before or after.

Suspension is definitely one of those things that doesn't work. Kids don't care. Free vacation.

Bullies' parents are probably the kind of parents who drops their kid at school and expect them to become better people by solely sending them to school everyday. If you don't care or you don't want to teach your kid the value of discipline and respect towards other people then how the fuck do you expect them to learn it from someone who isn't their parent?

[QUOTE=TestECull;50884409]Superintendent should specifically call them into a meeting and tell them that the government isn't here to give them a free pass, that their kid has to pay attention and learn just like everyone else, and that they will be failed if they do not.[/QUOTE] Superintendent has no power, the school board decides everything. They fired one superintendent who was doing an excellent job because she wouldn't be their puppet. Plus, this school board votes things down racial lines; If the black members vote for something the white members will try to shut it down. They don't care about the students, they care about their cushy jobs and looking good for the media.