Posted on 01/26/2010 11:55:01 AM PST by Sopater
While police in South Hadley, Mass., investigate whether cyber bullying was to blame for the suicide last week of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince, the teenager who had recently emigrated from Ireland suffered a final indignity – disparaging remarks believed to be posted by classmates to a Facebook page created in her memory.
Prince died on Jan. 14 after a rough freshman year. Friends and school officials told MyFoxBoston.com that Prince had been picked on and taunted since moving to Massachusetts last fall.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
She was being harassed by her mother (long story) and apparently changed it from the one that I knew.
My husband attended a boarding school his last two years in high school, one of those places where parents send kids that they would like the warehouse for a while. He was constantly on restriction for one thing or another and the only other kid in the dorm was a kid from Mass., a nerd with bad acne, who had no where to go and no friends. Since they were the only kids not going home or out on the week-ends, they kind of made friends. My husband tried to help him with girls and give him a little self confidence. The last day of school, graduation day, the boy pulled his school ring off his finger and gave it to my husband (my husband never bought one) and said that he never wanted to think about this school again and to just keep the ring to remember him. The boy went home to Boston and killed himself.
Well were not all as smart as you star traveler. these days kids have it pounded into their head that they can take no action to defend themselves.
How good would you do if you went through that same indoctrination? In fact is your generation (and mine) that has allowed this environment to exist and done NOTHING about it.
I agree that the parents need to toughen the kids against bullying.
One of my kids was being bothered by another kid. The bully came after my kid from behind. He spun around to confront him and accidentally (really!) caught the kid in the face with his elbow. The bully instantly tried to become my kid’s best friend (after he woke up from the hit). A little violence can go a long way.
But the other point I was trying to make is that I wouldn’t be surprised to see an angry parent whose kid was DEAD retaliate against the school kids or administrators. Stranger things have happened.
At my kids school they will call the police and have a kid arrested and expelled even if they are defending themselves. My kid hold a black belt and has got quite strong going into his senior year. At 5-10 he doesn’t get messed with anymore.
I couldn’t agree more. My son also played football, holds a blackbelt and was the strongest receiver on his team. At 5-10 180 he has no worries now. Good for your son.
But the aggressors usually get off because they come from a disadvantaged situation (aka they get extra tax dollars for em).
I know, when this crap first started with my son, we ended up having him in therapy. It helped alot because he started developing anger issues so we got him in a program at school that provided a quieter environment and he really started to excell and gained much needed confidence. At a recent open house he was invited to speak to parents of incoming freshman that were experiencing similar problems. Parents were so impressed that they had requests into the school staff to have my son have talks with their children. He is pulling a 4.0 GPA on top of it also. I couldn’t be more proud of him.
You sound like a good parent with a good son. We need more of that in this country. bravo
I was one of those bullied kids. You know, it’s funny.
It really does take just one special person. :)
For me, what I did is that the biggest bully in the school decided that he wanted to take it out on me. So he jumped me and grabbed me to spin me around over his head. I ended up grabbing his necklace and he broke his own chain.
I got up and walked away. All the spectators saw is him grabbing me, him bent over on the ground, and me walking away.
I had zero troubles after that.
With me, yeah I have a temper that burns hot and then fades quickly. I also seem to be able to have that ‘moment of clarity’, I can’t really understand it. I don’t panic, things just kinda slow down and I can do what I need to do.
...and I bet that your son is a great kid who's humble as well as confident.
Athletics can play a positive role in the formation of girls and boys. Kids get exercise, learn how to be a part of a team, good sportsmanship and how to deal with competition. Of course it helps having good coaches who are centered. My son was fortunate to have a Christ centered coach in high school and now that he's transferred, in college as well. We sought that out when searching for a new school.
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I absolutely hated my junior high school years. They were the worst years of my life.
While I never was pushed to the point of considering suicide or retaliation, that was one of the major factors in our decision to homeschool, and I also determined that if my kids ever wanted to go to public school, it would be only from 9th grade on.
Prisons are likely just as socially hellish. In many ways government schoools and prisons are very similar.
What is regarded as “normal” for pre-teens and teens is really social pathology. If we treat children ( who have committed no crime) like prisoners is it any wonder we see behavior commonly seen in prisons?
Yet...When a child ( who has committed no crime) **rationally** rebels and refuses to attend, we send out armed police and sentence him to hard time prison ( juvenile detention).
If we treat kids in a bizarro manner it is no wonder they behave bizarrely.
Humble and very well mannered but definitely a competitor on the field. They even open doors for people. They both are! I made sure of that.
Thanks
Well were not all as smart as you star traveler. these days kids have it pounded into their head that they can take no action to defend themselves.
Well, heck... no one told me back then to do that... LOL... I just did it.
In fact, I got in a lot of trouble for that (as some were saying would happen "today" -- and it did happen back then, too). I got expelled, and I was told to not get into fights and was asked "Why did you do that?" :-)
In my case, it didn't take anyone to tell me that, and in fact (as I was saying) all the "telling" to me was the opposite of that.
I just did it...
But, for those who wouldn't just do it, then the parents would need to help those kids to toughen up and to understand how to handle it, and understand that other kids are going to be mean and nasty to them -- that's just the way it is.
Thankyou. Very kind. But I must confess that I can be firery in making a point to them and will not tolerate them doing foolish things. Maybe thats what it takes.
Part of my Italian upbringing I guess.
It has always been this way it’s just today there are more opportunities for kids to run wild and there are less stable homes to help kids being bullied deal with it.
I’ve always felt it was more the home that the kids who bullied came from. I went through this as a kid from being smaller and younger than others in my class and it had zero to do with my home life but looking around now and knowing where most of those kids came from they must’ve really had h*ll to deal with at home that made them want to target someone else with their frustrations.
Yeah, and unless one lives in a cave, we're likely run into nasty people in adulthood as well. It's bound to happen, having a miserable neighbor, co-worker or a tyrant boss. It's just the way it is...
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