I was bullied as a child. I was different. I was a nerd, a geek and a bookworm who was socially awkward and shy, also known as an easy target. I can’t begin to count the number of times I came home crying because of the name calling and ostracizing. Oh, the good old days, when that’s all bullies did. Verbal and psychological abuse is bad enough, but it seems that the bullies of today have taken it to a whole other level.
Last week, three teenage girls decided it would be appropriate to set a 12 year old girl on fire. The act was pre-meditated. You can read about it here http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111127/mtl_fire_111127/20111127/?hub=MontrealHome
This is just one example in a sad trend of torturous behavior committed by teenagers and young adults. While I applaud celebrities like Lady GaGa
and Rick Mercer
for taking this on as a pet cause, I can’t help but wonder, where are the parents in all of this? Why are the parents of the victims not stepping forward and pressing charges? And what about the parents of the bullies, why are they allowing this behavior in their kids? Where were the teachers and faculty in all of this? In many cases this behavior happens right in front of adults who are supposed to be authority figures, yet they ignore it (just kids being kids). Where are the police in all of this? Why are the police not arresting these kids and making them pay for their behavior? Where is the legislature in all of this? There aught to be a law. If we continue to allow this behavior to go unpunished, then we have only ourselves to blame for the consequences. Isn’t anyone doing anything to protect the victims of torment? Now I’m not talking about simple name calling, I’m talking about behavior like trying to set someone on fire, or behavior that causes a young gay teen to commit suicide.
http://cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2011/09/25/lemon-rodemeyer-suicide.cnn
Doing nothing because “it’s hard” to do something is no excuse.
The statistics are scary http://www.bullyonline.org/stress/suicide.htm
I will leave you with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi,
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
