Monday, September 13, 2010
Greensburg Student Takes Life After Being Bullied By Other Students
Fox59 News reports on a 15-year-old Greensburg High School student who hung himself after being repeatedly bullied by classmates at school who perceived him as being gay. "People would call him 'fag' and stuff like that, just make fun of him because he's different basically," said student Dillen Swango. "Students told Fox59 News it was common knowledge that children bullied Billy [Lucas] and from what they said, it was getting worse. Last Thursday, Billy's mother found him dead inside their barn. He had hung himself." "Students said on that same day, some students told Billy to kill himself." Not surprisingly, Principal Phil Chapple pleaded ignorance of any bullying taking place in his school.
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3 comments:
As someone who has been through high school more recently than most reading local political blogs, I believ bullying is a huge concern that is consistently ignored by school administration. Why public schools ignore it I don't know, but in private schools it's often due to the bully's families having connections with the administration of the school. And in a few but still too many instances, this type of harassment can lead to suicide or others very reckless/rash reactions.
This is a significant issue that gets very little attention. Not only can it completely destroy the self-esteem of somebody as they grow up; but, it can lead to deep psychological scars.
I had a conversation with a teenager the other day who was calling another kid some kind of name. The response was "well, that's what everybody else at school calls him" to which I replied, "You're supposed to be better than everybody else."
I wish there was a way to get through to kids that taunting others to make yourself feel superior or to "go along with the crowd" is wrong, and as this sad story proves, dangerous.
This is such a heartbreaking story, and reminds me of when a ten year IPS student on a school bus I was guest chaperoning on a school day trip, out of the blue, with a look of anguish on his face, suddenly asked me to help him because other boys were troubling him, accusing him of being gay. I did not know the situation or if any of them were on the bus, but just loud enough said. that no one should be calling anyone else names, but then went on to say, not that there was anything wrong with being gay (or something like that). Quickly, an adult woman further behind me 'corrected' me in front of the boy and others, that, yes there was.
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