The ugliness of bullying has been addressed repeatedly through programs and movies, and more awareness has been brought forth by several action movements.
But it seems not to abate. In fact, it seems to be pervasive in even younger children, showing a very preoccupying trend in the behavior of school age children.
Two girls are now accused and charged with aggravated stalking, a crime tailor made to persecute individuals who cause so much distress with their bullying to severely affect a person or even cause their death.
The two girls are very young, 12 and 14. They were the reason why a co-student took her life by jumping off a tower.
The girl who committed suicide, Rebecca Sedwick, was only 12. Yet she had been harassed, bullied and vilified for a year by up to 15 girls, all students and friends of the two main culprits. The favorite way to bully today is cyberbullying, a trend that is taking on fearsome proportions.
One of the girls charged in this incident admitted to bullying Rebecca, after her suicide, and even replied so: "Yes, I bullied Rebecca and she killed herself, but I don't give a f..k"
Such sang froid is almost surreal. That a young girl could talk of someone who has just committed suicide due to their harassment and cruelty seems otherwordly, yet it is common. Similar comments have popped in social sites after the suicide or rape of a person that had been bullied, by both perpetrators and strangers.
One of the reasons the girls were charged was to curb their activities, in the hope that they would stop the bullying of others presently or in the future. It's not that they are trying to send a message, which they could be, it's more that there has to be some accountability of people who make someone else's life utterly horrible.
Although REbecca had been removed from school to shield her from her tormentors, they were able to continue waging their campaign of terror through electronic media and social sites.
There has to be a whole village type of approach if the crime of bullying is to be curbed. There is no other way. The schools, the authorities, the parents and everyone involved must be made to work against this crippling and cruel phenomenon.
One way that parents can shortcircuit the bullying is to cut off their child from social media. But at the same time, the people who own the social sites, must begin to implement programs that allow people who bully others to be rejected from entering the sites.
Until then, our children are in peril. If anyone thinks that bullying is just a teenage coming of age problem, that one is sorely mistaken.
Op-Ed
Source : NBC / 10.16.13
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