Oh God...

[Millhouse]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/23/bullyi ... index.html

This is beyond fucked up. I'm posting it here because it involves bullying. If however, the mods choose to move it to the Off Topic Forums, I will understand and respect their decision.

[Earl]

Hi, Millhouse. I moved your topic from the "Sports Sucks!" Forum to the "Off-Topic" Forum simply because, technically speaking, this horrible tragedy was not related to or connected with sports. Moving your topic from one forum to another certainly was not meant to be taken as a reflection upon the subject's relative importance one way or the other, and did not affect its position in the "View active topics" list. As the most recent post, its topic was still listed as the first topic at the top of the list.

That being said, bullying is an extremely important issue that needs to be dealt with. I cannot adequately express my feelings about this tragedy -- except to say that bullied children clearly need help of some sort, and should not be allowed to suffer in silence by themselves. Yes, that's self-evident, I know. Since I am not a trained mental health professional, I cannot say what should or should not have been done to save this child. People have told me that bullying has actually gotten worse in recent years. Our society is not exactly the healthiest it's ever been. When I was growing up, I never heard of eleven-year-old children committing suicide; but perhaps I had a relatively sheltered upbringing. Sadly, I don't know what else to say except that we as individuals should always be ready to lend a sympathetic ear to those in our lives. The way that we treat others may have an impact greater than we realize.

[Fat Man]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/23/bullyi ... index.html

This is beyond fucked up. I'm posting it here because it involves bullying. If however, the mods choose to move it to the Off Topic Forums, I will understand and respect their decision.

Hello Millhouse.

I just read the article. I shall copy and paste it here for all to see.

My bullied son's last day on Earth

By Mallory Simon
CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Eleven-year-old Jaheem Herrera woke up on April 16 acting strangely. He wasn't hungry and he didn't want to go to school. Jaheem Herrera's mother thinks he hanged himself because he was perpetually bullied at school.

But the outgoing fifth grader packed his bag and went to school at Dunaire Elementary School in DeKalb County, Georgia. He came home much happier than when he left in the morning, smiling as he handed his mother, Masika Bermudez, a glowing report card full of A's and B's. She gave him a high-five and he went upstairs to his room as she prepared dinner.

A little later, when his younger sister called him to come down to eat, Jaheem didn't answer.

So mother and daughter climbed the stairs to Jaheem's room and opened the door.

Jaheem was hanging by his belt in the closet.

"I always used to see these things on TV, dead people on the news," says Bermudez. "I saw somebody die and to see this dead person is your son, hanging there, a young boy. ... To hang yourself like that, you've got to really be tired of something."

Bermudez says bullies at school pushed Jaheem over the edge. He complained about being called gay, ugly and "the virgin" because he was from the Virgin Islands, she said. "He used to say Mom they keep telling me this ... this gay word, this gay, gay, gay. I'm tired of hearing it, they're telling me the same thing over and over," she told CNN, as she wiped away tears from her face.

But while she says her son complained about the bullying, she had no idea how bad it had gotten. "He told me, but he just got to the point where he didn't want me to get involved anymore because nothing was done," she said.

Bermudez said she complained to the school about bullying seven or eight times, but it wasn't enough to save him. "It [apparently] just got worse and worse and worse until Thursday," she said. "Just to walk up to that room and see your baby hanging there. My daughter saw this, my baby saw this, my kids are traumatized." She said Jaheem was a shy boy just trying to get a good education and make friends.

"He was a nice little boy," Bermudez said through her tears. "He loved to dance. He loved to have fun. He loved to make friends. And all he made [at school] were enemies." Bermudez said she thinks her son felt like nobody wanted to help him, that nobody stood up and stopped the bullies.

"Maybe he said 'You know what -- I'm tired of telling my mom, she's been trying so hard, but nobody wants to help me,' " says Bermudez.

After Jaheem's death, the school board expressed condolences, saying the school staff "works diligently to provide a safe and nurturing environment for all students."

Trying desperately to understand what went wrong, Bermudez asked her son's best friend to recount what happened on the day Jaheem killed himself.

"He [said he was] tired of complaining, tired of these guys messing with him," Bermudez said, recalling the conversation with Jaheem's best friend. "Tired of talking, I think to his teachers, counselors and nobody is doing anything -- and the best way out is death."

Allegations of such severe bullying surprises experts familiar with the school district. It's anti-bullying program was considered exemplary and includes programs to raise awareness and a specially trained liaison. Students are even asked to sign a no-bullying pledge. But other parents told CNN they have complained about bullying as well.

Despite recent strides towards preventing bullying in schools and increased awareness programs, a Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network study showed that 65 percent of teens are bullied each year and most believe adults can't help them.

Less than a month before Jaheem's death, a boy in Massachusetts killed himself after being bullied, harassed and called "gay."

Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, says to be effective, awareness programs need to include education about the harm that can be done by teasing someone about sexuality or perceived sexuality.

"Anti-gay language is really the ultimate weapon for a bully who wants to degrade his or her peers," she says. "And any effective response to bullying has to take that on."

Bermudez doesn't understand why the children at school couldn't learn to get along. Because of it, she'll never get to see her son grow up. "My baby, that's my only boy, and I lost him now," says Bermudez. "He was my first child and ... to lose him 11 years after, he didn't live his life." She hopes her son's death will result in positive changes that will help other kids being bullied.

"Those that are being bullied -- they need to talk to their parents, they need to not hold back," she says. "I lost my son and now something has to be done."

This really sucks! This sucks more than anything has ever sucked before!

As I have mentioned before, I'm 57 years old now, and it seems the bullying has always been a part of growing up or going to school.

Nothing has changed over the years. In fact, it has gotten even worse.

When I was a kid, I never heard of other kids committing suicide as a result of bullying. So, it must be even worse now than it was back then.

As a kid, I was often bullied around, and there were times when I wished I were dead or that I was never born.

I was born up in Minnesota and I lived in a small town that was like something out of a Stephen King novel.

One day I was out riding my bicycle and I was crossing a railroad track on the way home when these two kids, much larger than I was, a brother and his even larger sister, they knocked me off of my bike and held me down to the railroad track. I was about 9 years old at the time. A train was coming and they got up and let go of me just in time. I was unable to get up, so I just rolled over to avoid being run over by the train, and I laid there on the ground afraid to move until the train had passed.

I once heard that if you stand too close to a fast moving train you can get sucked under, so I just laid there on the ground about a foot away from the track as three locomotives and about a hundred cars rumbled by. I had never been so frightened in my life until that day.

Then one day, about a year later, I found this long metal rod laying on the ground and I picked it up and I was carrying it home when I was confronted the big sister. She was alone and she tried to grab the metal rod I had found. I swung it as hard as I could and struck her in the face with it and I came close to putting out one of her eyes. Blood was poring from the side of her face and she ran home crying. She was about five years older than I was and much bigger, and as she ran home crying. She never bullied me around ever again after that.

I felt satisfaction.

Then a few years later when I was 13 in Junior High School, I was eating in the school cafeteria when the brother of the girl I had struck with the iron sat across the table from me.

OK, I need to digress here . . . . .

About a month earlier, we had a fire and our house burned down. The house we were living in was a two-story house with a front porch having colonial style pillars. Like a lot of houses in that town, it was over a hundred years old. The fire was due to faulty wiring, and we lost everything. I was in school at the time when the fire occurred.

That day, I heard rumors from the other kids that my house burned down. This one kid, the one with the big sister who knocked me off of my bike while I was crossing the railroad track, he said, "Hey, did you know your house burned down? The neighbors say that the firemen carried out a couple of bodies!" and he thought it was really funny.

I didn't believe any of it. I thought it was just more lies and rumors, and when I was in class, someone from the principals office came into the classroom and said the principal wanted me to come to his office.

When I left the classroom and followed her to the office, and the principal had news that there had been a fire at my home, and I immediately asked if my parents were OK, and he said yes, there were no injuries, that nobody was home. I didn't care about the house, I was just glad that my parents were OK.

Now, back to the school cafeteria . . . . .

This kid sat across from me, the one who knocked me off of my bike while crossing the railroad tracks, the one who told me about the bodies being carried out of the house, he was sitting across the table from me, and harassing me as usual. Then he took a bite out of his sandwich and dipped his sandwich into my soup. He had a mouth full of black and rotten teeth from eating too many sweets and a foul breath, and he dipped his filthy sandwich in my bowl of soup.

The soup was steaming hot and I turned it up-side-down on top of his head. He screamed out in pain, and then I said, "Yeah! It's really hot! Isn't it! Almost as hot as fire! I wanna hear you holler FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! Hey! Heard any more good fire jokes lately?" He took off running out of the cafeteria screaming like a banshee!

Again, I felt satisfaction!

Well, I got suspended from school, and my parents were outraged over my suspension from school, and my mother had mentioned to the principal about the incident a few years earlier when the kid and his bigger sister had knocked me off of my bike while crossing the railroad tracks. They were never punished for what they had done to me even after my parents had filed a complaint against them.

But I get suspended from school for turning a bowl of soup on top of the kid's head.

In that town, they would not do a damn thing about the bullies, but I would get into trouble for striking back and defending myself.

But those two never bullied me around after what I had done to them.

Sometimes, the only way to deal with bullies is to give them a taste of their own bad medicine.

[sports rox1234]

That is just horrible. I bet those scumbag bullies are so heartless that it doesnt bother them one bit that the kid killed himself because he was bullied by them. Those bastards should be put in jail for murder. Im not sure if this was a rumor this was true but last year a kid in my school killed himself because he was bullied because he was gay. I got pulled out of school this year because I was being bullied alot and I was about to beat up two of the bullies and I was wishing myself dead and the scum bag bullies left me with no self esteem. Now you might say that I played sports and people that play sports are popular but when I did play sports I was always the most appreciated kid in my school.

I have been bullied for alot of the time I have been in school. But now I am being home schooled and I am not as depressed as I used to be. Oh by the way before I left school for the year I made one of the bullies cry just because I laughed at him. Shows you how tuff some buliies really are!

[Millhouse]

§13) Do not quote entire posts

There is no need to quote an entire post, especially if you are the first response to a thread or if you are responding to the most recent post. We do not need to see the entire post all over again. If you must quote, edit out the parts that you are not responding to, or break up the quoted post if you are responding to different parts of it.

Guys, please try to remember the rules. You can delete this edit and re-quote, but only the relevant part(s).
-Skul

Fatman, I find it amusing that you were born in MN and now reside in TX. I was born in TX and now reside in MN.

Regardless, that simply proves that sports haters are EVERYWHERE AND WE AREN'T GOING AWAY. Put that in your nasty ass jock strap and smoke it, meatlumps.

[Skul]

I've been a victim of bullying through school, too. Nothing as bad as some other people, but it was still a horrible thing to go through. It was quite sudden, too. The bullying seemed to just happen overnight for no reason.

Fat Man, good job on standing up to those bullies! It sucks that you're the one who got punished, but at least you stopped them harassing you. Reminds me of the time my dad told me about his bully (this was at a time when this one guy was really getting at me). This guy kept calling him "T-17", I think it was. No idea what that meant (still don't), but it was obviously an insult. Then, one day, my dad just kicked him in the face! Like you, he got suspended, but again, like you, the bully stopped harrassing him. I don't think Mr. Bully was expecting a shoe to the face. Now, he wasn't saying I should attack this guy -- I wouldn't have anyway, he was big and I was small and scrawny -- but it made me feel better hearing that story.

[Fat Man]

I've been a victim of bullying through school, too. Nothing as bad as some other people, but it was still a horrible thing to go through. It was quite sudden, too. The bullying seemed to just happen overnight for no reason.

Fat Man, good job on standing up to those bullies! It sucks that you're the one who got punished, but at least you stopped them harassing you. Reminds me of the time my dad told me about his bully (this was at a time when this one guy was really getting at me). This guy kept calling him "T-17", I think it was. No idea what that meant (still don't), but it was obviously an insult. Then, one day, my dad just kicked him in the face! Like you, he got suspended, but again, like you, the bully stopped harrassing him. I don't think Mr. Bully was expecting a shoe to the face. Now, he wasn't saying I should attack this guy -- I wouldn't have anyway, he was big and I was small and scrawny -- but it made me feel better hearing that story.

I did a Google Image Search for T-17 and all have I come up with is a type of airplane flown during World War 2, a kind of a motor scooter with a two-stroke engine, a watch, a flat screen monitor for a computer, a kind of a water pipe or hooka for smoking tobacco and the T 17 engine/tool-room lathe!

Maybe you should ask your dad what the bully meant by T-17.

I don't know, but I think if someone had called me an airplane I might have taken it as a complement because I like airplanes.

But it's quite possible that T-17 might mean something insulting.