My heart has been really heavy recently. A few days ago I watched an episode of some TV show where a high school girl committed suicide because of being harassed. and I wish it was some new and twisted plot where people thought “who the blankityblankblank thinks of this stuff?”
One look at what is happening around our nation and we know that there’s no real fiction value attached to this story; it is more likely a watered down portrayal of what so many kids – KIDS, not “teens” or “young adults” but CHILDREN – are facing every single day.
Yesterday on the radio they were presenting the idea that perhaps this is a rite of passage, what has been going on for years and years, but now thanks to social media and the internet we hear more about it.
But I call bs.
I have frequently noted that I’m so glad social media sites weren’t around when I was in high school. There was one day in Creative Writing class where a boy I’d known since elementary school got handed a clipboard, wrote something on it and passed it to me. I asked what it was and he said “a petition to get you impeached as our class president.” “Oh okay, no thanks,” was my response as I passed it to the person next to me.
That moment could have destroyed me, had social media been around. To have that brief encounter was hard enough, but what if it had followed me home? What if even in the privacy and safety of my own room, people were able to infiltrate their messages of unlove?
This is not my parents’ bullying. It’s not my bullying. It’s a new, hi-tech form of bullying that steals away identity and self worth and is intent on annihilation. and something new needs to be done about it.
I know that making bullying illegal is like making illegal music downloads illegal. You can maybe bust ringleaders but plenty of lesser offenders will get away with it. I can see that you then have to define what is bullying and what is teasing and identify what is just a part of growing up and what is not.
But something has to be done, because one fourteen-year-old boy killing himself because of the unlove of others is one fourteen-year-old boy too many.
My prayers are with the family of Jamey Rodemeyer and for the heartbreaking amount of kids who completely relate to his struggle.
