Showing posts with label fair-play. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fair-play. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Being bullied is no fun

They bullied a girl so much she took her life

I was saddened when I heard the news about Phoebe Prince, the 15 year old Hadley, Mass. girl who committed suicide after being bullied. At first, I wondered how being talked about could result in a suicide; then I read the facts.

There were nine youth charged for bullying her. They participated in "a nearly-three-month campaign" of verbal assaults and physical threats against Phoebe. Phoebe's picture was scribbled out of a student-body photo hanging on a classroom wall. The bullies slammed her on Face book and sent her mean text messages. The attacks culminated on the day of her death in a "torturous day" during which Phoebe was harassed in the library, in the hallways, and walking down the street on her way home. On the afternoon of her death, a few of them reportedly drove by her while she walked home, shouted "Irish slut" and "Irish whore," and threw a soda at her.

She couldn't take it anymore.

I remember being bullied in school. I was short and nerdy. It was easy to crack on me. I felt bad even though I was not suicidal.

Often youth don't think how their actions make others feel. Everyone wants to be accepted, approved and to some degree assimilated. None of us like personal attacks.

There is a verse in Matthew 7:12 that says, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."

Maybe the bullies who pushed Phoebe to her death by their taunts should have learned the lesson of Matthew 7:12