Articles

Article one- Questions for school on Bullying and a Suicide

This past January a tragedy unfolded in a Massachusetts high school. A teenage girl, who had recently relocated to the United States from Ireland, committed suicide by hanging her self at home as a result of being bullied and pushed around in school. This is a scene becoming far too familiar in our schools today as studies show a huge incline in teenage suicide over the past five years. What makes this case eerily similar to others across the country is that it happened as a result of bullying. Bullying that could have been prevented if officials acted properly and saw signs of emotional disturbances as serious ones, instead of assuming harmless high school drama was at fault of such disturbances. When news surfaced that a teenage girl committed suicide, school officials instantly began to come up with ways to defend the school. According to one school official, “Tragedies can still occur.”   Now this was said when asked about the preventative measures taken to ensure school bullying is properly addressed. The school insists that it did all it could have done to prevent such a tragedy, however the parents of the victims don’t agree with that one bit. In fact, the victim’s mother tells how she contacted the school not once, but twice to address her daughter’s issues that were stemming from being picked on, and bullied in school. She never got a clear answer but was reassured by officials that all bullying complaints are taken very serious. When the investigation began into why a seemingly accomplished student would take their own life, witnesses provided certain facts that could prove the school did not take the proper steps in preventing this tragedy. People came forward and admitted seeing the student in distress, at least three months prior the incident. Opening up questions aimed toward school officials to figure out whether or not they did indeed act properly when dealing with complaints of being...