Bullying Claims A Life

I was writing another post when I had to stop and go pick my kids up from the bus stop. I had every intention on coming home and continuing writing that post but I decided to switch gears because of some news that Nishe’ and Tyler brought home to me. They handed me a letter. Now I know when we get letters such as this it carries some kind of news. I was not prepared for what the news was though.

It turns out that one of the 8th grade students had passed away. If that wasn’t sad enough my heart broke even more when Nishe’ told me what happened. She said that the student committed suicide due to being bullied at school. I just didn’t know what to say. I’ve heard of stories like this on the news. I always felt bad for the parents, the siblings, & students. I never thought about something like this happening so close to home. Don’t get me wrong I knew it could happen but just didn’t want it to. I had absolutely no idea what to say to my children especially Nishe’. She had classes with the young man. While she wasn’t super close to him he and her had some interaction over the years. Both have been in school from 6th to 8th grade. So she had some classes with him and they spoke to each other on occasion. So she goes from seeing someone practically every day to not at all. My baby cried herself into a headache. Then she told me that even after the news got out about why the young man did what he did that students were telling horrible jokes. Like he killed himself because he couldn’t have a Twinkie. I don’t known if that is how they deal with their emotions but that is a horrible way to handle it either way. This young man was just in school the other day and then he is suddenly gone.

I took the opportunity to not only comfort my children but to also remind them that they come talk to their dad and I about any problems that they are having. I told them that we would do our best to help them as much as we can. We have no problem sitting down and listening to them. I also reminded them about the steps they should take to handle bullying.

1. Ignore them and walk away. I always tell my kids to ignore because I’ve learned giving any type of reaction will encourage them to keep going sometimes ignoring them does the same thing because their main goal is to get a reaction.
2. Tell a school staff
3. Tell us (the parents)

Continue to repeat these steps. I want my kids to be safe more than ever now. I want for them to know that they have people they can come talk to. My prayers are with the student and his family. I wonder if bullying is the only reason this young man made the decision he made. Either way it is a major factor and he was just too young too leave this earth. I am just literally beside myself scared now. Please keep this young man’s family in your prayers and take this opportunity to talk to your children about how to handle bullying and to help others if they can. This is why I ask my kids about their day every day and if I feel there is something they are telling me I encourage them to talk about it or if they can’t tell their dad or I directly to write it down. I just want to keep the lines of communication open.