I read an article last year about bullying and the potentially fatal results it could have upon a child/teenager. A mom, Tammy Epling, was the feature story of this article about how teenage bullying, she believes, caused her son’s suicide.
Matt, a happy athletic eight grader, graduated from middle school and was bullied by some high-schoolers in unmentionable, horrific, and humiliating ways. This seemed to be a right of passage for many boys of this age going into high school. He was voted the funniest classmate with the best smile however, in spite of his many accomplishments he was found dead in his home about six weeks later…suicide.
His parents, Tammy and Kevin, believe that Matt felt betrayed by the people he knew who lured him into the situation and then once it was reported to police, felt that it was given little attention to discipline the other boys or any action to prevent it from happening again.
Tammy has generated House Bill 4162, known as Matt’s Safe School law, which would require all school districts to adopt an anti-bullying, anti-harrassment policy. To read more about this see the resources box below.
Here is some informaiton about how to detect bullying and how to handle it as it was written in the article.
HOW TO FIGURE OUT IF YOUR CHILD IS BEING BULLIED:
- Look for sudden changes in academic performance.
- Note if your child is often losing or missing things after school, or if clothing is damaged. Bullying can invlove taking or breaking a child’s belongings, so a bully can stablish power or control.
HOW TO PREVENT BULLYING:
- Talk with your child about the subject. “If it comes up on a show, chat about it,” Stutzky says.
- Step up and say stop. If someone speaks up when bullying is witnessed, and a second person also speaks up, “in over 50% of the cases, the bullying stops,” Stutky says. Phrases to use: “Stop it. It’s not funny. We don’t do that at this school.”
WHAT TO DO ABOUT CYBER-BULLYING:
- FOR CHILDREN: Do not respond to harassing messages. Be careful to whom you give your online handle. Report harassment to school officials or parents.
- FOR PARENTS: Talk aobut cyber-byullying with your kids, supervise cell phone and internet use. Buy software that records instant messages.”
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