Saturday, October 17, 2009

Bullying Needs to Stop - When School Bullies Turn to Violence

I was horrified when I watched the interview with the mother whose 15-year old son was burned by a pack of bullies at his school. This week a young boy in Florida was set on fire by fellow classmates/bullies because they were mad at him for snitching on them. The pack of boys allegedly stole the victim's father's bike.

My youngest sister was bullied when she was in junior high. As a result, my mom threatened to sue the school if the kids weren't at least suspended. The parents of these kids didn't even care. It sickened me when this happened to my sister, and luckily it didn't escalate into horrifying violence such as this young boy experienced.

I hope Florida tries these boys as adults (it sounds like they are leaning towards that sentence). I also think they should put the parents of these boys on trial too. How did they raise a pack of brutal, violent criminals? It's disgusting that these boys haven't even reached 18-years old yet and they think it was "okay" to set a young boy/another human being on fire.

I won't get into the impact of media violence and video games because that's a tired issue, and has been picked apart for years. The sad part is that the mom and the school were working together to set up a meeting with how to handle these bullies. However, it came a day too late . The young boy was ambushed at his home this week and set on fire by the other boys.

Bullying has to stop in schools. There should be absolutely zero tolerance and these kids should be expelled as soon as they show violent/bullying tendencies. We've had enough heartache and bloodshed in American schools - Columbine, Virginia Tech, etc.

My heart goes out to this young boy who is fighting for his life in a Florida hospital right now (and to his family).

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