Jeez, what a load of bullshit.

Seriously, I doubt anybody kills themselves because of IMs and messages they've received from "bullies". Much less "Cyberbullies". I don't think anybody's that hypersensitive to what other people say, and I certainly don't think people are that ridiculous as to take such drastic measures.

I think it's clear and safe to say that the parents must not have been very good at all to let this go on for so long. Either that or the child is unbelievably quiet and didn't bring up a word about it. Either way, the parents should have figured that something was up.

Seriously, this kid reeks of "emo-ism". Who the hell in their right mind takes death willingly?

Douche indeed.

The cycle would go something like:

Bullying-->resentment-->pressure-->explosion-->Columbine-->fear-->misunderstanding-->paranoia-->reaction--
-->bullying-->resentment-->pressure-->explosion-->Columbine-->fear...

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Of course, what would help is for schools to actually PUNISH BULLIES for starting shit and support the kids who they're currently having too much fun expelling on grounds of sticking up for themselves. "Zero tolerance" laws are a great, big, steaming pile. But noooooooooo, we can't expel the high school football hero two weeks before the regional championships, can we? What ever would Coach do?

Honestly, though, cyber-bullying? Gimme a fucking break. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of XHTML can put together some shitty website ragging on a classmate. Anyone with a knowledge of CSS can do the same and it might even look less shitty.

Of course, anyone with a knowledge of port scanning, buffer overflows, and other exploits can turn the tables in a heartbeat, so I guess I shouldn't bitch too much. REVENGE OF THE NERDS, BITCHES.

Seriously, though, it bears mentioning that what kids do on their own time in their own homes is NONE OF THE SCHOOL'S GODDAMN BUSINESS. I remember laughing to myself when I had to attend a "mandatory" meeting for all first-years at my high school about their extracurricular disciplinary requirements. Basically it said that you weren't allowed to partake in any extracurricular activities (clubs, sports, etc.) if you were found drinking, using illegal drugs, etc. at any time, on school grounds or off. Of course, to those of us who just wanted to take classes at school and had better things to do with their day, like work or study more academics, the entire thing was a huge joke. Quote me studies on emotional duress, developmental psychology, or what-have-you until you're blue in the face, but as far as I'm concerned, anything that extends the power of schools into the home even one iota is unwelcome and needs to be shot down like a Titan missile headed for your favourite pub. Schools can do what they like on their own grounds, but once my kids are home, they are MINE and school officials can kindly fuck off.

Of course, while on the topic of my (would-be) kids, this all is to say nothing of the hell that will become their lives if I ever find them on the giving end of bullying, and my wrath is a thousand times worse than that of any high-school counselor, therapist, principal or other official.

...Damn. Now I see my lady's point about not wanting kids.

My point is, those kids had had enough and did something about it. Some kill themselves, some kill others, some decide playing practical jokes work. But, they DO something that is NOT normal for them.

Like I said, living was the best revenge I could come up with.

Well, I mean, I hate to say this, but shouldn't the parents kind of communicated with their kids about school?

At the same time, some kids WILL take it to another level. But thats not the norm. The majority of us realize "yea, this is stupid" and get over name-calling and cruelty. I mean, how many of us look back and say "HOLY HELL, I AM GOING TO FIX SO-AND-SO for calling me a cum-guzzling FAGGOT?" I hope none of us.

And yea, these are kids. But name-calling (be it on the internet, in the classroom, on the schoolyard or on the bus) should not be taken as seriously as some kids take it.

Those kids should communicate to their parents (ESPECIALLY elementary school kids, since they're not rebellious teens who HATE their parents) that they're having some trouble in school.

Revenge is necessary for name-calling?

Used to be if someone started shit with you, you'd just pop them in the eye, and then they'd leave you alone.

But kids aren't allowed to do that anymore. It's grounds for being expelled now. Which makes verbal abuse all the more tantalizing to a bully, and efficient as a form of ostracizing someone.

I never said it was over name-calling. I said it was over being picked on. This included physical contact like spitting. Ever been spit on? Not only is it disgusting, but it's meant to degrade a person's self-esteem.

Which didn't work because I knew that I would leave them behind. I would live my life as I wanted, where I wanted. I am nowhere near my hometown. In fact, I'm 2 states away.

So, when I say I have my revenge, I mean I didn't let what they said get to me.

PS: I couldn't do anything to anyone because my mom was the truant officer....

I have. Not by classmates, though~

Physical fights aren't going to answer to anything these days, though. Skex is right - usually a throw down would work (in the old days), but its usually the weaker guys and gals who get picked on.

Depends on your maturity level, though. I mean, seriously. You see people calling others a fag, a dyke, a WHATEVER in school, you COULD stand up for them and risk being cast out yourself (have done). If you're the one being picked on, just ignore it - there's an entire "cast out" table in the cafeteria at lunch time. I am SURE a lot of folks here have been through this, since it's a huge community of huge NERDS. <3

But, I mean, if you're a little kid, why don't you tell your parents?

And let's not forget that the boy in the article was 13. In some states, that's middle school/junior high. In others, it's elementary school, eighth grade, and you're king of the school.

He was a teen-ager. By the age of 13, most kids are out of the "Mom! Johnny's picking on me!" stage, and try to deal with things their own way.

And Devo's right.

"Your mom talked to my mom. I'm grounded because of you! You think it was bad before? It's going to be worse!"

For all we know, the kids could have threatened him.

What exactly do you want us to say? Generic denouncement of bullies? Sympathy for someone who commits suicide over something that's ultimately trivial?

Are we supposed to all parrot out your opinion or what?

I don't think it was ultimately trivial, or he wouldn't have committed suicide to deal with it. There's a reason he was affected by this, and I don't think "Different strokes for different folks" covers it.

I'm not sure I see the connection. Ignoring insults suggests only apathy for the opinions of other people to me.

I imagine it depends on what you think is trivial, I suppose. I don't consider insults and social ostracizing important enough to stake your life on, but I can see why somebody else would, I guess.

I'm not sure what you're saying here. Does "sucking it up" lead to kids being assholes to each other or having breakdowns?

I think they covered this case on E! about the horrors of the internet not two days ago. The kid had a huge number of different screen names. The parents thought he was fine because he always spent a lot of time on the internet. So when he comes home and then gets online, no big deal. They didn't know there was a problem until after they read his chat logs, after he died. I know parents nowadays aren't exactly the most aware species on the planet, but I think it's going over-board to expect them to regularly invade the privacy of their children to the point where they monitor their conversations?

The problem (not saying it was a big one) was that these people at school were spreading rumors to the rest of the school. It's not like he was taking shit from just a few people, and given the number of screen names he created, it's reasonable to assume he WAS trying to avoid the harassment.

Another aspect that wasn't covered in the article was that this kid was trying to get some from the girls at the school. One in particular led him on and then basically told him he was a worthless shit. So, you know, not only is he being called gay, but now no girl will talk to him. He just hit puberty. I can see how that would suck.

Of course, I'm not exactly defending him. Just throwing some more information out there for all the snide comments about how easily this kid could have fixed things or how terrible the parents were for not paying attention to their kid.

Well that's to be considered as well, he may well have been gay and was confused or something about it.

... I'm sorta at an odd stance with this, on the one hand, he shouldn't have become an hero over some punk calling him a fag online, but on the other side, if there was a greater tolerance or acceptance of other sexual orientations, this probably would have never come up in the first place.

One clear factor that might have prevented this was parental supervision. A kid who just grew pubic hair and is cracking his voice does not know the finer nuances of internet trolling, nor would he probably realize (and this case IS different as it is also a problem for him IRL) that Trolls feed on pain, anger & all that.

Well, chalk this one up to Darwin I guess.

Nobody kills themselves to escape bullying, whether at school or on the computer. This kid did not kill himself because some assholes he knew were calling him gay. There is undoubtedly much more going on with this kid, just like there was with the kids who shot up their schools.

I'm not saying that bullying doesn't make things worse, but anyone who kills his or herself, or someone else for that matter, is dealing with bigger problems.

Junior high and high school seems like the world when you're at that age. You can try to make an argument that he should have been able to cope with it better (for whatever reason), but I don't think you can make the argument that it wasn't important to him, unless he was just grossly maladjusted to begin with.

Suicide is a way of dealing with situations in which people think there's no way out. If the only consistent locations in your life are home and school, and one of them is hostile, well...

Right, if his school life was hostile (and following him home in the form of "cyberbullying"), then his home life (his parents) should have been there to help him cope with it. Or maybe he had some mental health problems that went untreated. Who knows?

My point was that he didn't kill himself solely because of bullying, as people who accuse him of "emoness" or whatever ridiculous shit are suggesting. No one who actually goes through with suicide does so because they got dumped or because someone made fun of them. This whole "kill yourself, emo kid" thing is a load of bullshit that gives people an excuse to trivialize suicide.

I'd like to think that everyone can take things in their proper context, and never become emotionally distraught over relatively small stuff, but the point I was trying to make was that it's possible for people to crash when all the small stuff adds up to seem overwhelming.

Agreed, though.

Nuff said.

Most parents wouldn't even know their kids were cyberbullies and e-badasses.