Bullying has taken on a whole new life in the age of social media. Whereas children were safe from their bullies once they left school, now social media allows bulliest to constantly torment their victims through a variety of virtual mediums.
What’s even worse is that some schools refuse to step in.
And what’s even worse than that is that some parents refuse to take responsibility for their children’s actions and enable their children to keep abusing others.
Which kind of makes sense because if these parents properly cared for their children they probably wouldn’t be bullies in the first place. Afterall, hurt people hurt people, but parent Leigh Davey’s story is just absolutely tragic.
Her 12-year-old daughter was being bullied at school to the point where she was self-harming and had a suicide plan. Davey herself was even receiving harassing phone calls from these bullies.
The school district and parents of the bullies either refused to take action or inadequately addressed the situation by imposing meager punishments like taking away recess.
In her desperation, Davey made a post on Facebook begging people to take bullying seriously and asked parents of bullies to impose real consequences on their children to end this horrible affliction plaguing our children and schools.
She calls on parents to check their children’s devices and social media accounts to make sure they are being respectful and to teach their children to talk instead of using text and social media to discuss their differences.
Parents have the power to revoke the privilege of using these mediums from their children and seem as if they would be a pretty good way to actually get through to their children.
Davey’s post ended up going viral with many commenting on the post with words of support and even sharing their own experiences with being bullied or having their children being bullied.
Here’s Davey’s full post:
“Our beautiful girl has been subjected to some awful bullying at school. It’s been a very private 7 months for us, dealing with this, immediate family only.
In this age of social media, children (because they are children) think it’s ok to send hateful messages (to me also along with their parents who won’t take responsibility) without consequences. I’ve had calls from these children calling me an old hag because I’ve defended our daughter, approached parents and pleaded with them to talk with their children and ask them to stop. I’ve even approached the children themselves, but been threatened by parents with harassment.
“The WA Department of education doesn’t expel children from schools for bullying, as they say: ‘Every child is entitled to an education.’
What about our child’s entitlement?”
“She’s been sent home numerous times after self-harming at school. She’s not allowed a pencil sharpener as she takes the blade out and cuts herself.
The WA Department of education also told me: ‘You should teach your child how to be resilient against bullies.’ Yes, they said that.
Our girl has had a video taken of her sitting at her desk at school, legs slightly open, with a lovely caption about the smell. It was posted to snapchat. I spent 90 mins with the police as they tried to determine if it was photographing and distribution of pornographic material. Yes, a 12 year old can be prosecuted if the content breaches certain criteria.
Sadly our daughter’s didn’t, but she was subjected to weeks of ridicule. Repercussions? The girl who posted the video lost her playtime. The person who took the video? Nothing, because no one would tell who it was.”
“It’s ok to verbally attack at school because they can get away with it via a screen; so think the same will happen in the real world.
Last week, we spent over 5 hours in A&E with psychiatrists, doctors, and nurses, because our girl ‘had a plan to commit suicide’. On Tuesday, I am in court applying for a VRO against a 12-year-old to keep her (the bully) away from our beautiful girl—all because parents don’t accept responsibility for their children and schools can only do so much.
The school has a safety plan for the bullied child, our daughter. And the bully? She only loses recess and lunch privileges. This is infant school punishment!
Please, in this awful age of social media (or anti-social media as we call it) check your children’s messages. Their devices are a privilege, nothing more, nothing less, so please make sure they are being polite and respectful in their messages. Teach the children to ‘talk’ not use text or social media to air their differences.
Bullying affects the whole family, not just the bullied. It needs to stop and it needs to stop now! Please feel free to share.”
You can find resources on how to deal with and prevent bullying at www.stopbullying.gov.
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