A definition of Bullying

AJ Betts

Looking at this picture you would think that this youngster didn't have a care in the world.  But looks are deceiving.  On Monday morning I read one of the first posts on Facebook about his suicide. It linked to an article from KCCI. He is the fifth student from that school to commit suicide in the past five years. Something is wrong at S. E. Polk.  Something is wrong in a lot of schools.
Bulling which leads to suicide is murder.  Plain and simple - murder. Just as if you took a gun and killed someone. This school has an epidemic of this happening. It cannot be excused. I must not be "swept under the rug" -- The Principal cannot speak about it.  Perhaps because he has not stopped the climate of bullying in his school.  Is he culpable?

A bright young 16 year old who had helped others to get through their own rough spots and helped them to not commit suicide but in the end he could not help himself.  The others in his school who found out he was gay and decided to persecute him by bullying him with words were just as guilty as if they had taken a gun and shot him.

A young man in this society fueled with hatred from all sides (particularly from many so called Christians) who has been taught that he is not worth much by those around him in his peer group does not stop to think what his actions will do to his family.  They can love him but sometimes he cannot see that because his peers have taught him that he is not worthy of love. Sometimes it looks like it would be easier to just end it all.

He did not know that others who never met him would read about this death, would listen to his mother talk, would look at his picture.  He would not know that we would find this story heartbreaking. That we would care, for him, for his family and his friends.  He would not know that others were also hurt by barbs from people. Not about the same things but any time anybody puts someone else down for any reason it hurts.  The death of a thousand cuts was a particularly nasty way of torturing a person to death.  Bullying is also a torture which can lead to death and today when I read AJ's story it came to me that what those bullies did to him was like that nasty torture and that it was murder. I will mourn for him and for all those who died because of being bullied.  If you want to learn more click on the stop bullying button on the right.

And I hope that somebody will force the school to do more to address the problem.  Are they afraid of the students that they allow them to engage in this type of behavior. Or are they just so unconscious that they do not know what is happening in the halls of academia. Principals and teachers who allow bullying to happen are also guilty of being accessory to murder.

I suppose some people will disagree with this conclusion but Wikipedia defines Murder as - " the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human, and generally this premeditated state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide ..."  Bullying fits all of those requirements and plain and simple it is murder and should be prosecuted as such.