School Bullying Getting Severe

I want to warn those of you with weak stomaches not to continue to read this, it will grow very disturbing. What is school bullying? I thought I knew what school bullying was after my son was bullied at school when he attended the third grade. His teacher actually allowed other boys to

follow him into the bathroom and beat him up, I didn’t know until a few weeks later. We’ve since moved, however the memory will last forever. But this morning my husband sent me an email with a link to an article called “School bullying grows from silent battle to crime” which was very disturbing.

I know that schools are becoming more violent, I mean kids are bringing guns to school and shooting each other. But today you hear about girls being raped and what surprised me was this article talked about a boy being raped. Not just raped though, when this boy lost a game the team members held him down and raped him using a broom stick. How awful?

Here’s the article from USA Today:

In a Tampa middle school locker room, prosecutors say four flag football players held down a younger teammate and committed a horrifying assault: Raping him with a hockey stick and a broom handle.

“Don’t do it again or this is going to happen to you again,” a witness says he heard one of the boys say in the April attack.

Oh my gosh, I can’t picture being the parent to the child that was raped. It gets worse though. First though I want to know what you would do if you found out this happened to your child? I imagine a lot are thinking I’d kill them, or I’d sue them, press charges, etc. Am I right? As a parent you want to protect your child and this is one of the worst crimes I could possibly imagine. It is hard enough growing up, going to school especially if you are the victim of a bully but to be raped by someone or multiple people at school. I can’t even finish that. You see where I’m at on that. I can’t stand a person that would do this to another.

The article goes on to tell us that 32% of students between 12-18 experience bullying of one type. This could be stuff like emotional, where kids are just calling them names, cyber bullying, passing notes, being punched to of course rape and death. The bad part is many of us parents won’t even know, at least not until it has been happening for a period of time. There are signs, but sometimes even those go unnoticed. It isn’t because we don’t care but kids these days are quiet and can hold things in.

The victim’s parents did take this matter to court I’m happy to say. The suspects as they call them are being charged with sexual battery. I think this is a great thing to charge them with, I’d suggest more but the courts feel that their age should be looked at. Many were shocked because the “suspects” were a police officer’s child and then honor students. But it was the dad that was angry his son couldn’t come to him. I want to know my kids can always come to me, whether it is a teacher making fun of them, someone picking on them or much worse. School bullying should NOT be tolerated. What do you think?

Want to know one more thing? One of the students that raped the boy is now asking for help to pay for his defense. The four boys that raped the 13-year-old-boy have a bond of $15,000 and a 7 p.m. curfew. Yes, they are allowed to be free until they are either found guilty or released, in the meantime this young boy must go about his daily life knowing they are out there. Each boy does have to wear and electronic device to locate them and they are being charged with an adult crime, which means if found guilty they will have to register as a sex offender. I agree with this and think that if they do this type of crime now it is more than likely it could happen again, so it is best for them to register.

TampaBay.com:

(I won’t name names), age 15, can’t afford to hire experts or pay other expenses needed to defend against multiple counts of sexual battery, said Lanell Williams, who represents (one of the boys) for free.

One of the fathers had this to say about his son: (one of the suspects that is)

“He’s a normal son any father would be proud to have. He is innocent of these allegations.”

What do you think about that?