Cyber bullying and suicide

MoFree

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/us/suicide-of-girl-after-bullying-raises-worries-on-web-sites.html?pagewanted=all&src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB Stories like this one scare the crap out of me. I cannot imagine the torture and sense of hopeless a 12 year old had to feel to take her own life. I also cannot imagine the despair and anger her mother is experiencing and will for the rest of her life. Who raises monsters with no humanity or empathy? Are parents raising a generation of psychopaths? I don't know how I can protect my daughter from being a victim or being part of a group where humiliating their peers is a sport. Your thoughts.

zbeesma86

It's horrible.

While we all worry about our kids being victims of bullying-- ever wonder, what if my kid is the bully?!

THIS is why my daughter will probably hate me in her teens- I will monitor her social networking (twitter, facebook, myspace (is that still around?)) and she will have a Jitterbug phone where she can call 911, me, DH, and maybe a few friends... does this make me crazy? Probably.. but I am going to try to protect her as much as I can.

shakinros

That is so sad. I feel so bad for this girl and her family. I think it's too much though to assume that other middle schoolers are nature enough to understand the enormity of what they're doing. Yes, these kids shouldn't be bullying at all, but they're not capable yet of understanding the full consequences of how their actions affect another person. It's on the parents of the bullies as much as the parents of the victims to keep the school environment safe.

rp-chicago-mom

That's just awful. It makes me want to be a nicer person. Whoever says being a kid isn't hard clearly has forgotten that they have the same amount of worry we do. It's worry about different things but that does not make it any less real. Those poor parents. I just can't think of things like this. You have this wonderful, vibrant child...gone at her own hands because of torture. 

gollywollypog

Horrible. 

The best I can do is try to teach my kids to be the ones who stand up for the underdog and stand up to bullies. 

So, so sad.

CourtneyEeps

Terrible. Children can be so cruel and with the social media available today, it's even easier to hurt/ridicule/humliate somebody in every way possible.

Mrs. Rohde

This type of stuff worries me every day I drop C off at school. She tells me when kids are being "bossy"-which I think of as "bully" in my head-and thankfully she goes to the teachers right away. Just last week she told me how a friend of hers was picking on a smaller kid from the younger preschool class and "being a boss" and "yelling" and "being mean at him". I asked her what happened and she said that she told the little boy that he didn't have to listen to her and he could play there. She said "I made him feel better because he looked sad." I am so proud of my daughter. This is not the first time she has shown empathy towards others and I know it won't be the last. I am so proud that she knew to stand up for that little boy and go against her own friend.

amaite

In response to the question of who raises monsters with no humanity or empathy, this is a site that i happened to read today, and i find many of the comments by supposed parents to be horrifying.

https://childparenting.about.com/b/2011/03/10/2617.htm

Knowing that some students are being raised by people like that, it's not surprising that bullying takes place when children are being taught that their wants are more important than someone else's life.

Eta: I posted wrong link first time around