photo credit: woodleywonderworks

I was saddened to read this report today about the death of a young girl, bullied to death, in that she took her own life after the school did not act against the bullies. It made me think though about duty of care, bullying, parental intervention and a whole plethora of associated issues.

Bullying may be a contributing factor to someone’s suicide, but there are also those of us who were bullied to within an inch of our lives and have lived to tell the tale, so what makes the difference?

The school is of course correct in formulating a zero tolerance policy, but again it’s after the horse has bolted, and won’t prevent other people from taking their own lives from peer pressure, or the pressures of daily life.

Some people, without being derogatory, are more sensitive than others, have more needs and react differently to what would be perceived as normal, which is, to man up and deal with it.  Some people just can’t do that, for whatever reason.

So through this policy, I see a crack of light, that maybe policy is changing to accommodate for those that cannot defend themselves, however we cannot lose sight of the fact that there were many more factors that contributed to this

girl’s death than just the bullying.  She did not have support around her to help her deal with the bullying and as harsh as it is to say, something else had made her weak, or unable to defend herself, unable to stand up for herself in that she let someone else take all of her power, her self esteem.

Is it the bully’s fault?  Partly.  Is it our fault for letting this girl slip through the cracks and ignore the pain she was in? Yes, someone let her go, didn’t intervene, refused to act.

This bullying policy is one action, but it has to backed up by our united actions, to not only have zero tolerance, but to bend down and pick those up who have already been nearly trodden to death.

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