http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2635557/9yearold_boy_found_hanged_at_school.html

I attended grade school at Stewart’s Creek Elementary for three years… when I discovered this article several months ago, it made my blood run cold. I was held back in the first grade here. When I was bullied at this school, my father told me to fight back, but he didn’t teach me how, when, or why this was so important. His advice, although remiss of detail, is just as valuable now as it was then. However, when I fought back, I was sent to the principal’s office and was subjected to corporal punishment. I am consistently amazed by how much the issue of bullying boils down to the influences in family, and authority, more than simply peers. It’s a side of the story I don’t think most who haven’t survived the actual experience of being bullied, even perceive.

I’ve read a lot of articles about this incident, and perhaps the most perplexing conundrum of Montana Lance’s suicide is that he had been sent to the principal’s office prior to his body being discovered in the restroom. It doesn’t require a psychology degree to determine that the triggering factor in his death may be not only the bullying of peers, but worse yet, whatever “discipline” or “punishment” may be awaiting him from the hands which pull the strings: adults. 

The Department of Education’s recently released, super-special 10 page letter on harassment and bullying is little more than a farce, an obligatory consolation to the backlash of grief and outrage over the suicides which have occured with increased frequency. A cunning cover of issues which they have contributed to for countless years. Simply put, corporal punishment needs to be specifically abolished in all schools, including private institutions, and childcare facilities.

Here’s the operative message: ”Go ahead~ stand up for yourself, WE dare you, because when you do… WE~ the authority, will simply slap you back into place, our place.” This place has special tests, and labels, will likely be noted on your academic record as “a history of behavioral difficulties”. Once this occurs, the survivor becomes viewed as an incredible witness, is discounted so the volume is turned down on reality and truth… it seems like it should be fiction. But this is really happening, and it’s causing the epidemic of bullying to compound itself.

I know how this works, I’ve seen and experienced it firsthand, so many times. Looking back at my life, I can see that just because I survived, doesn’t mean that I lived. And respectively, just because I lived doesn’t mean I was able to thrive. Everyone deserves to be able to thrive. However, not everyone knows how~ from the time we are young it becomes hardwired into us. The expectation, a notion to run to authority for some definition of justice. When I did so~ as my mother had advised… I learned the value of silence. A cost which could never have determined its worth.

Is the U.S. Department of Education’s letter from the Office of Civil Rights, a good start…? Sure. Will anything actually change until they are able to look in the mirror and address the influence(s) of corporal punishment, and family dynamics which are contributing to the patterns of bullying…? Unlikely.