This is really, really sad. 13 year old, Hope Witsell committed suicide because so many kids were bullying her and calling her a "whore" or "slut." One of Hope's friend said that Hope couldn't even walk in the hallway without someone pushing or shoving her into a locker. The reason for all this bullying was that Hope had sent a sexual picture of herself to her boyfriend. Well, another girl got her hands on the photo and sent it to SIX different schools in the area. Kids started to create a Burn Book (like the one from Mean Girls) to write wretched things about Hope. They also created facebook page called "Hope Hater Page." Throughout all of this, Hope kept quiet and didn't say a word.
Then, on a Saturday, Hope went up to her room after helping her father mow the lawn and hanged herself. Hope's mother went up and saw her 13 year old daughter dead. Apparently the school made Hope sign a "no harm" contract which would make Hope talk to an adult if she felt like harming herself. Hope's mother said that she was never aware of this contract.
After all of this, Hope's older sister, Samantha Beattie, found out that the bullying had not stopped even though Hope had committed suicide because of it. Kids were taking to their facebooks saying "Did Hope really kill herself?" and "I can't believe that whore did that."
Dear Lord! This is absolutely wretched. I don't understand why all these kids are so concerned with what Hope is doing. I don't understand why they would do that to a 13 year old girl. It's none of their business. What's worse is that they didn't stop after she died! They still went after her. That's what put this over the top. The poor girl felt that death was her only escape, and after this tragic death, they still had the AUDACITY to say these wretched, horrendous things.
Why do you think kids are willing to hurt other kids and send private things like these and make them public? Why didn't these kids stop after she died?
Man oh man, please, please, please don't post provocative pictures up! And if you do, always make sure you know what you're doing and that it won't end up in the wrong hands.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
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7 comments:
What can I say? I believe this just goes to show the depravity of human nature. There's certainly no rational explanation for why children would act so cruelly. I don't think anything will keep such evil from turning up in different forms again and again.
It's sad and cruel, and it shouldn't happen. Maybe if good people worked harder for love and justice, it could help to keep such evil in check.
I am sad... and with a name like Hope.
That's just wrong on so many levels.
No matter how "hella" extreme this maybe, this is a case of immaturity. not good vs. evil.
It's a lot to expect from kids, whether its preteens or even from are age, to be strong minded and fully understand the repercussions of things we do. What started out as something as trivial as being cute and tryna be at it with your boyfriend/girlfriend blew up way out of proportion via mischievous fun&entertainment. but then it was even further magnified with facebook and lack of support for Hope.
On the camera photo though, ever watch timothy delaghetto? the number 1 rule of dic pics --> cut off your face from the photo
-Raymond Lim
First of all, putting pictures of yourself at all on the internet is not a good idea. Second, I think I may have roughly addressed why kids hurt each other. Sometimes we can just be monsters.
Jack, the issue is not that good people are not working. The problem is that the people in between are keeping silent. I'd be more ashamed for the silent witnesses, and how many people could have decided to break the chain off but didn't out of fear of being "uncool," or whatever. And yes, this is really sad. But people will be people, and why anybody actually LIKES anybody else surprises me more than when they hate each other.
Raymond, not to be argumentative, but I personally believe that this was a case of evil, although I also personally believe that evil is immature.
In the past few years, I've been noticing many more stories in the media about teen suicides due to bullying. I don't know if this means that more bullying is going on - it could just be that the media is covering more of these stories and bringing more of them to our attention. Either way, the growing trend is extremely disturbing.
I saw this article on Yahoo!, and it reminded me of this blog post. The stories in this article aren't from sending sexual photos, like what happened to Hope, but they are all tragic stories of teen suicide and bullying in a suburban Ohio school.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101008/ap_on_re_us/us_bullying_one_town
I guess people have nothing better to do so they decide to all bully and go after her at once. Some of it might also be peer pressure maybe? If your friend decided to not like this person and bully them, you might possibly start doing the same thing to "fit in" with everyone so you don't feel left out. But seriously, people shouldn't bully someone to this extent...if she passed away already why would you even want to continue making fun of her? People these days don't appreciate others as much as they should.
In response to Sarah's comment, I would say that bullying is probably not an exponentially growing problem, but rather a persistent one that is rightfully receiving more attention from the media.
Although bullying may partially stem from immaturity, as Raymond indicated, I believe there are many other important factors at work. Generally, I think bullies act on their insecurities, perceptions of society and conformity, and an innate desire to be more important than others (which might tie in with Jack's idea of the innate depravity of human nature––we are all programmed, to some extent, to want to succeed more than our neighbors). Through personal experience, I can attest that bullying is greatest when teenagers are taking on new, unfamiliar responsibilities that can leave them wanting a way to vent their anger and/or feel like their inadequacies are nakedly exposed. These emotions do not even have to be extreme; what is the real killer here is the culture and expectation of conformity and bullying in school. It seems like making friends by ridiculing a scapegoat is socially acceptable in many schools, and the friction that this creates just fuels future conflict. As the Japanese proverb goes, "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down."
While silent by-standers are guilty of inaction, one must keep in mind that they, too, are in a way victims of bullying and the struggle to conform (all though not nearly as much as the person being bullied, of course). We cannot expect the solution to come from bystanders sacrificing their own lives for the bullied, which would just fuel the bullies (this, however, is not to say that by-standers should not take action). Rather, a better approach would be to focus on the bullies and to make sure they understand that bullying is neither a form of self-assertion nor empowerment. The self-perpetuating bullying culture must be eradicated if the bullying problem is to improve. Of course, this is much easier said than done, and there is probably no magic solution to the problem.
This whole conversation reminds me of one quote:
Inaction is perhaps the greatest mistake of all.
I think that the worst thing anyone can do when something like this is happening is stand by and let it continue. At the same time, however, I agree with Peter; the problem doesn't stem from those who remain inactive, it stems from the bullies who instigate the issues. In our contemporary day, there are no clear rules about what is appropriate online, and there are few laws. In my opinion, the only way to stop these tragedies is to change public opinion and make it crystal clear to youngsters that rude and offensive language and behavior is not appropriate, online or off.
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