A woman took to Facebook to share the story of how her daughter who was bullied by classmates ended up in the hospital.
Leigh Davey’s story was shared by Love What Matters on its Facebook page.
“Our beautiful girl has been subjected to some awful bullying at school. It’s been a very private 7 months for us, dealing with this, immediate family only,” Davey explained.
She added: “In this age of social media, children (because they are children) think it’s ok to send hateful messages (to me also along with their parents who won’t take responsibility) without consequences. I’ve had calls from these children calling me an old hag because I’ve defended our daughter, approached parents and pleaded with them to talk with their children and ask them to stop. I’ve even approached the children themselves, but been threatened by parents with harassment.”
The department of education in her state, the mother, explained, doesn’t expel students for bullying because “every child is entitled to an education.”
“What about our child’s entitlement?” she asked.
Davey revealed that her daughter had been sent home several times for hurting herself, and that the school responded by telling her that she should teacher her daughter how to be “resilient” against bullies.
One disturbing incident involved the girl having a video unknowingly taken of her sitting at her desk with her legs slightly open. The students captioned the video to claim there was a “smell” coming from between her legs.
“It was posted to snapchat. I spent 90 mins with the police as they tried to determine if it was photographing and distribution of pornographic material. Yes, a 12 year old can be prosecuted if the content breaches certain criteria. Sadly our daughter’s didn’t, but she was subjected to weeks of ridicule. Repercussions? The girl who posted the video lost her playtime. The person who took the video? Nothing, because no one would tell who it was,” Davey explained.
The mother said that the final straw for her daughter finally came, and she had to be hospitalized for planning to take her own life. On behalf of her daughter, she filed for a restraining order against the bullies.
“The school has a safety plan for the bullied child, our daughter. And the bully? She only loses recess and lunch privileges. This is infant school punishment!” she wrote.
“Please, in this awful age of social media (or anti social media as we call it) check your children’s messages. Their devices are a privilege, nothing more, nothing less, so please make sure they are being polite and respectful in their messages. Teach the children to ‘talk’ not use text or social media to air their differences.”
Many readers called on the school to change their policy and step up to protect the bullied girl first instead of protecting the bully.
“School administrators and teachers need to change their freaking attitude!” one Right Stuff reader commented on the site’s Facebook page. “Defend these children that are being bullied! What’s wrong with these ppl.”
“As a parent, I would NEVER let my kids get away with bullying people….and as for this poor child, I feel her pain,” another added. “I attempted suicide 3 times at age 12 because of being bullied. This story is so heartbreaking. Beyond words.”