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Jennifer Feller

Article Link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,253259,00.html

Article Title: States Pushing for Laws to Curb Cyber bullying

A thirteen year old, Ryan Halligan was bullied for months through the internet. Classmates were sending him instant messages calling him gay, taunting and threatening him. His parents are remorseful that they didn’t put it to and end. Their son had begged them not to say anything so they listened and now they regret that they did.
I cannot believe that people would go to so much trouble to make a kid’s life as miserable as possible. As if school isn’t enough stress for a student, why add bullying? Some people wonder why the victims can’t just let it go, but that’s easier said than done. Little things said over and over really get to people and it taunts them throughout their life. It distracts them so much and sometimes it ultimately kills them.
Ryan had a learning disability and was made fun of for it. Classmates found anything they could do or say to mess with this teenager. He also had a rumor started about him being gay. This rumor was false but he still let it get to him. It bothered him so much that he killed himself.
To stop this, would be for his parents to move him to another school, or have a talk with the principle and the bully’s parents. It can often be very hard to get involved as a parent because sometimes that only makes it worse on the victim so sometimes the parents don’t say anything because they couldn’t imagine their child killing themselves over it.
This applies to school and me. School, because that is where this began and is usually the foundation of cyber bullying. This applies to me because it teaches me not to let things people say bother me because it really doesn’t matter what they think. Also, I know to never do that to someone else because I would hate to be the reason someone even considers committing suicide.