Love One Another?

Just as I have loved you,

you also should love one another.

John 13:34

This last Wednesday, a 15-year-old Canadian girl died, apparently by her own hand, following years of cyber and real-life bullying.  Four years before, a male (young or old) convinced her to "flash" her naked upper body on a webcam, then relentlessly tracked her down (even after her family physically moved to a new area of the country), humiliating and intimidating her, spreading the webcam picture across the internet, setting up a Facebook profile page with the photo, and doing everything possible to hurt and brutalize her.  

Now she is dead, and no one seems to know who her male attacker is--yet.  No matter what it takes, someone should discover exactly who he is and make him face what he has done.

The young woman's death occurred just five weeks after she posted a YouTube video made by holding up cards telling her story one sentence at a time, from her tragic webcam mistake in 7th grade through several suicide attempts (including drinking bleach) to the present.  In the video, she proclaimed that she had no one to turn to - no one who cared.  Obviously her parents cared, and probably any other adult she might have turned to for help, but no one seemed to understand the depths of her despair nor the cruel madness of the bullying.

It never ceases to amaze me what young people today think is "funny."  Humiliating a fellow student, causing "accidents" to happen, plastering rude comments or obscene pictures on social networking sites, mocking the elderly, bullying the weak, voting a young woman onto homecoming court so that they can throw rotten eggs at her..  One young man posted a picture of a Clorox bleach bottle on a memorial website for this young lady, with the comment "To Die For."  When people around the world were aghast at such behavior, he said he did it because he "thought it would be funny."     

The high school where I teach has initiated Rachel's Challenge for the student body this year.  Started by the family and friends of Rachel Joy Scott (struck down in the Columbine school massacre), the program's core message is that kind words and actions reap huge results, and that all of us should look for the best in others, eliminating prejudice.  I am so sorry that the young Canadian girl did not have such a program available in any of the schools she attended.  It is long past time for society to take a no-tolerance stance against bullying of any kind, punishing anyone (student, teacher, administrator) who turns a blind eye to the emotional destruction of the young people under their care.