And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why bullying is wrong.

[conuly]

Because it kills.

Yes, this boy committed suicide - but he was killed by the people who wouldn't let it drop, who had to bother him day after day. I shouldn't have to say this, it should be obvious, but there's always somebody who thinks I'm wrong, that if the bullied had just fit in, had conformed more, it would be different. Well, that's not true. If the victim fits in, the bullies just switch to somebody new. The only way to stop it is to make sure everybody knows that this is unacceptable.

Comments

[cumaeansibyl.livejournal.com]

can't be considered responsible for your actions in that respect

With all due respect, I'm going to have to disagree. If I went out tomorrow and shot someone in the face, I couldn't blame it on the depression -- it'd still be my fault. Some mental illnesses erase your ability to discriminate between right and wrong, but depression isn't one of them. I am fully responsible for myself and my actions at all times no matter how depressed I happen to be.

I was bullied, too. I got called every name in the book -- homophobic, gynophobic, whatever. I was sexually harassed and assaulted (in a minor fashion) throughout much of middle school. When I was in third grade, some girls ganged up on me and stoned me, for Christ's sake. And I have absolutely no sympathy for this kid. None. He forfeited his right to sympathy when he ensured that his father would have to cut his own son down from the tree. Nothing he could have been through excuses such blatant, selfish cruelty toward the people who loved him.

I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but as someone who has stared long and hard at suicide many times and come away alive, I have very little patience for people who claim that a) I'm helpless to stop it or b) it's someone else's fault. Obviously the first is false, since I'm still here; as for the second, I know damn well whose fault it'd be if I killed myself, which is why I haven't.

[conuly]

I never said "helpless". However, the fact that people contemplate suicide at all shows some seriously impaired judgment, and I'm not going to blame them for their bad judgment.