-TW: suicide-
Ashlynn Conner, a pretty ‘All-American’ girl, was driven to suicide by bullies at just 10 years old.
The day before she died, Ashlynn came home in tears.
Kids had bullied Ashlynn for years, calling her a “slut,” “fat,” and “ugly,” so that day’s incident seemed relatively minor to Stacy: The girls had poked fun at Ashlynn’s initials, “A.C.,” saying it sounded like “air conditioner.”
Three different teachers at the school had told Ashlynn to “stop tattling” after she reached out for help, the girl told her mother. It was the Thursday before Veterans Day, and Stacy told Ashlynn she should go straight to the principal the following Monday if the bullying continued.
“But she didn’t want to wait until Monday,” Stacy told The Daily.
Ashlynn’s older sister found her hanging by her neck from a scarf in a bedroom closet on Friday night. She was pronounced dead before 9 p.m. at a local hospital, another inconceivably young victim of elementary school bullying.
This world…
I want to cry. According to the article, “suicide rates among 10- to 14-year-olds have skyrocketed more than 50 percent over the last three decades.”
So sad.
Ten. Fucking ten years old.
Meanwhile, a “license to bully” bill has been passed by the Michgan Senate as long as the bullying is based on “moral conviction.”
This is the culture we live in.
And it’s not going to get better unless we fight it.
I have been where this little girl was. I stepped back, I survived, I made it through. A lot of kids don’t; a lot of them can’t. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
Actually if you’ll excuse me I’m just going to go and cry for a bit now because I can’t stand that this keeps happening and no one does shit but talk about how tragic it is and how oh goodness how could they not see it coming they thought it was just harmless teasing from other kids they do it all of the time who knew who knew?
fuck.
There were many times in elementary school when I was nearly at this point. It’s absolutely dreadful to hear about this happening. I absolutely hate the “no tattling” attitude that teachers always take when kids try to tell them something is wrong- just because they don’t want to deal with it. I was constantly pushed to the verge of tears by bullying in my school and was ALWAYS told not to “tattle”… BY THE ADULTS. The excuse was always “You can’t always have someone deal with your problems for you.” It’s a lesson that makes sense, but ignoring a child’s pleas for help is the WRONG way to teach it. It’s absolutely despicable.
I think it’s a lot of the reason why people react so harshly to bullying when they reach their teen years - after having it ingrained in their heads that if they tell someone, they will not receive help because they should deal with their own problems, they think that when they can’t handle it themselves, there’s nobody they can turn to.
Wow. This just scares me to death. I was also bullied a lot at this age ALONG with having to deal with problems at home. I wish I could have had the chance to talk to this girl and tell her that surviving the bullying is the sweetest revenge. I’m also enraged at the adults who turned their backs on her because they don’t like tattle tales. Fuck that. She was fucking ten years old. She didn’t deserve the torture she got from the bullies and she DEFINITELY didn’t deserve for the adults to turn the other cheek in her time of need. We need to realize that while there are kids who can take care of the bullies themselves, there are others who just can’t. We need to start helping these kids by making schools a safe environment. I believe we need more action taken against bullies because this shit is just getting way too out of hand.
(via american-slamball)
