Another day, another teen bullying suicide horror story

[Renew Deal]

KASSON, Minn. -
<snip>
On Friday 1,500 people attended the funeral of Rachel Ehmke, a Kasson-Mantorville 7th grader who took her own life after being bullied.

Rachel's parents became aware of the bullying last fall when their daughter's gym locker and textbooks were defaced with chewing gum and vicious words.

Her father, Rick Ehmke, says at roughly the same time, Rachel and a friend were cornered in the school locker room by a "clique" of girls and then threatened.

<snip>

The day before Rachel's death, the school notified her parents of another incident.

Chris Flannery, the parent of two Kasson-Mantorville middle school students, says his 8th grade daughter was among several students who received an anonymous text.

"It was pretty explicit. Something to the effect of that Rachel was a slut and to get her to leave the Kasson-Mantorville School, forward this to everyone you know."

Two days later Rachel hanged herself.
<snip>

http://www.kare11.com/news/article/975590/14/Bullying-blamed-in-suicide-of-13-year-old-Minn-girl

[get the red out]

1. Why do we accept this horror?

This should be unacceptable to all of society.

Rick Ehmke says he's not interested in seeing the girls who bullied his daughter charged criminally. We're not saying they're bad kids, they just made some really bad choices."

He said the girls involved "will carry this with them their entire lives. If they knew the consequences I'm sure they wouldn't have done that."

I disagree with the grieving father, these girls ARE bad kids, very bad, and I seriously doubt they will ever feel a moment of regret for what they did, they will probably wear this like a mark of accomplishment.

[Renew Deal]

2. The damage done to the girls locker was still there after 6 weeks

The school is partly to blame.

"He says he was stunned to learn six weeks after Rachel's locker was defaced that those terrible words had still not been cleaned up."

[get the red out]

3. Schools don't care

Unless it gets them bad publicity, then they care about that. They've never cared. They seem to see this as the lions eating a gazelle, just the natural coarse of things.

[redqueen]

5. Like too many parents, most teachers and administrators

seem to think it's good for children to 'learn to handle' bullies.

They don't seem as interested in applying that logic to anyone else who is harassed and abused.

[redqueen]

4. Agreed. We have to stop excusing bullies.

Every criminal can be said to have made bad choices. That doesn't mean they shouldn't be punished.

[BlueIris]

6. The bully apologists horrify me.

I haven't seen any around here in a while, but they are sickening. Bullying kills.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

11. Those girls don't give a shit that they caused this.

They SHOULD be held criminally responsible. They just think she was weak and deserved what she got. Bullies have no conscience of their actions. IF you don't hold them responsible, they'll NEVER stop.

[riderinthestorm]

7. Oh my god, this just must stop!

On that other thread where the gay teen brought a stun gun to school to defend himself from the bullying, there were more than a few DUers who believed that was wrong, wrong, wrong.

But if the schools aren't going to do anything these kids just despair that this is the way it will always be. For my niece, that's exactly what happened. Her entire school career has been nothing but miserable and she contemplated suicide often. The school administrators and teachers could do nothing to stop or prevent it despite MANY complaints from my sister. My niece finally started carrying a weapon (pepper spray) her junior year in high school. Its totally against the school regs and she hasn't had to use it but it made her feel empowered.

There's no excuse for that graffiti to still have been on that girl's locker for 6 weeks after the incident. None. The schools really don't care unless or until someone gets seriously hurt or killed, or kills themselves.

[Fumesucker]

9. It's not that the administrators and teachers couldn't stop it, it's that they wouldn't..

If your niece had ever actually used the pepper spray she's have been expelled so fast there would have been a sonic boom.

[riderinthestorm]

10. I 110% agree. nt

[Fumesucker]

8. Those that don't kill themselves are often damaged for a very long time..

I never once set foot in a classroom again after escaping high school, just the thought of it would send me into a panic attack.

A great way to make kids loathe the idea of going to school..

[riderinthestorm]

12. My niece refuses to go to her HS graduation. Won't spend even one more minute with her class

that she is required to by the law. She's also extremely damaged from her school years even though she's had a lot of counseling - when my sister tried to encourage her to take some classes at the local community college she said that she will never step foot in another classroom, ever.

[TruthBeTold65]

13. This part of the story...

made me feel very sad for the parents:

Rachel's parents found a note after her death. According to her father, the note read, "I'm fine = I wish I could tell you how I really feel."

...it makes it seem like the parents couldn't do anything to help her though we all know they would have done anything to in the world to keep her here.

[riderinthestorm]

14. pm kick nt