Some very sad news this morning out of upstate New York:
Jamey Rodemeyer needed help. At 14, he was grappling with adolescent demons that could torment grown men. And when he was online, he wrote about it. “I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens,” he wrote Sept. 9. “What do I have to do so people will listen to me?” Just over one week later, Jamey was found dead outside his home of an apparent suicide.
In the months prior, he routinely blogged about school bullying and thoughts of suicide in between upbeat posts about his pop star idol Lady Gaga and the ordinary types of teen rants typical for kids his age. On Sept. 8, he wrote: “No one in my school cares about preventing suicide, while you’re the ones calling me [gay slur] and tearing me down.”
It sounds like Jamey had help—he was seeing a therapist and a social worker and his family was supportive—but it wasn’t enough to counteract the hatred and abuse that he had been exposed to on a daily basis since the fifth grade, according to reports, or Jamey’s fears of having to face down a whole new set of bullies when he started high school next year. The Buffalo News quotes two comments that directed at Jamey by his peers:
“JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!” read one post.
Another read: “I wouldn’t care if you died. No one would. So just do it 🙂 It would make everyone WAY more happier!”
More on this after the jump.
Presumably those comments were posted publicly somewhere. I would like to know exactly where those comments were posted and if it’s possible to identify the hateful, malicious little fucks who tormented this vulnerable kid. (Were they left on a Facebook page?) His tormenters need to be held to account—not bullied themselves, not prosecuted or persecuted, but held to account—for their actions. They should be asked if they’re “WAY more happier” now, if they’re pleased with themselves, and if they have anything to say to the mother of the kid they succeeded in bullying to death.
And then there’s this:
Last September, the “It Gets Better Project” was launched online as a place for adults—including high-profile celebrities—to reassure troubled and potentially suicidal lesbian, gay and bisexual youth that despite the taunting, bullying and physical abuse they face as adolescents and teens, life improves after high school. In May of 2011, Jamey posted [a] YouTube video with the description “Jamey From Buffalo, New York telling you, IT GETS BETTER!”
Jamey Rodemeyer’s “It Gets Better” video is here.
I have to ask: why not bully the bullies?
I thought this comment on the source article was important enough to warrant reposting here.
“It’s time to knock of this silliness of trying to deal with abstract concepts like “bullying” and start fighting the bullies themselves. Out in the real world off campus, the behaviors bullies engage in often fit the categories of harassment or assault – both of which are crimes here in the evil empire known as The Empire State. It’s time we stopped distinguishing between bullying (which has been around for longer than there have been government schools) and the crimes of harassment and assault (we may have to tweak current penal codes to do this).
“Parents, if your kids are being bullied, it’s time for you to press charges against the bullies – since it’s obvious that dealing with some abstract concept like “bullying” accomplishes nothing. How long have we been trying to fight some abstract concept called “crime” and still we have people engaged in criminal acts? If your kids are the bullies, then maybe YOU should be brought up on charges.
“It’s time to stop trying to fight abstract concepts and start fighting the people engaged in the various acts – don’t fight bullying, fight the bullies; don’t fight crime, fight the criminals. It doesn’t matter why bullies and other criminals do what they do; it only matters that they do it and should be punished accordingly.”