Another teen suicide because of bullying...

[one_voice]

A 15-year old teenager from Staten Island died after being struck by a bus while carrying a suicide note on Monday evening.

NYPD officials say a witness saw Amanda Diane Cummings jump in front of the bus on Hylan Boulevard by Hunter Avenue. She was rushed to Staten Island University Hospital where she was in critical condition and ultimately died from her injuries.

Cummings was a sophomore at New Dorp High School and according to the girl's uncle, Keith Cummings, she had been bullied by peers.

The relative spoke to the Staten Island Advance on the alleged bullying and said Amanda was tormented after bullies stole her possessions including her jacket, phone, and shoes.

He said they were even posting cruel, inappropriate comments on Amanda's Facebook wall while in the hospital after being struck by the bus.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/03/amanda-diane-cummings-of-_n_1180889.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D124847




ENOUGH!

[RebelOne]

1. I have friend whose son committed sucide at 15 because

of bullying at school. He was bullied because he was overweight. One day, he took his father's gun to school. He stood up in class and said, "I am not going to take it anymore." Then he shot himself in the head.

[one_voice]

4. When I was in high school there was a boy...

who committed suicide. His step father was a cop and he used his gun. He wanted to time it so he'd shoot himself as his mother walked in from work. When he heard the front door open he pulled the trigger, it wasn't his mother, it was his sister. She was never 'right' after that.

He wasn't bullied in school, he was bullied at home by his step father. He did horrible things to him, humiliated him every chance he got. His mother stayed with the step father, they had a small son together who was very young when the suicide happened. But he still played with toy guns and pretended to shoot himself.

That household was poison for children.

[RKP5637]

2. We live in a sick demented F'en society. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. sad

[get the red out]

5. they were even posting cruel, inappropriate comments on Amanda's Facebook wall while in the hospital

These are the vermin that plague society, the kid society needed threw herself in front of a bus.

I hope the parents of the kids that drove her to this are supremely proud of their offspring.

[Tobin S.]

6. I was bullied a bit when I was a kid

But not at the level of poor Amanda.

It's a terrible, frightening feeling knowing that you could be attacked at any minute when you're alone. My family told me to fight back and I did. I got my ass kicked twice and then I actually won a fight and they laid off of me. I don't think that's the best way to handle something like that, though. Some people won't back down even if you get the better of them. They'll just bring a weapon or an older brother to the fight the next time.

I really don't know the best way to handle this problem. An awareness campaign probably wouldn't hurt.

[SixthSense]

8. me too

I put an end to it by being the most vicious kid on the block, pound for pound. Bites, eye gouges, hair tearing, screaming directly into ears, kicking testicles, you name it - anyone who picked on me found out quick that the risk/reward of choosing me as a target was horrible. I was never aggressive towards anyone, but if anyone was aggressive to me and didn't leave me a way to escape safely, I became the living incarnation of Pain and Suffering come to haunt their waking dreams.

IMO that's the only effective way to stop bullying - make it not worth it.

Anyone remember the movie "Heathers"?

[mentalsolstice]

10. Unfortunately not all kids can fight back

Especially kids who have disabilities.

[SixthSense]

11. nowadays tech can help

Put a hidden recording device on them... catch the criminals in the act... prosecute to the full extent of the law, expel from school. Most crimes are considered more serious when the victim is helpless (injured, disabled, elderly, minor child).

Also, sue the parents. Nothing will get a parent to take notice like being served a lawsuit.

I was a small kid, I know all about how to stop bullies - I needed to, to survive. Totally disproportionate response is what is called for, escalate the situation far beyond what the bully ever intended.

Bullying is about control. Take the situation out of their control and they are the biggest cowards in the world. Better to have a rep of a crazy kid no one wants to fuck with because god only knows what they will do, than the rep of a wimp who will put up with any abuse that is dealt to them. The common thread in these kids' suicides is that none of them fought back, and as a result the bullying escalated until it became deadly.

I'll tell you a story... when I was 12, I was put in a new school, a small one where most of the kids knew each other for years. On my first day, after the first class, the teacher left the room and all the other boys in class surrounded me. One of them went to shake my hand as if to greet me. I shook his hand... and he squeezed my hand, hard. So hard it was painful, he was obviously trying to hurt me.

Now there were at least 10 of them to one of me with no other witnesses around - and I was smaller than the smallest of them; I probably weighed about 75 lbs. at the time.

So this is what I did. I slipped under his arm using his own grip for leverage, pulled his arm out and behind his back, put my other hand on the elbow and started to apply pressure (not softly either). This loosened his grip quick, and I grabbed his wrist to keep the arm locked. Kid started to yell in pain, I ignored him. Told the rest of them to back the fuck off or the kid would never use his arm again, while forcing the kid to the floor using the elbow pressure trick.

I was at that school for five more years and no one ever even tried to fuck with me again. The kid who was the unfortunate point man in finding out I wasn't going to be an easy mark ended up being one of my best friends before all was said and done, and while I was never the most popular kid in school it didn't make me a social outcast either.

That's how to defend against bullies, and a kid who can't do that for whatever reason needs to be separated from the general population for their own safety.

[xchrom]

7. 15. Nt

[barrylank]

9. Similarities with the gay Rutgers student suicide

There are a couple of similarities with the Tyler Clementi story - the gay Rutgers student who jumped off the George Washington Bridge. And they're not random similarities, either. It's how these people were harassed and the reasons why.

"For one thing, Tyler, too, was bullied for his personal life – in his case, a romantic encounter with another man. Amanda, in turn, was allegedly persecuted by peers who decided it was their business whether she dated a guy who was a whopping three years older than she.

"For another thing, online networking offered new tools to Clementi and Cummings’ tormentors, and gave futuristic dimension to their harassment. Tyler’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, covertly streamed video on the Internet of Clementi kissing a man. Similarly, an online message may have pushed Cummings over the edge, and her uncle told the Advance that some people posted rude comments on her Facebook page even as she lay dying at Staten Island University Hospital."

http://si.sunne.ws/2012/01/04/did-bullies-drive-another-teen-to-suicide/