Current Events > 9 year old girl kills herself after being bullied.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2018/11/birmingham-9-year-old-takes-her-own-life-family-hopes-to-spare-others-their-pain.html

A Birmingham family is grieving the loss of a 9-year-old girl who died Monday after she intentionally hanged herself in her bedroom closet three days earlier. Madison Maddie Whittsett, a fourth-grader who is being remembered for her joyful heart and love of others, was pronounced dead at Childrens of Alabama Monday morning. Her mother, Eugenia Williams, and stepfather, Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service Lt. Jimmie Williams, said they hope that by speaking out about Maddies tragic death will spare others the pain they have experienced since Friday. We dont want this to happen to anyone else, Lt. Williams said. Maddie arrived home from school Friday afternoon and quickly learned her mom had made plans for the two of them to go to Chick-fil -A for some mommy-daughter time. Maddie loved Chick-fil-A and she was running through the house, Lt. Williams said. Her mom called me, and we talked for a second. Then one of her friends called and they were talking.

Maddies mom then yelled for Maddie to get ready, they were going to leave shortly. She glanced outside - in the front yard and on the deck but didnt see her. Eugenia Williams went back to her daughters bedroom and saw the television was on. She looked in the bed and didnt see Maddie and thats when she noticed a crack in Maddies closet door. The little girl didnt like for her closet to be open, so her mother immediately went and looked inside and thats when she found her daughter unresponsive. Still on the phone with her friend, she dropped the phone, got Maddie down, screamed for her friend to call 911 and then started CPR on Maddie. Maddie was taken to St. Vincents East to get her stabilized and a helicopter was brought in to transport her to Childrens, but the weather prevented the air flight.

Maddie had ADHD and received one-on-one help at school. There had been incidents, Lt. Williams said, where other children had called her stupid and dumb. It had happened last year, but Maddies parents met with the principal and said it had been taken care of. I felt like we took care of it, he said. We talked to one of her friends and Maddie had apparently had a bad day. The friend said Maddie was bullied and she looked sad while she was being bullied, Lt. Williams said. It must have really worn her out that day.

How her mom found her dead body was depressing.
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They should talk to the whole school about this so students understand the outcome bullying causes

Poor kid.
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Fucking hate bullies
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Shit like this is just going to keep happening, high schools are terribly run. Every parent needs to teach their child how to use their schoolbooks against other students skulls instead of relying on the administration to do anything about it.
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children don't understand that things will get better and school interactions won't matter... everything that happens to them feels massive and intense. it's so sad seeing this happen. I don't know the right words to say to help them realize how much things will change in the next few years and how much better it can be.
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:(
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this is so sad and its never going to get better until the school staffs stop acting the way they do

kid on phone during class: end of the world

kid getting harassed in front of teacher: this is fine
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Truly horrible. Schools need to improve how they handle bullying.
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rikasa posted...

children don't understand that things will get better and school interactions won't matter... everything that happens to them feels massive and intense. it's so sad seeing this happen. I don't know the right words to say to help them realize how much things will change in the next few years and how much better it can be.

This. I was bullied in elementary school but life got so so so much better in high school.

Also a lot of the time the schools try to force kids to become friends with their bullies. You cant do that. You have to just punish them.
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Ryuko_Chan posted...

this is so sad and its never going to get better until the school staffs stop acting the way they do

kid on phone during class: end of the world

kid getting harassed in front of teacher: this is fine

And if they ever fight back when someone hits them? In the eyes of the school they are just as bad as the attacker.

Its fucking mental
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Ryuko_Chan posted...

Also a lot of the time the schools try to force kids to become friends with their bullies. You cant do that. You have to just punish them.

Are you serious? That's like trying to make a racist be friends with [insert race].
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So sad. Parents of children being bullied should consider homeschooling. That's why I was homeschooled. It saved my life.
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MelbuFrahma4 posted...

Maddie had ADHD and received one-on-one help at school. There had been incidents, Lt. Williams said, where other children had called her stupid and dumb. It had happened last year, but Maddies parents met with the principal and said it had been taken care of.

This kind of thing never actually gets taken care of. When the bullies get disciplined, it just makes everything worse because now you're a snitch as well.
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-Unowninator- posted...

Ryuko_Chan posted...

Also a lot of the time the schools try to force kids to become friends with their bullies. You cant do that. You have to just punish them.

Are you serious? That's like trying to make a racist be friends with [insert race].

Yeah they did it to my little sister. Of course its even worse with girls because girls bully secretly. This girl would act nice to my sister in front of the teachers but was a horrible little scum to my sister away from them. Whereas boys wouldnt even pretend.
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SH_expert44 posted...

Ryuko_Chan posted...

this is so sad and its never going to get better until the school staffs stop acting the way they do

kid on phone during class: end of the world

kid getting harassed in front of teacher: this is fine

And if they ever fight back when someone hits them? In the eyes of the school they are just as bad as the attacker.

Its fucking mental

0 tolerance policies are scum yeah
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They should expell bullies from schools after a 3 strike system. Send them to a charter school so they can be amongst other scumbag kids.
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Tragic, kids can be so cruel. At the same time I feel some blame should go to the parents. If my kids were being bullied you better bet your ass we're getting involved and staying involved until thoroughly satisfied it's resolved. I get it, you can't watch them 24/7, but you can call or email the teachers daily to check on the situation.
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voldothegr8 posted...

Tragic, kids can be so cruel. At the same time I feel some blame should go to the parents. If my kids were being bullied you better bet your ass we're getting involved and staying involved until thoroughly satisfied it's resolved. I get it, you can't watch them 24/7, but you can call or email the teachers daily to check on the situation.

At the same time, you risk making the situation worse. The more you get involved as a parent, the more you make your kid look like a mommy's boy/girl, which by itself makes the bullying worse.

In fact, most "solutions" actually have the opposite effect.

In many cases, the only real solution is to simply take the kid to another school which sadly isn't always an option.

Sometimes what happens though is that bullies sometimes just change targets, for example when a new kid comes along who is super nerdy and wears glasses or something.
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frozenshock posted...

voldothegr8 posted...

Tragic, kids can be so cruel. At the same time I feel some blame should go to the parents. If my kids were being bullied you better bet your ass we're getting involved and staying involved until thoroughly satisfied it's resolved. I get it, you can't watch them 24/7, but you can call or email the teachers daily to check on the situation.

At the same time, you risk making the situation worse. The more you get involved as a parent, the more you make your kid look like a mommy's boy/girl, which by itself makes the bullying worse.

In fact, most "solutions" actually have the opposite effect.

In many cases, the only real solution is to simply take the kid to another school which sadly isn't always an option.

Sometimes what happens though is that bullies sometimes just change targets, for example when a new kid comes along who is super nerdy and wears glasses or something.

Not if you stay behind the scenes.
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Wonder why suicide is more prevalent. Don't think bullying has got worse unless they post pics of you on the net.
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frozenshock posted...

MelbuFrahma4 posted...

Maddie had ADHD and received one-on-one help at school. There had been incidents, Lt. Williams said, where other children had called her stupid and dumb. It had happened last year, but Maddies parents met with the principal and said it had been taken care of.

This kind of thing never actually gets taken care of. When the bullies get disciplined, it just makes everything worse because now you're a snitch as well.

Exactly. Its such a mentally tough situation for kids to be in and its brutal. You can create all the awareness about bullying you want but in the end, i dont know if it'll ever be enough.
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darkphoenix181 posted...

Wonder why suicide is more prevalent. Don't think bullying has got worse unless they post pics of you on the net.

Czech this story out... it's pretty horrible:

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3882520&page=1
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I also broadly hate bullies, someone should do something about this. Im not sure people are aware of bullies. Awareness of their existence will surely help.
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darkphoenix181 posted...

Wonder why suicide is more prevalent. Don't think bullying has got worse unless they post pics of you on the net.

We just hear about it more. It always happened before but was just never reported on.
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Zikten posted...

They should talk to the whole school about this so students understand the outcome bullying causes

Im p sure most bullies couldnt care less abouy the outcome and just really wants to make other people's lives a living hell
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LordMarshal posted...

I also broadly hate bullies, someone should do something about this. Im not sure people are aware of bullies. Awareness of their existence will surely help.

Kind of messed up post, but you're also right
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Bullies SHOULD be more severely punished but getting called stupid or dumb is also not bullying. That's like teasing at best.

one-on-one attention is not special or unique at elementary schools these days. In any classroom there is going to be multiple students that have a classroom aide or get taken out for reading/math support.
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_Squirtle_ posted...

Bullies SHOULD be more severely punished but getting called stupid or dumb is also not bullying. That's like teasing at best.

one-on-one attention is not special or unique at elementary schools these days. In any classroom there is going to be multiple students that have a classroom aide or get taken out for reading/math support.

I doubt there was just one instance of other kids calling her dumb or stupid.

"It's not even bullying... that's just teasing," he said to the corpse of a 9-yr-old girl hanging in the closet.
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rikasa posted...

"It's not even bullying... that's just teasing," he said to the corpse of a 9-yr-old girl hanging in the closet.

I wouldn't even call it "just teasing." Teasing implies playfulness or good-hearted intent.

https://www.prevnet.ca/bullying/educators/the-difference-between-teasing-and-bullying

Wow R.I.P.

Bullies are the worst, especially at young age.

Sounds like bad parenting by several magnitudes.

Not being involved in the child's life enough to notice these feelings, not teaching them how to handle bullying or disappointment or being sad, not teaching them self-worth, somehow letting them even consider suicide as a choice (which is weird. As a child it never crossed my mind as a thing that could happen), etc.
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This is just what happens when you're told what school to attend, and essentially compelled to go there.

An idealistic public education system would have three or four schools in any given district available to choose from, and the worst one is gutted and started over at the end of the school year.