Beauty and the Bully

 

This beautiful girl is Rehtaeh Parsons. And she is dead.

I question the sanity of our world today. I really do. And girls like Rehtaeh are the reason why.

You may recognize the names of Amanda Todd or Jane Doe from Steubenville, Ohio. For those who don't, I will explain who they are.

Fifteen year old Amanda Todd hanged herself in October of last year. A while before, she had ingested bleach as her first (known) suicide attempt. It all stemmed from an incident in which a stranger convinced her to show her breasts during a video chat, who proceeded to capture an image and use it to blackmail and further sexually exploit her. This pervert then circulated this picture on the internet. Her schoolmates found this picture and bullied her endlessly. It led to her severe depression and eventual suicide.

Jane Doe was a highschooler attending a party. When she became drunk to the point of incapacitation, several members of the highschool football team decided to make her their toy. This included being carted around to other parties, sexually assaulted, undressed, orally penetrated, and digitally penetrated (an act which Ohio law defines as rape).  Photographs taken during the night were also spread on social networks. This girl has been bullied by an entire town after coming to light with this story and naming her attackers, but thankfully she has family and friends surrounding her and backing her up. She is alive.

But that brings me to Rehtaeh, who is not. She was raped at the age of fifteen by four male classmates. Two years later, she was being constantly bulled and teased by her classmates. The boys would taunt her and ask her for sex, while the girls would call her a slut. Just for being raped. She decided she'd had enough and this Friday, decided to end her life. She was found hanging (still alive), but her parents decided to take her off life support a few days ago.

That is three stories. There are hundreds more like this, and let's not forget it's happening to boys as well.

My heart breaks and cries in agony every time a story like these comes out. The world is breaking children and it is doing it by the hands of other children. These beautiful souls are being tormented to the point where they are convinced that they have no worth, that death is better than the hell they are given by their peers every day.
They are traumatized and having their innocence taken by others who think it's a game, who have become so desensitized to the sacredness of sex and sick in their spirits that they have made it their tool of oppression and fear.

These are kids. Read that again. Kids. There are fifth graders having sex, there are twelve year olds becoming pregnant, and there are other twelve year olds killing themselves. They've barely experienced or begun to understand what life is all about and they are doing things that shock and horrify grown adults.

I can't even begin to grasp why. Why the bullying, the rape, the sex, the torment is so rampant in the schools.

All I know is that it breaks my heart, to hear of these beautiful children, these priceless souls killing themselves, hurting themselves, because they don't believe they are valued. "If my peers do not consider me worthy, then what is the point?" they think.

I want to tell all of them, that they are so beautiful. I want to hug each and every one of them. I want to wipe the tears off their face. I want to protect them, shield them from harm. If I'm anything, it's a mama bear and it kills me that any child, any teen, would be hurting as bad as most are.

This world is becoming worse and worse as time goes on. And this kind of thing terrifies me to even think of bringing children into this world, as much as I long for it. God have mercy on our kids.