Editors Note: This post was submitted to me within the ethos of Blognonymous. The writer does say who she is but would like this issue kept away from her own blog for obvious reasons. Please feel free to comment on this post and offer your advice.
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Raising Awareness (Typecast post)
I'm MrsW and I blog over at 'Clinically Fed Up'. The reason I am using Blogonymous to publish this post will become pretty clear.
A Facebook "friend" of mine is involved in some pretty nasty bullying. She's a teenager and is related to me. She's part of a little gang of cyber-thugs who have taken a dislike to one of their former friends and their behaviour is making the girl's life an absolute misery. Their victim has stopped going to school and despite making some efforts to block or ignore them it's not stopping.
They are absolutely fucking relentless.
And it's not even in secret.
Every other day, through status updates of the one I am connected with, evidence of their behaviour pops up on my Facebook News Feed. In two clicks I can see the lot. They refer to her as the "ginger muffin" (go ask any 15yo what muffin means - and yes it is probably what you're imagining). They laugh at her despair and her threats to end her life. They drum up support and egg others on to join in with their bullying.
And the best bit? I know my Facebook friend's mother can see all this yet still it carries on. Tempted as I am to go speak to her I can, with a fair degree of confidence, predict the response... "My daughter is not a bully. She has loads of friends. They all agree with her. Do you know what that other girl did? Do you know what that other girl said? She deserves everything she gets. She's the bully. She started it. Everyone is on their side."
Bollocks.
I don't know what went on between these girls but does it really matter? Why can't they just fall out and go their separate ways? When a gang get together and pick on one person and encourage and organise others to join in, it's bullying. No matter how many excuses they can conjure up to worm their way out of it, it's bullying. It doesn't matter how popular they are or how many people they manage to convince into believing they are "right", it's bullying.
There are NO excuses for bullying.
I don't know their victim, I don't know or care what she did, my relative is behaving appalingly and I feel powerless to stop it. I have saved screen prints of everything this gang have posted but what can I do? I'm not the victim's mother. Thankfully, from things that have been posted, it is clear that the girl has told her own mother what's happening. My daughter tells me she has seen guidance staff seaking to the victim and they must surely be making some effort to get her back into school. Otherwise I'd have to say something to someone.
One day, and pretty soon I reckon, it's all going to come to a head and I just know I am going to get it in the ear from my family because I was easily able to find out it was going on and I didn't warn them.
But I don't want to warn them, I don't want to drive it underground. I want the bullying little bitches to have as much rope as it takes to hang themselves.
And I'm supposed to be the grown up! Arrgh!
What would you do?