Patrick Kohlmann, a 13-year-old boy in New York, has been repeatedly bullied at his school. His mother contacted the school to cite 12 instances of being bullied, including being dragged on the floor, pushed down the stairs, and given a concussion after being hit in the head with a rock.
The school ignored them.
Patrick created a video to detail his story and that of other children being bullied every day and attempted to show it at a PTA meeting. They refused to allow it because they claimed it was “too graphic”. He put it on YouTube and it has been seen by over 46,000 people.
Now he’s receiving a great deal of support from his fellow students and his mother is working on creating and enforcing stronger anti-bullying legislation.
The video made me cry.
Thanks to MomLogic for the story; they also include some tips for dealing with bullying.
This was so powerful. I’m glad you posted it. I sat my kids down so they could watch it and we talked about bullying. I don’t want for it to happen to them and I certainly won’t tolerate if if mine are the ones doing harm. My heart goes out to that amazing young man.
dawn
How on earth am I going to let my son go to school? Gah.
A school that ignores bullying is supporting bullying and might as well be the bully. That is disgusting. I hope that video gets so much attention that the school officials are allowed to retire very young. They certainly aren’t thinking about the kids … and that should be their ONLY job.
I was bullied through a lot of my school career–mostly middle school, but it happened before and after, too. More than ten years out of middle school and eight years out of high school, I’m as over it as I can be, I think, and don’t think about what the kids did to me, much.
But I will always be bitter that almost nothing was done to stop them. One teacher DID give me the inevitable “ignore it when they call you names”; I thought, but didn’t have the guts to say, “So if I called you a fat, stupid cow, you wouldn’t care?”