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September 30th, 2010
10:00 AM ET
Video: Thirteen-year-old bullied to death?
Special Coverage: Stop Bullying: Speak Up
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Filed under: 360° Radar • 360º Follow • Bullying |
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In my experience, from being in schools, the parents of the bullies are bullies themselves. The child will display an 'angelic' posture for the parents, and become a terror for his or her classmates.
I have had parents remove their child (the bully) threaten to sue, go to the superintendent, all the while self assured that their child is without blame.
I dont know how ONE teacher can sit in a classroom and allow one child to call another child "gay" or any other name. What the he11 is wrong with these TEACHERS?
Sometimes I wonder about the decision to take God out of schools... Were things better? were they different? Where did we lose all of our caring about peoples feelings? When did people cease to matter?
Why is it the beautiful souls take their lives? My condolences to Ashers family and friends. The school system did you wrong.
(also, where did the gun come from? )
This is truly tragic! I cant believe parents of the kids who were doing the bullying actually entice it. Just how we had to rewire our culture to believe colored people are not any different than anyone else, we need to do the same with this exact situation. Many kids who are learning they are gay and are coming out at an early age should be welcomed like we welcome every race, creed, gender, and ethnicity. They are to young to think about life after primary school. We need to teach these kids that it will be fine later in life, while at the same time having harsh legal penalties to bullying. High school is children's whole lives which makes the problem worse. They can never get away from the bully. I came out my sophomore year in high school. Luckily my peers had open minds and didnt care. Even in the locker room they didnt feel any different. This situation is rare, but we need to teach our children early on that homosexuality isnt wrong. People might not agree with it, but they should leave us alone and reinforce the idea that were all equal in the United States regardless of who we are.
I am dealing with this right now with my son. He is 12yrs old and the harassment and bullying is mainly on the bus ride home. The bus even has an ADULT BUS MONITOR & he has kids up in his face, screaming in his ear and calling him filthy discusting names that don't even need to be repeated. I know this sort of thing happens but this is insane. What is wrong with children today? We went immediately to the school today as this is our second complaint. I am hoping for my sons sake that something gets done because I will be at that school every day until it does. My heart is broken that he has to deal with this and any other child that is in this same situation.
These bullies grow up to become adult bullies. It is so tragic that neither the school, nor the parents of the bullies, do anything to teach the bullies how wrong their actions are, and how devastating the results can be.
The nation, as a whole needs to address the issue. When young bullies enter the workforce with honed skills, they can devastate the efficiency and trust in the work place, the neighborhoods, and government.
Where do they learn this attitude? Home? School? TV?
Two of my chidren went to Hamilton Middle School in the Cypress Fairbanks Independent School District. I totally believe that the parents of Asher reported the bullying incident and nothing was done. I went through the same thing with my son, who is now a high school sophmore. He was picked on several times on the school bus and I was told that it would be handled, but I was not allowed to know what the punishment was. It was the end of the school year and the bullies ended up being promoted and left the school. I never heard anything else from the school. My son was a seventh grader at the time and the bullies were eigth graders. Thank goodness my son grew several inches over the summer and didn't have to deal with bullies his eighth grade year. I have had so many problems with with the administration at Hamilton. My daughter was very quiet and simply went unnoticed, but I made the decision that I would not go through the school if she was bullied, I would go straight to the police and have the students arrested. I am so glad that my children are out of Hamilton and in high school now. I have to add that the children attending Hamilton are extremely spoiled and I can totally believe that Asher was teased because he was not wearing the "in" fashion. The parents of the bullies should take responsibility for their part in raising such animals. The bullies should be charged with criminally negligent homicide and the school should be charged with child neglect.
And before everyone goes balistic I mean the parents of the bullies.
I agree that this is disgusting: Notice most of the comments blame school/teachers etc. where are we as parents. I have been there.
First off let me start by saying, Mr. Cooper is a great investigative reporter and I'm proud of the work that you do and I'm just 23. Now as far as this situation my heart truly goes out to the family who lost their child. Bullying is the lowest form of someone having their own self-esteem issues. And the scum of that school should be charged with negligence. I believe that the parents made complaints, but the COWARDLY SCHOOL SYSTEM is trying to cover their backs so action can't be taken against them. TEXAS NEEDS TO STAND UP!! AMERICA NEEDS TO STAND THE HELL UP! This can not take its course ANY LONGER!!!! Teachers and administrators and school systems need to take back their realm of learning and control whats going on!!! Its not hard!! And to the parents, I know you're going through a tough time but how in the hell did your child get hold of a gun!? Where were you mom!!!? Where were you Step-dad!!!? Where were you family members!!!!?
I am so absolutely outraged at this. This is the third boy driven to suicide THIS WEEK due to homophobic bullying.
How many more kids need to die before people get the message that bullying should not be tolerated? The school should be held accountable for this.
My prayers go out to his family and friends.
I just wanted to say that I was bullied quite a lot as a kid, and I know what it feels like to be depressed and on the edge of killing myself because of it. I wish the family of this young boy all the strength in the world during these hard times, and I would'nt mind discussing bullying on your show sometime Anderson.
There are a lot of people to blame here, The parents, the parents of the bullies, and the school. My question is, why has no one questioned the step dad as to how Asher got hold of his gun? Why was it not locked up?
This has been going on for many many years. I am now 24 and the first day of school was the beginning of the bullying for me. I was over weight and didn't have nice clothes and through out the years the bullying got worst. My grandmother made many complaints throughout the years and it never helped. It was the ones with the money and gave to the school that was the bullies. Of course their kids got by with it. Finally, in high school I just dropped out. It was all I knew to do. I am so sorry for the parents lose in this. I will hold them in my prays, but I don't think things will change. It hasn't yet.
Its so sad to see such a young child loose his life because we as parents don't make the time to talk to our children and get involved in their school life. My 11yr old daughter was the target of bullying last week in which I felt the school did not do enough. They did not bother to call me when the incident happen, then they twisted everything and blamed my daughter. I was upset they rather believe three bullies over my daughter. They expect with an apology everything will be over and done with. Unfortunately there is now law against bullying and we have to make a stand and protect our children.
I couldn't finish watching the whole video. I am upset how this situation turned out.
My heart was breaking for Asher Brown, a 13-year old boy who died because no responsible adult responded to his cry for help for a long time.
I recently had to pull out my own children from their old school when their father attempted to kidnap them. I did not wait for the school personnel to handle the situation.
Why? For the simple reason that I am the responsible adult in my children's life. I know for a fact that no other adult will protect my children more other than I would.
What happened to Asher Brown was preventable and solvable IF only the adults in his life stepped up to the plate and chose to be responsible.
I think parents should report the abuse to CPS, and the CPS reports it to the ISD the child belongs to. CPS opens a court case against the school,this way there is a record of the incident. Then the judge can ask the school how this matter will be resolved. I know the CPS have alot of cases on them but since they turn it over to the Law something should be done and someone is held liable for the murder.
What do you do when the teachers are the ones who are bullying?
I watched this inter view last night and I believe this is where the school is fully responsible. These are adults and professionals and with that being said they have an obligation and liability with protecting our children.
If they can’t control the bullies at this school maybe they should seek employment where there are no children.
Maybe I’m old fashion but I really don’t understand when an eighth grader announces he or she is gay. Their mines and thought process are still developing but this world has changed since I was in eighth grade and that was in 1963.
My heart and thoughts are with the family for the loss of this child because of the incompetent professionals at this school.
Dick (Austin, TX)
I say a sagment on bullying last night on your show, the bullying is out of hand. My 13 yr daughter has been bullyed and harrassed for 6 months at school and at home, she was also jumped by 7 kids and because they were minors I could not get the names of all kids, we have injuctions at school and restraining orders in place and with certain bullies this does not stop them. Parents need to be held accountable for their childern. In our case the school, school district, and the police are very aware of what has been going on. Most distrubing is that they are minors and things can not be done cause they are 12 and 13.
Before all this started my daughter was a straight A and honor student, her personality took a nose dive along with her grades. I am moving out od the home I own and moving the kids out of the school district to change this, but we should not have to.
This is an outrage. The fact that this sort of bullying is still going on today is just sickening. Even more sickening is the fact that the school is denying ever having gotten complaints. These kids that were bullying him should be prosecuted as accessory to murder.