Confessions of a former bully

I can remember leaving the hospital with our first child Katy. I looked at her and thought, I have no idea what I'm doing. We were her whole world. She was completely dependent on us for survival. You need a license to drive and to hunt but not for parenting. They let anyone be parents but unfortunately not everyone should be a parent.

Recently a beautiful young girl just days shy of her 13th birthday jumped to her death at an old cement plant. She had been bullied relentlessly through social media. Girls kept telling her to kill herself and she finally did. Her mom had done all she could. She reported it to the school,the police, and she even changed schools. Social media follows you everywhere. One of the bullies has shown absolutely no remorse. It's no surprise that her step-mother is a bully herself. I cannot imagine what that poor child was thinking when she climbed to the top of the platform.She didn't have any hope and could not bear her future. When you are a teenager - everything is a big deal. As adults we can say, "This too shall pass" but a child can't see that far into the future. They can't see that it will get better.

I don't think these anti bullying campaigns are working. It doesn't reach the right audience. Parents must be the ones that stop this. The schools can help but they can only do so much. When our girls were allowed to get email and Facebook accounts they had to give us their passwords and they had to be friends with us on Facebook (much to their embarrassment.) We told them at any time we could get on their email account and check what they were sending and receiving. We never did because we trusted them.

When I was in junior high my favorite class was PE. I loved it! My favorite thing to do was play dodgeball. I showed absolutely no mercy. I can remember actually knocking girls down while playing. I can also remember yelling, "get up you big sissy!" There also was a girl (I don't remember her name) but she had a lisp. I made fun of her a lot. I called her a big sissy too but said it with a lisp. To this day I am ashamed of myself for being so horrible.I was a good kid - but that was a terrible and inexcusable thing to do. I can't imagine how this must have made her feel. However, if my parents knew that I was doing this I would have been in big trouble. I definitely would have had to apologize to the girl and her parents and my parents probably would have grounded me. I most likely would have to sit out dodgeball and get zeroes for the day. I also would have gotten the, "I'm disappointed in you" speech. That would have cured me right away.

The parents have to be the ones that stop this. Parents that are committed to raising good children. Children that don't bully other children and parents that don't bully their children. The solution may be to hold the parents responsible for these deaths and send them to jail. That is what the Sheriff in this latest suicide case is trying to do. Maybe when people see that they could go to jail for things their children are doing they will monitor their online activities and pay more attention to them. Maybe they will actually parent their children. I hope and pray that is true.