Defense lawyers now say Tyler Clementi’s bullying wasn’t as bad as it seemed — but the invasion of his privacy was still a standout in a year that’s been rife with bullying incidents. After the jump, a timeline.
Many of the teens and young adults below were bullied for their sexual orientation, but not all. Their injuries and deaths should remind us that for too many young people, school isn’t safe — and that’s something that desperately needs to change.
January 14: Fifteen-year-old Phoebe Prince, who was bullied at her high school in South Hadley, Massachusetts, committed suicide. Nine teens were charged in connection with her death, and though some have questioned whether bullying was really the cause, the case did direct a lot of attention to the problem. Unfortunately, “attention” does not equal “solution.”
March 17: Florida fifteen-year-old Wayne Treacy kicked Josie Lou Ratley, also 15, so viciously that doctors had to induce a coma and remove part of her skull. Ratley had sent him a text message about his brother, who had committed suicide the previous year. After a series of texts that make for pretty upsetting reading, she wrote, “jus go visit ur dead brother.” He responded “UR F—- ING DEAD! I SWEAR TO GOD I’M GONNA KILL YOU!”
March 21: Alexis Pilkington, 17, of Islip, NY took her own life after being mocked on Formspring — and the online attacks persisted even after her death. However, her parents said cyberbullying wasn’t the main cause of her suicide.
March 28: Thirteen-year-old Jon Carmichael committed suicide. A friend said he had been bullied at his Texas school “because he was short.” Another friend’s mother said, “If there’s one positive thing that would come out of this is that kids would learn to treat other kids with respect.”
May 31: Christian Taylor, 16, killed himself after months of bullying — a bully allegedly told him, “you need to just go commit suicide and get it over with.” His mother says his school did nothing to punish Taylor’s tormentor.
July: After 11-year-old Jessi Slaughter used violent language in a YouTube video, 4chan users posted her home address and phone number and she began receiving death threats.
July 9: Minnesota fifteen-year-old Justin Aaberg hanged himself. Friends say he was bullied for his sexual orientation and had recently been through a breakup. Some believe three previous suicides in Aaberg’s Anoka-Hennepin School District were linked to homophobic bullying as well. His mother asked the district to change its sexual orientation policy (which basically instructed teachers not to discuss the issue), “in order to give teachers training in how to be more sensitive to GLBT students.” Unfortunately, the district appeared unwilling to review the policy — a spokeswoman said, “We have a community that has widely varying opinions, and so to respect all families, as the policy says, we ask teachers to remain neutral.”
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