Let me make this very clear.
Ostracizing a child is 100% a form of bullying.
Emotional trauma is bullying.
Get that through your heads.
I am sorry so many people who were attractive or semi normal during their high school and middle School careers don't understand this.
IT IS BULLYING.
And some girl trying to rationalize it saying because he was weird it is okay is absolutely disgusting.
Let me break this down how it works, coming from a weird kid who found comfort in video games(thank God for WoW and FFXI), anime, drugs and partying to overcome his lack of normalcy and feel accepted.
It eats you alive more than any physical trauma could.
At least a physical bully gives you attention, and people pity you, and it gives you some semblance of comfort.
When you are ostracized for being the weird kid, you get more weird, you spend more time alone and don't understand social cues.
You get pushed further away
You get the darkest thoughts, you wonder why you aren't good enough, why no one likes you, why no one gets to know you. You have no one to talk to, and everyone older tells you it gets better, and we know it does, but we also have to remember being young and how slow time seemed to go back then.
School was a prison, that we couldn't escape, that we were forced to be alone around so many others.
I remember in HS a kid brought a gun to school with a hit list, I also remember not being on it, I wasn't his friend by any stretch, but I was kind, and If he was near us we were INCLUSIVE.
We were being inclusive before it became a buzzword for the left and social justice movement. We didn't need to be told to do it, it was just something we did without looking for any praises from others around us.
But let me get back to the point, you push someone into a dark enough hole, you bully them emotionally to a point where they snap internally or externally.
I wish I could tell so many kids who feel weird and alone it gets so much better.
All those people who made fun of you begging you for work or to be your friend now, but when you were alone they weren't there and how secretly satisfying it is. That time will hurt them more than you just hold it together.
But I can't do it alone and I doubt they would listen to just me because I wouldn't at their age.
But when I see two kids taking the bullying from their school and what drives an unstable kid to do horrendous things, and then use the same bullying tactics to force others to do what they want on a national level because they think they are right, I am disturbed. Triggered if you will.
David Hogg "no person with a mental illness should own a weapon"
Really kid? I am sorry but i work with kids you would find mentally unstable and I want them to be able to defend themselves. You have no idea what you are saying by ostracizing a whole part of society you don't understand. You aren't fixing a problem you are creating an enemy that doesn't exist.
Absolutely people with depression and severe mental illness should be watched for abnormal patterns that could lead to horrendous incidents like this, but my God, you don't just blanket an issue as mental illness.
Be the change you want to see in the world it starts with the individual, by being there for others, and bettering humanity one person at a time, not by excluding someone for being different and forcing them to feel alone and desperate for attention, it's a kind word that you went out of your way for. That simple smile or friendly hello, it's that moment when they are awkwardly standing there adding them to the conversation.
It's not about making them your best friend, it's about being human and remembering how you would feel in that situation, and do better.
I was a weird kid, truly weird, and did a lot of things to take my mind off it, and I made it, and so many others did, but some of us didn't and it becomes too much, be better than us, and be the example for a better future, not for 15minutes of Fame for doing the right thing, but doing it when no one is watching, because it is right.
