Recently, with the second season of the South Korean revenge drama “Dark Glory,” the scenes of campus violence suffered by the heroine in her youth have also aroused a high degree of discussion, and the fig leaf of campus bullying has once again been unveiled.
It turns out that children are not only cute and kind, but also have the appearance of demons on earth. Recently, two school violence incidents occurred in New Jersey, but the reality of the ending is not as happy as the revenge of the TV heroine.
01
Recently, a 14-year-old girl in New Jersey was beaten by her classmates, and the process of her bullying was also filmed and posted online, causing the victim to commit suicide. More than 200 students protested on campus.
It is understood that the incident occurred in Berkeley, NSW, the suicide of the girl named Adriana Kuch, who was attending Central Regional High School.
Police said that two days before Kucci’s suicide, a video was circulated online for about 20 seconds, in which Kucci was beaten by four students in the school hallway. Kucci was still punched and kicked after she was fallen to the ground, and her hair was pulled. In the video, the perpetrators laughed loudly and repeatedly insulted Kucci with rude words.
That night, the person who filmed the video posted the video of him punching and kicking her, and also @ Cooch’s social media accounts.
The video went viral inside the school, and the bullies used it to harass Cookie, taunting and humiliating her with malicious text messages. This endless bullying, which extends from the real school to the virtual online world, has left her with almost no escape.
In the end, Cooch was unbearable. On February 3, 2023, she committed suicide in her bedroom closet.
It is reported that the four bullies have been bullying her for months, insulting, beating and assaulting her, but the school has never actually stopped such bullying.
What is even more shocking is that after the attack, the school refused her request to attend school in the name of rehabilitation, but allowed the bullies to continue their classes.
Kutch’s father said the school was reluctant to expel bullies because it would cost the school the income provided by its four students. However, he did not give up, he asked the relevant departments to hold the school’s actions accountable.
Ultimately, the four students suspected of bullying Kutch were expelled from the school and face multiple charges. One of the students was charged with aggravated assault, two others were charged with criminal conspiracy and another was charged with harassment.
As more media attention and local residents continued to protest, the head of the school finally resigned.
02
In February, another 11-year-old girl in New Jersey committed suicide at school. On April 1, the mother of the girl who died said her daughter had been bullied at school, but the school did not take any action after learning about it.
She said on social media that her daughter, Felicia LoAlbo-Melendez, fell into a coma in the school’s health room on February 6 and died two days later.
The Burlington County Attorney’s Office confirmed in a statement that on the day F. W. Holbein School One of the students was found unconscious in the bathroom, was taken to a local hospital and transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he died two days later.
Felicia’s mother said her daughter was often bullied at school. She also wrote an email to school officials a month before her death, suggesting they start a “trauma club”: a safe space where students can talk about trauma or stress.
In the week before her death, Felicia also sent numerous emails to the school administration informing them that she and her friends had been bullied, saying that it was “illegal” for the school not to take action, but that nothing had been done, leading to the tragedy.
The girl’s mother said: “The bullying that Felicia and other children have suffered should not be covered up.”
03
CDC Adolescent Risk Behavior Survey
In young girls in America, assault and other traumatic experiences are leading to unprecedented levels of hopelessness and suicidal thinking.
The CDC’s 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey shows a striking trend: Nearly three-fifths (57 percent) of teenage girls say they feel “constant sadness or despair,” the highest rate in a decade.Thirty percent said they had seriously considered suicide, a rise of nearly 60 percent over the past decade.
Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, said teenage girls are suffering the brunt of violence and trauma, which is affecting their mental health.
He also lamented: “These numbers are unprecedented.”
The survey has been conducted every two years for the past 30 years and involved 17,232 U.S. high school students.
In the past year, more than 40% of boys and girls reported feeling so sad or hopeless that they were unable to participate in normal school activities for at least two weeks. In terms of gender differences, the researchers found that girls were more likely than boys to report this feeling.
In addition, the CDC noted an increase in the incidence of sexual violence among girls, with one in five girls saying they had experienced sexual violence in the past year, and 14 percent of respondents saying they had been forced to , up from 11 percent in 2019.
Although anxiety and depression among adolescents rose during the epidemic, the trend began to take shape years ago, especially among girls. The CDC report calls for more programs in schools, such as sex education, to address the ongoing mental health crisis.
04What should international students do when they encounter campus bullying?
It doesn’t matter what your gender, skin color, clothes or language you speak,it’s not your fault if you are bullied. Each of us is unique, and that’s what makes us unique.
If you are being bullied,distract the perpetrator and create an opportunity to escape the situation.
Don’t feel like a loser. Remember, the most important thing is to tell someone you trust about it. Seek help from a trusted teacher or family member, and report the situation to the school and the police.
Preserve evidence. Keep a record of when it happened and who was involved. If bullying occurred online, also keep any evidence of it, including photos, videos, text messages, emails or posts.
Don’t take retaliatory action.If you retaliate after being bullied, trying to embarrass and hurt the other person, or fighting back – that’s not the wise.You could end up in trouble or hurt yourself even more.
Only surround yourself with people who make you feel good. If someone keeps putting you down, they aren’t really friends and aren’t worth your time. You don’t have to be friends with everyone, but you should make it clear that you do not like being bullied.
Be kind to yourself and do things that make you feel good. Relax and meet new people, it’s your life, so make sure it’s the best.
05Epilogue
In every country, there is school violence. For the bully who was at the center of the whirlpool at the time, every cold look, every malicious “joke,” every piece of paper full of gossip, will likely be the last straw to crush TA.
Many students report bad news to their families in China, and even more dare not speak out when they have no one to rely on overseas. In fact, the more grievances you have, the more you should speak out, so that parents and schools can understand the harm you have endured, so that they can better solve the problem and prevent it from happening again.
Forgiveness is the forgiveness of sins.However, while studying abroad, students should remember that life is the first principle. They should learn to say “no” bravely and make their own voice heard when dealing with school violence or bullying while keeping themselves safe.
