Cruelty needs to stop now

No focus is not one of my strengths but I will attempt to use it today.  First thing I HAVE TO get out there is What the hell is wrong with people!?  Once again in the news a case of a 12year old girl killing herself because she felt she could not live with the bullying. TWELVE YEARS OLD and she had been bullied for years.  To the point her parents pulled her out of elementary school and home schooled her for some time before she went to middle school.  We are raising little killer pit bull children out there that cannot see the damage they are doing to other human beings here.   So who do we place the blame on in this situation?  Do we blame the kids doing the bullying, assuming they are about the same age as this young girl.  At 12 we have a full sense of what it means to be mean to someone and to hurt someone.  Do they realize the long term damage they inflict, probably not, but they are VERY aware of the pain right here and now.  So yes.  Do we blame the parents of said kids for (1) not being aware of what their children were up to.  The first time she was being bullied it was physical in-your-face bullying. This last time it was cyber bullying.  And yes if you take your child off the internet they don't see the mean things people say but as soon as you send that child to school everyone around them has seen these things and will tell the person.   Parents need to realize letting your child roam free online unsupervised is the equivalent of dropping them off in the middle of the city at night alone and saying "do whatever you are on your own".  or (2) they knew and allowed their children to treat another person this way and maybe are the person who created the bully by being one themselves.  Again, training little pit bull children. Teaching them to spot a persons weakness and tear them apart.  I see this daily at work.  Adults who treat their children worse than dogs and children who know nothing but cruelty.  So yes they are at fault too.  There is no shortage of antibullying messages out there in the mainstream media.  There could be more but I think what we really need is a focus on reaching those children who are suffering and helping them.  Helping them to see that there is life after middle school and high school and nobody should EVER have the kind of power over our lives to the point they decide we are not worth living.  Empowerment.  Not just living but thriving.  Taking back the power the bullies have and saying NO MORE! Letting that girl or boy know they are beautiful and loved and unique and they have the whole world ahead of them.  The best revenge really is living well.  Being happy.  I was a bullied teen.  Ages 12,13 and 14 the worst.  The hell years.  Feeling worthless and buying into all the evil things that people said and did.  I tried avoiding it.  Making myself invisible.  When pushed to the point I could no longer miss school I was forced to go to school principal.  Still remember to this day sitting in the office with three of the ringleaders of a group of about 15.  To hear their fake proclamations of surprise and shock that they thought I was their friend and how I must have misunderstood the situation they actually liked me.  Of course the principal bought everything they said hook line and sinker and the bus ride home was worse than ever after that.  Even after making friends the next year and finding people I connected with and starting to come out of my shell the damage was done.  The complete lack of self worth and feeling of despair was enough I tried to take my own life.  The worst thing I have ever done but it was the beginning of turning things around too.  Sitting in an emergency room looking at the pain on my parents faces I knew that suicide would never be an option.  I remember the doctors in the er scolding me telling me how selfish I was for trying that and I thought they were cruel and had no idea but it eventually sunk in they were right.  What scares me is if I had succeeded.  I had no idea at 14 the turns my life would take.  I would have missed out on my children and husband and friends and jobs and celebrations and a million moments that would not have happened or I would not have been there for.  This is the stuff we need to get through to these children that are hurting.  And I wonder...even though they don't deserve the thought but what about the people that bullied this girl.  What was their reaction to this.  Will they live with the guilt of this for the rest of their life or are they so disconnected from humanity did they laugh it off.  If that is the case they will continue. What are we as humans if not the sum of our actions.  How we treat each other.