What's Next?

Now that we have a background on in general how school violence is reported on and why school violence happens, what is a specific example of school violence being reported?

The example that I will be using to analyze is: Melanie Conn and the bullying that she endured.

The title of the first article on found on this girl was, "Melanie Conn, 13-Year-Old, Bound In Plastic Wrap By Boy Bullies While Waiting For School Bus," the article was posted on September 5, 2011 on the Huffington Post. (1)

The girl was allegedly wrapped in plastic wrap by two of her male peers while waiting for the school bus in Ormond beach, Florida. However the twist to this story is that the bus driver who knew about the incident did nothing. The bus driver doing nothing goes against the school district's policy on how bullying and violence is to be reported.

This article (1) begins by talking about this 13 year-old girl, and then moves onto how bullying and violence across the nation is not being reported and how even when adults to intervene on the violence sometimes they themselves become victims.

The mother of this girl, like most parents, feels that the school should have stepped in and that not enough disciplinarily is being done. (2) The mother of one of the bullies who had wrapped the girl up stated that she does not fully understand why her son would do this since he has been a victim of bullying himself. (2)

In my opinion bullying like this does happen everyday and the way that the media reported on this story makes it seem as if the girl is after media attention since while being interviewed even stated that this incident is not a joke and that this is very serious. However, bullying like this happening everyday is not acceptable and should be taken care of. This girl and her mother should not be being portrayed as attention hungry, but rather as the victims that they are.

The school should also be taking responsibility for this incident and should be responding in a more direct way. The statements that the school district made also make it seem as if the girl should have just kept her mouth shut about the incident, as if the incident was not that big of a deal and was just some harmless fun.

This is a girl who was scared and bullied, she is the victim and she should be portrayed in that way.

To see the video about this incident you can click here, this is from the Huffington Post article.

Sources:
1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/melanie-conn-13-year-old-_n_1858325.html
2 http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/bullies-bind-teen-girl-plastic-wrap-chin-waist-couldn-free-article-1.1152567