Thursday, September 30, 2010

....And Again....Only With a Slightly Happy Ending

Tyler Wilson is eleven-years-old, and the latest victim of school bullying. Only this story has a semi-happy ending because Tyler Wilson isn't dead by his own hand. This time the bullies didn't break his spirit, they broke his arm, because Tyler wants to be a cheerleader.

Kristy Wilson, Tyler's mom, is furious that her son's school didn't do more to stop at least two boys who have been tormenting her son, and beat him up so badly that he may have to have surgery to fix the broken bone.

As for Tyler Wilson, well, broken arm and all, he has vowed that he will not stop cheering, because he wants to use that talent to get into college, telling a local news channel, "I'm going to keep going."

This all started because, over the summer, Tyler Wilson joined a youth football cheerleading squad because of his love for gymnastics and tumbling, He also thought it might help him get into college.

Kristy Wilson was slightly concerned, talking to him about the idea that he might get picked on for cheering, but she didn't think it would turn violent.  "The first thing I wanted to make sure of, when he said he was going to join cheerleading, that he understood the possibility was there that he would get teased and made fun of and he was ok dealing with it," Kristy Wilson said. Tyler joined the squad anyway, and the teasing and taunts started on his first day back to school.

At first, Tyler was just as was verbally combative with the bullies as they'd been with him, but his mother told him to tell the boys that their taunts didn't bother him, and to just keep on walking. But then Tyler came home with a broken arm and Kristy Wilson found out just how vicious the boys had been towards her son.

According to Kristy Wilson, and the police report she filed, Tyler was on his way home when two of these bullies approached him and punched him. Tyler tried to ignore them and keep on walking, but the boys followed, punching and shoving him along the way. These little skirmishes began to escalate until one of the boys picked Tyler up and slammed him on the ground, breaking his arm. 

Kristy Wilson called the police, and then went to the Glenwood Middle School to speak with school officials about the incident, and was shocked at what she learned. She was told, by the principal, that before the boys attacked Tyler on his way home, there had been two separate, previous occasions where the boys had started to fight with Tyler.

Kristy Wilson is furious that the school knew of at least two times that her son had been tormented, bullied and attacked, but that they never called her. She says that, had she known, she would have removed Tyler from the school.

She is also angry at the parents of the two boys, because of what she sees as a lack of response from them over what their two boys did to Tyler. "In my opinion I'm responsible for my child, and have a moral responsibility for my child," Wilson said, adding that If Tyler had broken a boy's arm she would reach out to the parents, offer to help with medical costs or anything else needed.

And you wonder where bullies come from; perhaps it arises from the indifference of their own parents in their own home, so their feel the need to lash out at anyone who is perceived by them to be different. Perhaps that parental indifference leads these bullies to believe that they can get away with anything. Only they can't. 

Lt. Charles Wilson, of the Findlay Police Department told ABC News that both boys involved in the fight have been charged in youth court: "One has been charged with felonious assault, the other with simple assault. One is a felony and one is a misdemeanor. It breaks down to the injuries. The broken arm is a felony."  

The second boy was involved only as far as "kicking and hitting" Tyler.

Kicking.And.Hitting. he names of the two bullies are being withheld because they are minors. 

And as for the school, well it's the same old song and dance. They say that action will be taken, that action has been taken, but that they can't comment on it.

How about commenting on the fact that the principal knew of at least two different occasions when Tyler Wilson was attacked, yet he didn't bother to pick up a phone and call Kristy Wilson?

Assistant Superintendent Craig Kupferberg said: "Glenwood Middle School has taken steps to help resolve the situation between the boys. Any kind of bullying -- physical, cyber, we're constantly trying to help students work through these situations or prevent these situations."

The school just gives up, citing programs and policies that are ineffectual at best because no one bothers to follow them.

Tyler Wilson, though, will not give up. Even with his arm in a sling, he is still cheering.
"In the last game of season my son is cheering against his team. Tyler plans on showing up, and the cheer parents volunteered to act as a security detail," Kristy Wilson said. "The only thing that Tyler has said, he is sad because people can't accept him for who he is."

According to Wilson male cheerleaders from high school and colleges across the country have reached out to Tyler to lend their support, and tell him not to give up something he loves. 

Nor should he. 


source

2 comments:

  1. These bullies probably see violent behavior in their own home and think it's perfectly normal when their parents do it. Seriously. I strongly believe it gets passed down from one generation to another that way.

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  2. I hate to say but in Our culture gay bashing is a sport. Specially when you have Ann Cutler bashing REproud crew, and they paying for it. It will be nice to asked them what they think about the young ones that live in fear and do not have the finances to spend sometime abroad when they can not take the heat?

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