When I heard the news, I remember thinking, ”No, don’t do that. You don’t have to do that. It’s not your fault. Lots of people screwed up, didn’t see it coming. You may not see it now, but you have a lot to live for….”
The story of 41-year-old acting CEO of the mortgage colossus Freddie Mac, who hung himself last month over the collapse of his enterprise, really hit me hard. He had a family, including a young daughter. He had choices, even if he couldn’t seem them through the fog of overwork and depression that had consumed him. “Just walk away from the mortgage business,” I would have told him. “Let it go and do something else.”
About that same time, I received an e-mail from the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) about another suicide. This one was of a Massachusetts middle school student who hung himself after being taunted and bullied over his supposed sexual orientation. A similar incident happened with a Georgia boy. The students “didn’t identify as gay,” GLSEN said. But, of course, it makes no difference. No child — gay or straight — should have to endure that kind of abuse.
Like the CEO from Freddie Mac, the boys from Massachusetts and Georgia must have concluded that they had no other options. They were children, after all. They had to go to school. And school was the place where the bullies were waiting.
As school board members and administrators, you do have choices and the power to make your schools safer and more welcoming places for all children, regardless of race, color, ethnicity, disability, economic circumstances, sexual orientation, or any other distinction. To get started, GLSEN offers these four steps districts can take.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the absurdity of zero tolerance policies for things like drugs or weapons. Certainly, we should have zero tolerance for bullying, whatever that means; but I think a more appropriate term is one GLSEN uses: “zero indifference.”
It suggests not just a reaction to the most egregious abuses, but an active philosophy of inclusiveness and a commitment to creating school environments that reflect that ideal.
In September, ASBJ will take an in-depth look at bullying as Managing Editor Kathleen Vail revisits the issues she explored 10 years ago in her cover story, “Words that Wound.” Let us hope that 10 years from now we can say we did everything we could to make our schools safer for all children.
Lawrence Hardy, Senior Editor
