BULLYING. A word that invokes images of nerds and jocks and the countless funny TV and movie encounters, is back in the news today after an 8 year old boy is found dead in his home. Gabriel Taye is believed to have committed suicide after a "bullying" instance that left him laying unconscious on a bathroom floor for six minutes while his classmates poked at him. The problem with the use of the word bullying is the connotation, the idea or feeling that the word invokes. When we hear it, it brings up images of small school yard skirmishes that have no real consequence. The reality is much different. Bullying is used to describe crimes such as harassment, theft, assault, battery, manslaughter and even murder. We cannot allow the people perpetrating these acts to diminish the severity of the grief they inflict and hide their crimes behind a belittled label. Assault is assault, and it should be called and treated like it no matter where it is done. The proper reaction just might save a life. Learn more about the laws that surround bullying and the crimes that it entails here.
