Indifferent: A Short Story About The Consequences Of Bullying
Bianca eventually confided in her parents about the struggles and they reported the bullies to the school. Bianca told me that she was relieved when they said the school would “take care of it”. However, this relief was short-lived. The school were passive on their action, as I would later discover most schools were. In court, the principal had documentation of contacting the parents to discuss this issue with their children. They had also called for a meeting between Bianca and all of her bullies, but nothing was ever arranged. The parents of all of the bullies all insisted they would take care of things at home.
This wasn’t documented in court, but the school likely did nothing drastic because of who the parents of the bullies were. As I just mentioned earlier, Bambi and Tiffany were the daughters of the O’Haras who owned several Pubs. Ashley’s parents were the biggest donors of the school who came from old money from Chicago. Tamba’s parents were in charge of the Night School for Adult Learners on our campus. The principal and others didn’t want to risk their reputation or their monetary donations for one student. I was glad when the Educational Superintendent asked our now formal Principal to resign. He and the former Principal also made a public apology to Bianca, to her parents, and to the community.
Bianca never told her parents about any of the bullies again, even when the bullying got worse. It was because, as she told me, “it would be no use”. Anything she or her parents said would have been disregarded like before. It didn’t make it right, or fair, but it was understood to be “the way it was”. After the fruitless report, the gang started to bully her passive aggressively at school and then torment her on Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook. I knew about the bullying at school, but I didn’t know about any of cyberbullying. Everyone except me knew about the accounts. No one was brave enough to come forward; they were afraid of retaliation.
Bianca was a “bullycide” victim.
During the late stages of the prosecution’s presentations, it was revealed that the monsters had created Tumblr pages to torment her. Travis wasn’t involved in any of that, which is a saving grace for him. Travis knew they had been editing images on Photoshop on Ashley’s iPad, but he had no idea that they were publishing them online. At least, that’s what he professed in court. Their Tumblr page titled “stupid white bitch LOL” was merciless to my friend:
“Bianca is a waste of space!”
“The fat whale should go die,” accompanied by terribly photo shopped images of her with a pregnant belly.
“Bianca go kill yourself you will never amount to anything. WASTE OF SPACE!”
There were terribly edited images of Bianca and her “favorite teacher” Mrs. Ernest hugging each other naked. And much worse than that.
The girls each took time to edit at least one image. Ashley was the one who did the most images. I have to wonder her motivation towards such sick imagery. Society says that boys are usual mean to girls because “they like them”. I now believe that it doesn’t matter about the sex of the person; Anyone could be mean to someone to show “they liked them”. It hardly made it right.
I think if Ashely would have been honest and told Bianca that she found her attractive, a lot of heartache could have been avoided. Why do I think Ashley found Bianca attractive? Ashley edited several pornographic images of platinum blondes making out with a badly photoshopped image of Bianca. It sent chills through my spine and sent a severe sick feeling down my stomach.
Those girls had so much hatred, conflicting feelings, and free time on their hands.
The only thing that was stronger than my hate towards those evil girls was my drive to start the Anti-Bullying Club. My therapist says I should work towards forgiveness someday to start the healing process. We agree to disagree. I’ll forgive if and when I want to.
As I mentioned earlier, Mrs. Ernest was the teacher who agreed to be faculty supervisor of our club. She and Bianca had gotten along very well, and she was devastated by the loss of her. I believe she became the faculty supervisor out of obligation for a situation she still could have done nothing about.
I remember that sometimes Bianca would be accused of being Mrs. Ernest’s “pet” (which explains why there were photoshopped images of her and Bianca in compromising positions). Sometimes Travis would shout in the hallways that Bianca was “sexual with Miss Ernest”. No one ever took that accusation seriously. Well, maybe some shallow idiots who also took the wet t-shirt stunt seriously.
