Gabrielle Norfleet 1

Gabrielle Norfleet
Life of a Lost Soul from Bullying

On Tuesday March 18
th
, I received a call from my volunteer job at the EMS squad. The call
stated there was a 13 year old boy whose father called and said his son was passed out on the bathroom
floor. The boy was in an unstable condition and needed immediate help. With only being right down the
street, I drove to the squad, got my gear on, jumped into the ambulance, and off we went to the house.
When we first arrived the father told us he had found his son lying on the bathroom floor and wasnt
waking up. One EMT, Alex, took the information from the father, while the other EMT, Tyler, and I;
went down the hall to find a young boy passed out on the bathroom floor. We quickly turned him over
onto his back, and found that there was no pulse. I started doing the 30 compressions. Pushing down on
this 13 year old boys chest, trying to get him to breathe again, knowing I would be breaking at least one
of his ribs because of the force. Tyler did the two breathes, while I noticed there was blood from a cut on
his forehead. He then yelled at me to stop and back away from the boy. He started to seize, all we could
do was watch until he stopped. Then he started to foam out his mouth. Tyler went over and turned him
on his side. He tried to get the boy to throw up, in order to get anything that was in his stomach out. It
didnt work. Tyler backed away as the boy stopped seizing. We then started compression with an air bag
to force the air into his lungs. After a couple more minutes, he was done. The 13 year old had no pulse.
We yelled for the AED. Tyler put the pads on the boys chest, then yelled, CLEAR. Everyone stepped
back. He tried it again, trying to shock the boys heart to make it beat again. There was still no pulse. I
started to get upset and yelled at Tyler to keep going, that we could save him, but, there had been no pulse
for too long. We did everything we could to get him stable enough to put him in the ambulance, and
bring him to the hospital, but we couldnt. Alex grabbed me and pulled me away, told me that he and
Tyler would take care of the rest. I walked outside to the back of the ambulance, sat there, and broke
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down cryingThis young 13 year old boy had just died from overdosing on prescription drugs when he
came home from school.
This young boy was in 8
th
grade, on his way into the high school in couple months. After a
couple months went by, and the investigations about the boys suicide were finished, the police report was
done, and shown to us EMTs. There was a past case of bullying of the boy when he was in 7
th
grade, but
the report stated that the harassment was resolved by actions of the middle school, even though no further
actions were stated by the middle school. The boys parents were also recently divorced. The report said
that when asking the father about how his son reacted to the divorce, he said that his son changed. His
mood swings increased, he had become very distant and quiet from the rest of the world around him.
Theres a reason a child comes home from school, and overdoses to the point they want to die.
When a child does this, something is wrong, in the sense that there was a certain amount of pressure and
stress on this child to break him enough and make himself overdose. When a change in personality and
moods in a young teen occurs, especially after parents getting divorced, something should be done.
Between the stresses of a family falling apart, and classmates bullying an 8
th
grade student with the school
not taking an action on the bullying, the pain and stress can be too much for that child to handle. Making
them end their lives, because the help they needed, that should have been given to prevent the suicide
from occurring, wasnt taken into consideration.
A survey done in the United Kingdom evaluated 5, 7, 10, and 12 year olds, to test whether
bullying in early child development increased the rate of self-harm later on in life. The test showed that,
bullying and parental mistreatment often occurred to the same children, and problems parenting have
been associated with elevated rates of self-harm. If the survey stayed the same size, a population fraction
would have suggested that, if bullying could have been eliminated, a sizeable proportion of the cases of
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self-harm could potentially have been prevented.
3
Data
1
has been found to show that poor parenting can be
associated with self-harm in cases of bullying.
An article a New York Times called, Felony Counts for 2 in Suicide of Bullied 12-Year-Old,
Rebecca Ann Sedwick was a seventh grader in Lakeland in central Florida. She jumped from an
abandoned cement factory, after being in person bullied and cyberbullied on and off for over a year. A
sheriff who was involved in the case said, Im aggravated that the parents are not doing what parents
should do: after she is questioned and involved in this, why does she even have a device? Parents, who
instead of taking that device and smashing it into a thousand pieces in front of that child, say her account
was hacked. Watch what your children do online, Sheriff Judd said. Pay attention. Quit being their best
friend and be their best parent. Thats important.
4
A parents shouldnt be their childs best friend, they
should be their parent. Taking away the girls phone, and deactivating her Facebook account could have
solved the problem of cyberbullying. The school then should have taken action on the rest of the face-to-
face bullying on the school grounds.
But, self-harm doesnt always happen and occur by excesses amounts of poor parenting, but also
from bullying. The amount of pressure and stress that bullying puts on a child, can take a great tool on a
young teen. Schools can only do so much about the bullying, but if witnessed by faculty, theyre
supposed to take action.
In another New York Times article called, 6 Teenagers Are Charged After Classmates Suicide,
a Massachusetts high school failed to take action on bullying.
2
A freshman named Phoebe Prince, hung
herself from a stairwell in January of 2010 because of six teenagers who were threatening and taunting
the girl. It was particularly alarming, the district attorney said, that some teachers, administrators and
other staff members at the school were aware of the harassment but did not stop it. The prospective

3
Helen L Fisher et at., Bullying victimisation and risk of self harm in early adolescence: longitudinal cohort
study, doi: 10.1136/e2683.

4
Lizette Alvarez, Felony Counts for 2 in Suicide of Bullied 12-Year-Old,
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law, is aimed at changing school cultures and preventing bullying, but would not label bullying a crime
because it is a vague concept. These indictments tell us that middle school and high school kids are not
immune from criminal laws, Mr. Trestan said. If they violate them in the course of bullying someone,
theyll be held accountable. We dont need to create a new crime. Although the schools broke no laws,
no actions by the teachers were taken into effect, when they knew the girl was being bullied on school
grounds.
2

Suicide from bullying however, is not just caused by parents and schools failure to take action,
but also, the child or teens failure to tell someone. If the teenager doesnt tell anyone they are bullying,
then no one can do anything about the problem. The child or teenager is at fault in this case, for not
telling anyone about being bullied.
A child should never fear having no help; a person will and should always be there for them. As
technology increases, the cases of bullying have increased due to cyberbullying. Middle school and high
school faculty should be educated on the dangers, risks, and prevention of bullying. Theres no reason for
a faculty member of a high school or middle school to stand by and watch a student get bullied. All cases
or suspensions of bullying, harassment, or taunting in schools, should be reported and taken care of.
Statistics reported by ABC News, state that nearly 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims of
bullying, and 160,000 kids stay home from school every day because of fear of bullying.
1
School is
supposed to be a safe learning environment, not a fear for students. Parents should let their children know
that they are there to help. Be a parent, not a best friend. Suicide from bullying is 100% preventable, if
the right person steps up and does something about the problem. The 13 year old boy I first told you
about, passed away from this. If only someone was there to help him, he could still be alive today. Do
not just let bullying go. Speak out and take action. You never know, you could be helping save a childs
life from suicide of bullying.

1
Bullying and Suicide, Bullying Statistics.

2 Erik Eckholm and Katie Zezima, 6 Teenagers Are Charged After Classmates Suicide,
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Works Cited

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1. Bullying and Suicide, Bullying Statistics, accessed April 1, 2014,
http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/bullying-and-suicide.html

2. Erik Eckholm and Katie Zezima, 6 Teenagers Are Charged After Classmates Suicide,
New York Times, March 29, 2010, accessed April 2, 2014,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/us/30bully.html.

3. Helen L Fisher et at., Bullying victimisation and risk of self harm in early adolescence:
longitudinal cohort study, BMJ 344:e2683 (2012), accessed April 2, 2014, doi: 10.1136/e2683.

4. Lizette Alvarez, Felony Counts for 2 in Suicide of Bullied 12-Year-Old, New York
Times, October 15, 2013, accessed April 2, 2014,
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/us/felony-charges-for-2-girls-in-suicide-of-bullied-12-year-
old-rebecca-sedwick.html.