After Students Laugh Off Anti-Bullying Assembly, a 14-Year-Old Commits Suicide

Holding anti-bullying assemblies at middle and high schools is certainly a noble effort to try and turn the tide of harassment in the classroom. Whether that harassment is based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or more, schools should be looking at ways to make combating bullying a central part of the education experience.

But if a school holds an anti-bullying assembly, and the students do nothing more than just laugh it off or make jokes about it, does it have any real teeth?

That's a question that has particular relevance today, with the word that a 14-year-old Pennsylvania student committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a tractor trailer to escape bullying at his school. The day before his suicide, the school had held an anti-bullying assembly, but as The Daily Item reports in their coverage of the suicide, many students just laughed the program off and wasted the opportunity to really look at the consequences of bullying.

And now another student is dead.

That student is Brandon Bitner, from Mount Pleasant Mills in Pennsylvania. Over the weekend, Bitner walked about 13 miles away from his home, to the intersection of two busy highways, and ran in front of a tractor-trailer. He left a suicide note, and now his classmates are weighing in with commentary on why Bitner was driven to suicide.

"It was because of bullying,” friend Takara Jo Folk wrote in a letter to The Daily Item. "It was not about race, or gender, but they bullied him for his sexual preferences and the way he dressed."

Other students sent letters to The Daily Item saying that the school district, Midd-West School District, has typically not done enough to combat bullying and homophobia inside schools.

"Nothing is done," said former Midd-West student Erin Barnett. "Bullying should be addressed in every school, and should have a punishment."

The Superintendent of the Midd-West District, Wesley Knapp, said that the district does take bullying seriously, and that the principal at Bitner's school, Cynthia Hutchinson, feels very strongly about fighting bullying. That's partly why the school had an official assembly to discuss the subject.

But again, the question comes up: if students aren't taking anti-bullying assemblies seriously, are they any more than just a waste of time? And who should be held accountable to make sure that anti-bullying programs are constructive, and not something that students can just laugh off as unimportant?

Right now, the Midd-West School District's Web site has nary any resources on it to discuss bullying in schools. Instead, there's just a quick nod on their mission statement to providing a safe space for all students.

"Our schools' effective learning environments require safety, discipline, respect, organization and high expectations for all," the district says. Great words, but they also require action, too.

Friends of Brandon Bitner have created a Facebook page for him here, to memorialize him. He was a talented musician with a gift for the violin, and judging from the number of letters that people sent speaking out about his death and bullying in local schools, it's clear he made a huge impact on a number of people.

Take a moment to write the Midd-West School District, and urge them to place a higher priority on combating bullying rooted in homophobia. No student should feel like their only option to escape bullying is suicide. And students should not be allowed to just laugh off anti-bullying programs as if they don't make a difference.

Photo credit: juliejordanscott