Bullying Blamed for 11-Year-Old London Girl's Suicide

Parents of 11-year-old Hailey Petee blame bullying for the loss of their daughter the past weekend in London, Ohio. Melinda Groce, the young girl’s mother, was aware of the bullying situation and even attempted to remove her daughter from the particular circumstances that led to her torment.   The bullying itself did not take place on school grounds but rather around town and on the school bus.

"I had her transfer to a different bus and I wouldn't let her go anywhere in town unless it was to her neighbor's, where they had built her a clubhouse, or to her friends house," Groce said.

Although it appeared to her parents that the young fifth grader was doing better, Hailey’s internal turmoil must have been too much to bear.

The London City School District is grieving along with Hailey’s parents and the community. 

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Teen Gives Anit-Bullying Advice To Other Teens

Brigitte Berman, an 18 year-old freshman at New York University, is now using her past bullying experiences to help teens. She used this, as well as other peoples stories, as inspiration to write a book - "Dorie Witt: A Guide to Surviving Bullies" which is now being used as part of the curriculum in about 20 schools across the state.

Brigitte now does presentations at schools spreading the anti bullying message to teens, including recently at the Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech.

She told the students about her experience in eighth grade when her best friend stopped speaking to her and all of the girls in her grade followed suit. One day, she walked into the cafeteria for lunch and no one would let her sit down, blocking seats with legs or bags.

The pain of that moment is something she still carries with her, she said. But it also prompted her to take action.

"Yes, I was hurt," Berman said, "but what am I going to do with that?"

That's when she decided to write her book where she encouraged students to use their voices, both to ask for help if they were being bullied and to speak up against bullying they observed.

At Voc-Tech, Pat Thibeault and Diane Hodge, two ninth-grade health teachers, have used the book to spark discussion in class while also asking ninth-graders to keep a journal responding to different sections of the book.

"I think it's made them think a little bit more aware," said Thibeault. She added later: "I think it has been very eye-opening to them that they're not the only ones who've gone through this."

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Lady Gaga Teams Up With Yale To Stop Bullying

Lady Gaga is one of the biggest names in anti-bullying. She started the Born This Way Foundation back in 2011 in an attempt to raise awareness of bullying and to teach others to embrace differences and individuality and helping youth deal with the problems they face.



She is now taking that message and making it mobile with the "Born This Way Bus". The Bus will be offering information on anti-bullying and suicide prevention services to young fans at 30 concerts, including one in Connecticut coming up in March. 


Yale scientist Dr. Marc Brackett will be monitoring and analyzing the success of the bus as it makes it's rounds. 
"The bigger project really is to help Lady Gaga and her foundation do the right kind of messaging to the world for bullying prevention and also help them evaluate what they're doing so they're doing it with real research minds behind it," said Dr. Brackett. "She's trying to eliminate the stigma associated with getting help when you need it for mental health problems but also making people aware that we have to live in a braver and kinder world."

Dr. Brackett has studied programs like the zero tolerance policies school put into place which don't have much effect in the long run.
It will be interesting to see if star power will have more of an effect on younger kids seeing as so much of today's society is celebrity-based. Do you think celebrities will get kids to listen more and bully less?


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