There are a few things a school should be for a student. It should be an institution of learning. It should be a place where students can make friends and have a social life. And it should be a safe haven.
But many youngsters do not find their school as a safe haven. Fifth-grader Delanie Marcotte is one of those students. Delanie attends Pollard Elementary School in Plaistow, New Hampshire, and every day she goes there, she is in sheer dread. She is relentlessly bullied by both verbal and physical abuse. It has even gone so far as this 11-year-old girl receiving death threats by some of the other students at the school.
Says Delanie: “They kick me and they say mean things, call me names – it’s not nice.”
Delanie and her parents talked to school officials about it, but nothing was done. And the bullying continued.
Says Delanie’s father, Todd: “It is very hard to watch your child get bullied, hear about it day in and day out, and you do get very aggravated. It’s an issue, and it’s an issue that has to be addressed.”
The parents of one of the students bullying Delanie even confronted her parents, wanting to know why they were trying to get their son in trouble. Parents sometimes just don’t think their angel children can do any wrong. But, then again, no parent really wants to think that way about their child. So finally, Delanie and her parents were fed up. Enough was enough. They took it to the school board.
This was what Delanie, with a trembling voice, told them: “I am here to talk about a problem that means a lot to me — bullying. Bullying is a problem in our school. I am a victim of it. My parents have contacted the school about it, but it continues. It happened to me and my classmates. I have been asked by the mother of my bully during a school field trip why I tried to get her son in trouble. I have been threatened to get shot in the head by an AK-47 and buried in my back yard and many other things. I ask you what are you going to do to protect me and my classmates against bullying. I am here to stand up for every kid that gets bullied.”
This took courage.
Posted by Todd Marcotte on Saturday, 9 June 2018
Well, Delanie made quite an impact on the board, with school district superintendent Earl F. Metzler saying: “We will continue to encourage all students to speak up when they see, hear or experience something that makes them uncomfortable. The same holds true for parents and community members. There are many vehicles… to share your concerns including, but not limited to, the public comment portion of our School Board agenda.”
But, really, in the end, she wanted to know what THEY were gonna do to put an end to it. And perhaps all school districts should be thinking along those lines.
