If Jon Carmichael were Jane Carmichael...

…

…would his tragic suicide receive more attention than it did? Sadly, it may have. Not only was Jon Carmichael’s plight of continuous bullying ignored while he was in school but it seems it hasn’t received that much attention after his death either. Maybe if he were a teenage girl it would be different.

   I am sure most have heard of Phoebe Prince, the 15 year old girl from Massachusetts who killed herself after being bullied by classmates... Perhaps her story is receiving more attention because of the cyber bullying issue or could it be that if she had been a smaller boy who was cyber bullied, the story would have just gone away?

   Megan Meier.  She was the 13 year old girl who had a prank pulled on her over the internet.  I am sure many know of her too. A mother of a boy she liked pretended to be him and then dump her; resulting in her suicide.

    Now, in comparison, how many have heard of Eric Mohat?  Ryan Halligan?  Daniel Scruggs? And the latest…Jon Carmichael? Go ahead…Google these names and see what you come up with.   See how much attention their bully related suicides have received.   

   Eric Mohat was a taller, lankier, nerdy 17 year old from Ohio who was tormented relentlessly and was perceived as being gay. Ryan Halligan was a teenage boy with some health issues and maybe had some mental issues as well. A group of girls continuously harassed and bullied him and called him a loser who they would never dream of being involved with. Daniel Scruggs was an undersized 12 year old, who was constantly physically assaulted by classmates. Where are their stories? All these boys committed suicide as a result of being bullied, yet haven’t received the same attention as have the two teenage girls.

   Now, Jon Carmichael, who was bullied because he was short, small weak etc., is going to be forgotten, as his issue was when he was in school. Jon was thrown into trash cans, into toilet bowls, had his books constantly being pushed out of his arms and was shoved into lockers. God knows what else went on with him. As a result of this and the inaction of the teachers, he took his own life on March 28^th, 2010 at the age of 13. Does anyone know about him yet?  Has his story circulated all over the news wire or has he been just a blurb? Who knows, maybe if he were Jane Carmichael, you would have heard his story a couple of weeks ago when it happened and there would be national outrage. But he was a small, nerdy boy and, as always, the fact he was bullied to death will go unnoticed once again.  

    Wake up media types and you will see that, (gasp!), small, nerdy weaker boys are being bullied to death and you don’t seem to care as much, just like you didn’t when you were in school.