Franklin Regional Stabbing (lawyers, house, teachers)

[norcider]

My hunch ( and i'm sure many others, it's not really a stretch to make that assumption in these cases) regarding bullying is starting to emerge as a possible motive. Of course the school will minimize any reports of bullying because they will want to appear ignorant if it was indeed happening and nothing was being done about it.

[dbsteel]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

If anyone read the long article in today's Post-Gazette Murrysville: Once near-perfect, now shaken, resilient - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, there are a few paragraphs that caught my attention because the following statements were made with no further comment by the reporter. There is no other mention of bullying in the article.

Ya that bothered me too. I have a 4 year old and one of the reasons we moved here was to get into a good school district..... but this sounds messed up. Isn't this a huge red flag?

[dbsteel]

Originally Posted by jay5835

Wasn't that creepy?

I picture them at school tomorrow, deciding who they want to play them in the inevitable made-for-tv movie. And the newsers and newsettes are even worse. One station even created "theme music." I was expecting a "Misery in Murrysville" bumper.

That whole Captain America thing to me was very creepy. The selfie shot was stupid too. You just want to smack that look off the kids face. I'm starting to wonder about this district......

[sparrowmint]

Originally Posted by dbsteel

Ya that bothered me too. I have a 4 year old and one of the reasons we moved here was to get into a good school district..... but this sounds messed up. Isn't this a huge red flag?

"Good school district" information is always concerned with test scores, advanced academic program availability, art program availability, demographics, and stuff like that. Horrific bullying happens everywhere, and middle and upper middle class kids can be masters of psychological warfare, as much as any other kid can be. Anyone from a "good" school telling one that bullying doesn't happen there is likely a bully themselves, a parent to a bully, or someone actively involved in suppressing victims of bullying. Nastiness is everywhere, and social media makes it worse.

[dbsteel]

Originally Posted by sparrowmint

"Good school district" information is always concerned with test scores, advanced academic program availability, art program availability, demographics, and stuff like that. Horrific bullying happens everywhere, and middle and upper middle class kids can be masters of psychological warfare, as much as any other kid can be. Anyone from a "good" school telling one that bullying doesn't happen there is likely a bully themselves, a parent to a bully, or someone actively involved in suppressing victims of bullying. Nastiness is everywhere, and social media makes it worse.

Al of this I understand. I just seem to hear and read about it more here, but maybe that's because I live here. When I hear multiple people quoted in a paper that its just a way of life at FR, that bothers me.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by dbsteel

Al of this I understand. I just seem to hear and read about it more here, but maybe that's because I live here. When I hear multiple people quoted in a paper that its just a way of life at FR, that bothers me.

I'm sure it bothers most people. It does happen everywhere. The student I know whose classmate told to go kill herself was attending a small Catholic school. There are plenty of news stories of similar bullying all over the country. The 24/7 social media bullying is definitely more damaging than anything we experienced as children. There's more reporting on it because of awareness and also there's more concrete evidence of bullying via facebook that didn't exist as proof in the past.

[sparrowmint]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I'm sure it bothers most people. It does happen everywhere. The student I know whose classmate told to go kill herself was attending a small Catholic school. There are plenty of news stories of similar bullying all over the country. The 24/7 social media bullying is definitely more damaging than anything we experienced as children. There's more reporting on it because of awareness and also there's more concrete evidence of bullying via facebook that didn't exist as proof in the past.

All of that and the fact that the tide is turning a little bit on bullying, especially verbal bullying, being an actual bad thing. Attitudes of "suck it up" and "it's a part of life, get used to it" used to be even more pervasive than they are now (though those attitudes are still too common).

Within a handful of hours of the stabbing, someone (maybe more than one person) from FR rushed to the Pittsburgh subreddit to say that Hribal wasn't bullied. It just screamed suppression of the real story to me.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by sparrowmint

It just screamed suppression of the real story to me.

That was obvious to me the first day when the school district said they weren't aware of bullying, and the police department said they were investigating bullying as a matter of routine and the didn't believe bullying was a factor. That screamed cover up to me. Now that this parent says he provided proof that the attacker was bullied to the police the very day of the attack, it's hard to not suspect a cover up.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by Hopes

That was obvious to me the first day when the school district said they weren't aware of bullying, and the police department said they were investigating bullying as a matter of routine and the didn't believe bullying was a factor. That screamed cover up to me. Now that this parent says he provided proof that the attacker was bullied to the police the very day of the attack, it's hard to not suspect a cover up.

Franklingate.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by villageidiot1

I don't buy into the idea that "jocks have the biggest bullies among them." I think this is a stereotype from movies and television shows. I sub in different schools and coach, and my children all played various sports. I don't see or hear the bullying that is talked about.

Well you see, I'm not saying it's the case for you, but I know when I was in HS the parents and coaches never thought there was a problem with their athlete children either.

Don't get me wrong, some of the "best" people in my high school were high-profile athletes. But some of the lowest of the low were "jocks" too, and no adult ever saw or heard (or wanted to hear) about that either.

I knew some people that taught for a while in the Steubenville school district. I heard all about how respectful and full of "good kids" their football program was (at least until several months ago).