In a way I agree with Baez...but I also side with Judd. I'm not certain that in this case the girls should be treated equal to the way they treated Becca. I'd hate to see one of these teens commit suicide bc they can't stand not being able to fix this. My wish is that at least one of them, or even possibly both, turn their lives around, apologize to everyone that's been bullied, share their experience to help others learn the consequences before they're faced with the same issues, and to make a positive impact on change regarding bullying. Maybe something that could be done to curb bullying would be to figure out how and why a person chooses to bully another person. Find out if its something they've learned at home. Look into how these bullies view themselves. Do they love theirself? Or do they hate theirself? Help to repair them while at the same time help the victim. Idk, just thinking I guess.
I suffered some serious abuse as a kid, some of it was from home, some was from schoolmates. There were two bullies that were against me in school. Both grew up to tell me they had no idea it was that bad, yada yada. One of the girls spit on me whenever she saw me...all bc her best friend had a crush on a guy that asked me to Homecoming our 9th grade year. I had no idea this girl even liked this kid lol! So for 4 years I was spit on. Her dad was chief of police. I ran away constantly bc of my home life, which of course made my bullies speculate & bully me more. I had no recourse. I can't count the number of times I wished I'd just stop breathing when I was a teen. Anyway, years ago my ex-bully req me as a friend on FB. I pm'd her back and asked her why, is she serious right now lol, etc. She was confused, thought it was stupid stuff when we were kids. I actually talk to her now and she's very nice. Turns out she didn't have the best childhood and she did to others how she was treated at home, she learned by what she saw in her home life. My situation was different, my dad was horrible & I always knew I didn't want to be like him, so I wasn't. Her situation was different. It's how she was taught. She grew up. She apologized sincerely. She was completely stunned to learn that it had such a profound impact on me, especially so many years later, and she was ashamed. Now this woman would give the shirt off her back to anybody that needed it. Through her life as an adult she learned humiliation. With humiliation comes compassion. She's an amazing woman now, this same woman that was a bully to me as a kid, and I'm proud to know her.
All I'm suggesting is that maybe an eye for an eye isn't warranted in this particular case. That may sound crazy, I know, but I also believe there's a chance these girls feel bad, could learn from this, and could be part of a bigger change...a bigger positive change.
When I saw the video of Lupe's mom...whoa, first thing I thought to myself was 'no wonder'. The poor girl learned how to be like this from her very own family. That's not to say she gets a free pass, no way. So I'm wondering if part of her/their punishment could be to speak to classes about this, about bullying in general - from the perspective of the bully - to tell how they became the way they did, how they feel now, talk about how they can make a difference while knowing they can't 'fix' everything all better and how they now have to live with this for the rest of their lives.
