Nicole's death bothers me. My own daughter was born with a birth defect 19 years ago The first 12 years she had a major surgery about every other year. Early on, she had many friends but as she got older, the friends that she grew up with started making fun of her. It was so heartbreaking. High school was sheer torture for her, she didn't make any of the sports teams and felt that the school was not looking out for every student, just the popular ones because those kids had all the friends and snagged all of the spots on the sports teams, etc. The school did nothing but reprimand kids when we'd find something horrible written about her on SM. We even had to go to the police once because of a threat, and they too just glazed over it. It's the SM and other sites that are ruining kids daily, like this.
Although i worked full-time, I couldn't be there for my daughter every day, but at night and on weekends we did things together. By junior year, she wanted to drop out or be home schooled. I told her to hold on, things would get better. In senior year, I had her take dual enrollment courses at the local community college. It was the best thing that ever happened to her! She spent a few hours in the morning at high school, then took college courses in the afternoon, gaining 12 college credits that year and a 4.0. She didn't attend prom or do any fun senior year things (she barely had any friends left in high school), but she did go camping at a music festival that weekend a friend NOT from her school. She is now happily at an in-state college, living on campus, and in a science degree program that she loves.
It was tough, the bullying alone would have tore her apart if I didn't keep her focused. But to have visual birth defects, it's just so horrible beyond words when kids bully, and I'm talking about these girls and boys that you go to school with, grow up with, who do this firsthand. Horrible.
Sorry for the rant. Fly with the angels, Nicole, and let's pray bully stops today.