“They say that I’m like ugly, and fat,” says Amanda MacKenzie.
The Grade 12 student at Salmon Arm Secondary says the cyberbulling got so bad that she started cutting herself to distract from the emotional pain.
MacKenzie says the name calling was the worst last spring, and then ramped up online. It culminated with her assaulting one of her alleged bullies.
The school then suspended her from class.
“Mainly, most of it is that it’s so hard to understand why,” says MacKenzie. “Because I was defending myself?”
School District 83 Student Services Director, Morag Asquith says the fact that the alleged bullying took place on social media, outside of school hours, and then transferred into school time, is more than a school is typically used to managing.
The decision was to have MacKenzie home-schooled, but still find a way for her to graduate this year. However, her mother says that’s not good enough.
“It breaks my heart because we try so hard as parents to keep our kids in school,” says Tammy Watson.
But the school concluded the best way to keep the peace in the classroom is to keep the combatants separated as they need to keep MacKenzie safe.
So MacKenzie will now spend her last year of high school at home.
Comments