Ok, so here's the long ugly story. My daughter, Rachael, at the ripe old age of 16 stood up for a girl on her cheerleading squad being falsely accused of being a lesbian. For privacy reasons we'll call this girl Mary. Mary was a shy quiet girl, very smart, friendly but possibly, at the time, a bit socially awkward. Certainly not a crime to be victimized over. Although Rachael and our family didn't care if Mary was gay we live in a bit of a backward thinking town and Mary didn't have friends and wasn't going to get a date to the prom because the whole school thought she was gay. Three girls on the squad were the main players in this ugly sordid ordeal… Rachael told them to stop, several times in several different ways but these girls went on becoming uglier and uglier as time went by. These three girls and their parents were family friends of the then victim, Mary, and all this was going on behind Mary's back. After several attempts to get them to stop things came to a head at a competition when one of the bullies was calling other kids on the squad pretending to be Mary and asking these girls out on dates. Rachael came to me in tears as I was at the event and we decided together to go to Mary's mother. She was crushed and devastated and we all cried.
When the three girls involved realized they'd been found out they turned on Rachael, hard, fast and ugly. They began the cyberbullying assault, videos were made with a person pretending to be Rachael and stuffing cupcakes in her mouth calling her fat… they posted pictures up coloring Rachael's face and teeth making fun of the way Rachael looks. Of course this went out to the whole school. They had a boy from the football team call my house on a three way phone line asking my daughter for sexual favors; when my daughter started to cry the girls would laugh. One of these girls and her mother went into a local tanning salon where Rach was tanning for prom and was witnessed telling the management that Rachael had anally and vaginally assaulted herself with a vodka bottle at a party… COULD YOU IMAGINE ANY MOTHER CONDONING THESE DISGUSTING LIES. Yet that's what we were up against. Of course this went all over the school.
Now this team is made up of say 20 some odd kids so when a school does nothing to back a young lady, a classified student with an IEP whose made the honor roll, never in trouble a day in her life, what happens? Of course the bullies can more validity with their peers who love this disgusting stuff and this team pulls more and more kids into their way of thinking … leaving Rachael more and more isolated… why? BECAUSE SHE DID THE RIGHT THING.
I went to the school with 20 pages of computer evidence including eye witness accounts naming the bullies involved and naming Rachael as the new victim and the school did NOTHING. They wouldn't even take the girls involved out of Rachael's class room. It took me 9 months to get an interim superintendent to sit down with us… NINE MONTHS OF TORTURE. Kids would follow my daughter down the hall threatening her but it still took 9 months.
It was decided that an educational consulting team would be hired to look into all allegations as the interim ( WHO WOULDN'T SIT DOWN WITH US UNTIL THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT CALLED HIM AND TOLD HIM TO ) didn't want bad press on his watch. We all agreed that this report would make suggestions for what was in Rachael's best interests. We were excited to finally feel like we were getting somewhere. We were interviewd… the interviewers suggested that Rachael could not mend her relationship with the high school and that she should go to another school in the area during our interview. We came in manned with Rachael's declining grades, the days she was absent throwing up because of the stress so and so forth. The report was written and submitted…THE SCHOOL WOULD NOT GIVE US A COPY OF THE REPORT. So we OPRA'd for it.. NOTHING. WE ARE NOW WAITING FOR THE GRC, THE GOV'T RECORDS COUNCIL TO RULE AND IT WASN'T UNTIL WE HIRED A LAWYER THAT WE GOT THIS FAR.
Oh, no… there's more… in the meantime Rachael had wanted to start something in her school that would limit the isolation kids feel when they're bullied. Rach was part of a PALS program… peers as leaders… a program you must be chosen for with teacher recommendation. Rachael wanted to use this group of kids to start really ACTING more compassionately towards people sitting alone at lunch or kids known to be picked on. The district at first agreed… there were 3 meetings over one year NEVER LEADING ANYWHERE… the teacher who was chosen to be the liason was told to look up so websites to give Rachael some leads as to where to start… ONE OF THE WEBSITES WAS A PORN SITE… CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS FREAKING DISASTER. Now, we don't believe she purposely gave Rach a porn site … we believe that this teacher went through the motions of looking up a few things, wrote down names but never bothered to check if they were viable sites… like the rest of the district she talked the right talk but couldn't walk the right walk. So what happened… all the research Rachael and I did THE DISTRICT USED FOR THEMSELVES AND THEY LEFT RACHAEL OUT OF ALL POSSIBLE OUTCOMES. Why??? BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T WANT ANYONE TO KNOW HOW HORRIBLY THEY HAD TREATED A 16 YEAR OLD GIRL WHO DID THE RIGHT THING!!! So, they too abandon her.
FOR TWO AND A HALF YEARS MY DAUGHTER WALKED DOWN THE HALLS OF THAT SCHOOL ABANDON BY THE VERY ADULTS THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT AN HONOR ROLL STUDENT WITH AN IEP WHO DID NOTHING EXCEPT DEFEND A FELLOW TEAMMATE WHO COULD NOT DEFEND HERSELF…. WE'VE JUST FILED A LAWSUIT AND BELIEVE ME WHEN I TELL YOU THIS IS THE TIP OF THE ICEBURG … NOT EVEN THE WHOLE HORRIBLE DISGUSTING STORY.
So, in response what does Rachael do … she asks me if we can start donating to organizations fighitng bullying… unfortunately we don't have enough money to do that on our own to the extent we would want to so we stared a 100% handcrafted jewelry and accessories business that Rachael and I do together… it's called INSPIRED, by Rachael's Mom; jewelry designs inspired by courage. This is our Facebook Pagehttps://www.facebook.com/INSPIREDBYRACHAELSMOM
Please .. show Rachael how people out in Facebook land get her pain and "like" our page.
We are also on ETSY @ www.etsy.com/shop/INSPIREDbyRachael
We are trying so hard to do our part and change the face of this issue in our schools … we speak to various parent groups … we would love to speak to yours… as Rachael is now in college I am out with my husband almost every weekend at various Arts and Craft Shows selling our wares so we can make more donations. I've just ordered bracelets and if it's ok with this site I will post a picture of them when I get them. I've also found someone on Etsy who is designing a pin of my Rachael as a super hero, the hero that she is, with one of our slogans: BE INSPIRED BY RACHAEL 2 STOP BULLYING NOW!!! Please support our efforts to help the kids of this country to rise up against bullying and to educate parents on how insidious bullying is.
THANK YOU FOR READING ABOUT MY RACHAEL.
When the three girls involved realized they'd been found out they turned on Rachael, hard, fast and ugly. They began the cyberbullying assault, videos were made with a person pretending to be Rachael and stuffing cupcakes in her mouth calling her fat… they posted pictures up coloring Rachael's face and teeth making fun of the way Rachael looks. Of course this went out to the whole school. They had a boy from the football team call my house on a three way phone line asking my daughter for sexual favors; when my daughter started to cry the girls would laugh. One of these girls and her mother went into a local tanning salon where Rach was tanning for prom and was witnessed telling the management that Rachael had anally and vaginally assaulted herself with a vodka bottle at a party… COULD YOU IMAGINE ANY MOTHER CONDONING THESE DISGUSTING LIES. Yet that's what we were up against. Of course this went all over the school.
Now this team is made up of say 20 some odd kids so when a school does nothing to back a young lady, a classified student with an IEP whose made the honor roll, never in trouble a day in her life, what happens? Of course the bullies can more validity with their peers who love this disgusting stuff and this team pulls more and more kids into their way of thinking … leaving Rachael more and more isolated… why? BECAUSE SHE DID THE RIGHT THING.
I went to the school with 20 pages of computer evidence including eye witness accounts naming the bullies involved and naming Rachael as the new victim and the school did NOTHING. They wouldn't even take the girls involved out of Rachael's class room. It took me 9 months to get an interim superintendent to sit down with us… NINE MONTHS OF TORTURE. Kids would follow my daughter down the hall threatening her but it still took 9 months.
It was decided that an educational consulting team would be hired to look into all allegations as the interim ( WHO WOULDN'T SIT DOWN WITH US UNTIL THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT CALLED HIM AND TOLD HIM TO ) didn't want bad press on his watch. We all agreed that this report would make suggestions for what was in Rachael's best interests. We were excited to finally feel like we were getting somewhere. We were interviewd… the interviewers suggested that Rachael could not mend her relationship with the high school and that she should go to another school in the area during our interview. We came in manned with Rachael's declining grades, the days she was absent throwing up because of the stress so and so forth. The report was written and submitted…THE SCHOOL WOULD NOT GIVE US A COPY OF THE REPORT. So we OPRA'd for it.. NOTHING. WE ARE NOW WAITING FOR THE GRC, THE GOV'T RECORDS COUNCIL TO RULE AND IT WASN'T UNTIL WE HIRED A LAWYER THAT WE GOT THIS FAR.
Oh, no… there's more… in the meantime Rachael had wanted to start something in her school that would limit the isolation kids feel when they're bullied. Rach was part of a PALS program… peers as leaders… a program you must be chosen for with teacher recommendation. Rachael wanted to use this group of kids to start really ACTING more compassionately towards people sitting alone at lunch or kids known to be picked on. The district at first agreed… there were 3 meetings over one year NEVER LEADING ANYWHERE… the teacher who was chosen to be the liason was told to look up so websites to give Rachael some leads as to where to start… ONE OF THE WEBSITES WAS A PORN SITE… CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS FREAKING DISASTER. Now, we don't believe she purposely gave Rach a porn site … we believe that this teacher went through the motions of looking up a few things, wrote down names but never bothered to check if they were viable sites… like the rest of the district she talked the right talk but couldn't walk the right walk. So what happened… all the research Rachael and I did THE DISTRICT USED FOR THEMSELVES AND THEY LEFT RACHAEL OUT OF ALL POSSIBLE OUTCOMES. Why??? BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T WANT ANYONE TO KNOW HOW HORRIBLY THEY HAD TREATED A 16 YEAR OLD GIRL WHO DID THE RIGHT THING!!! So, they too abandon her.
FOR TWO AND A HALF YEARS MY DAUGHTER WALKED DOWN THE HALLS OF THAT SCHOOL ABANDON BY THE VERY ADULTS THAT WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT AN HONOR ROLL STUDENT WITH AN IEP WHO DID NOTHING EXCEPT DEFEND A FELLOW TEAMMATE WHO COULD NOT DEFEND HERSELF…. WE'VE JUST FILED A LAWSUIT AND BELIEVE ME WHEN I TELL YOU THIS IS THE TIP OF THE ICEBURG … NOT EVEN THE WHOLE HORRIBLE DISGUSTING STORY.
So, in response what does Rachael do … she asks me if we can start donating to organizations fighitng bullying… unfortunately we don't have enough money to do that on our own to the extent we would want to so we stared a 100% handcrafted jewelry and accessories business that Rachael and I do together… it's called INSPIRED, by Rachael's Mom; jewelry designs inspired by courage. This is our Facebook Pagehttps://www.facebook.com/INSPIREDBYRACHAELSMOM
Please .. show Rachael how people out in Facebook land get her pain and "like" our page.
We are also on ETSY @ www.etsy.com/shop/INSPIREDbyRachael
We are trying so hard to do our part and change the face of this issue in our schools … we speak to various parent groups … we would love to speak to yours… as Rachael is now in college I am out with my husband almost every weekend at various Arts and Craft Shows selling our wares so we can make more donations. I've just ordered bracelets and if it's ok with this site I will post a picture of them when I get them. I've also found someone on Etsy who is designing a pin of my Rachael as a super hero, the hero that she is, with one of our slogans: BE INSPIRED BY RACHAEL 2 STOP BULLYING NOW!!! Please support our efforts to help the kids of this country to rise up against bullying and to educate parents on how insidious bullying is.
THANK YOU FOR READING ABOUT MY RACHAEL.
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