In his eyes, Michael Harrison* started off freshman year at Barrington High School right. He was confident and attractive, earning good grades, going to parties, and looking forward to a potential position on the varsity baseball season thanks to his speed and agility.
“We thought we’d have to keep an eye on him,” Bob and Jen Harrison*, Michael’s parents, said. “He was in the popular crowd.”
However, after one misunderstanding, social media helped spread a lie that would put a painful end to Harrison’s growing popularity and sense of safety in his school. Harrison fell victim to an obstacle that affects around half of all teenagers. According to the Hartford County Examiner, this obstacle leads 1 in 3 of affected teenagers to commit suicide: cyber bullying.
“In the movies, bullying is when a kid, who looks around 30, shoves another kid into a locker, demands for his lunch money, and then the issue is over,” Mary Jones, counselor, said. “Now, I look at bullying as more through Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, and it’s become a huge issue with huge consequences.”
In Jones’s opinion, part of cyberbullying’s sting comes with the knowledge that it can be done anonymously.
“The internet is so accessible, and so it’s a wimpy, cowardly way for teenagers to tell how they feel about someone,” Jones said. “The bully is then able to post something mean at 5pm and forget about it by 5:10, but for [the person the comments are being directed towards], they are stuck with that comment, and it will be online forever.”
According to Jones, not only will the comment always be accessible (despite privacy settings or even if the comment is deleted), the comment is now able to be viewed by anyone, increasing the number of bystanders and the aggression towards the one being attacked.
“The bystanders are just as bad,” Jones said. “And I know that may seem harsh, but if you laugh or comment or like [a mean status, picture, etc.], then you’re agreeing with the bully.”
This was the reality for Harrison, whose own fight with cyberbullying left him greatly outnumbered. The incident started when Harrison’s school received news that a student had committed suicide. In 1st period the next day, Harrison was discussing the news with friends, and a student later claimed to overhear Harrison disrespect the student who had died.
“It was a rumor, and it was completely untrue,” Bob Harrison said,”but it spread like wildfire.”
By lunch that same day, Harrison was surrounded by roughly 30 kids who had heard the rumor and believed it to be true, and Harrison had to be escorted out of the room by a teacher and sent home.
For Harrison, this was the beginning.
“I don’t know how or when he specifically was alerted or aware of it,” Jen Harrison said, “but kids had made a Facebook page titled Michael Harrison is going to get beaten up with over 200 kids signed on to the page.”
The page included comments such as “You better watch out,” and “You’re not going to be safe anywhere you go, even if you transfer schools.”
Harrison pulled through the situation, confident because he had not done anything wrong. The experience, though, proved never ending and became worse as more students, faculty and parents heard pieces of the rumor. One day at the school library, Harrison was spat on, and in a separate instance, Harrison’s house was egged and had to be repainted.
“He’s a tough kid, but it was a difficult period of up and downs,” Bob Harrison said. “We were amazed by how he handled himself.”
Harrison also experienced chronic migraines that lasted for hours a day and began to keep him from school.
“I think [the migraines] might have been due to the pressure of the fear of it happening again,” Bob Harrison said. “He definitely was affected.”
Harrison’s baseball coach had expressed concerns regarding Harrison and the rumor, but it not until Harrison was cut from the baseball tryouts altogether that Harrison decided to switch schools.
“People don’t understand the consequences [cyber bullying] has on someone’s life,” Jones said. “Even if it’s one negative word, that person is going to be constantly thinking ‘Who’s seeing this?’ and ‘Do they agree with this?’”
Jones believes students must begin to take some stand against cyber bullying, because the issue is bigger than people realize and even just a little support can show a targeted student that the entire world is not against them.
“If everyone keeps saying, ‘It’s normal’ and ‘It’s okay,’ Jones said, “Then unfortunately , something drastic like a suicide will happen [in the community] eventually.”
Luckily, this was not the outcome for Harrison, who graduated early and moved out of state for college.
“He’s healthy and stable now, and I don’t really think it bothers him anymore,” Bob Harrison said, “He went through a lot of pain and missed out on a lot of things because of a lie.”
Bob Harrison wishes kids would think about two things before impulsively engaging in cyber bullying.
“First, find out if what’s being talked about is even the truth,” Harrison said. “And second, remember the golden rule, because the consequences of what you do can be long-lasting.”
*Name was changed