Bullying takes toll, forces daughter to transfer

By Kayla Gahagan, Journal staff | Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

Bullying, LeAnn Heatherly says, "can change your whole life."

It began when her 12-year-old daughter began attending Dakota Middle School last year as a sixth-grader and asked her mother if she could join the crowd and open her own page on Bebo, a personalized Web site like MySpace and Facebook.

Heatherly said yes but told her daughter she would supervise the site. While logged on, Heatherly noticed disturbing messages and reported them to other parents.

That's when her daughter began getting harassed at school, she said.

They also harassed her on the site and sent her messages telling her she was fat, ugly, stupid, needed to lose weight, should use drugs to lose weight and that she should die.

Her daughter heard more insults in the hallways - calling her a "whore" and "slut."

She said she was also slapped and pushed into walls and was harassed and taunted on the school bus; one time, she retaliated and squirted lotion onto one of her attackers.

Heatherly said she was on the phone with school officials repeatedly and visited with Principal Brad Tucker on several occasions.

She said she tried to meet with Rapid City School District Superintendent Peter Wharton, but he was never available.

"I was on the phone almost daily," she said. "The (school) told me to have her go to the office when something happened, which she did, but nothing ever came of it."

A fellow student came to Heatherly's house and said she was a witness to the bullying and that Heatherly could give the school her name. The student was never contacted, she said.

It took a toll on her daughter, Heatherly said, and she reached a breaking point.

"My child had a nervous breakdown at home and tried to harm herself," she said. "I put her into counseling."

The therapist told Heatherly to get her daughter "out of that toxic environment."

Heatherly said her daughter is enrolled in a different school now and doing well but is still in therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The girl declined an interview for this story.

"It touched every part of our whole family," Heatherly said. "It's got a trickle-down effect. My husband was in Iraq suffering because his daughter was hurting, and he can't help. It affected her sibling. It affected me."

"You're waiting at the door every day saying, 'Please God, let her have a good day.' And you're wondering, 'Am I going to have to wait up all night and worry about her hurting herself?'"