School Bullies Hold Down 10-Year-Old Girl and Draw on Her Face
Bullying is a heartbreakingly persistent problem in the U.S. — one that the current FLOTUS, Melania Trump, has pledged to battle on the cyberfront. She has yet to roll out an actual plan or program against cyberbullying, but bullying continues to be an issue, which one tween was reminded of in a particularly upsetting way this week.
According to WOWT News, Raeann Dabney, 10, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, was held down and drawn on with a permanent marker by two of her fellow Titan Hill Intermediate School students. Dabney says she was riding the school bus when the girls asked if they could write on her face and she said no. But the two allegedly proceeded anyway, writing “loser” across Dabney’s forehead, and scribbled other things on her face.
“I was crying and trying to move but they kept holding me down,” she told the news station. “It hurt my feelings for someone to write ‘loser’ on my head.”
Naturally, Dabney’s parents are upset about the incident. “She’s a great student, smart, intelligent. She’s in sports, cheerleading, gymnastics. You name it, she is in it. She is far from a loser,” her father, Zach Dabney said. “I seen her cry before but not nothing like that. She was literally shook, heartbroken, anything in that category you seen it in her face that day.” He has since taken the matter to the local police.
Raeann’s grandfather, Darryle Long, said that the school principal added insult to injury by not being particularly empathetic. “He offered no apologies. He didn’t want to label it bullying,” Long told KMTV News.
But Titan Hill’s principal, Kent Stopak, says he spoke to Raeann and her family just a day after hearing about the incident, adding that the school has investigated and that the two girls have been punished accordingly. “I will continue to work with our student body to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity and respect,” he told WOWT.
Bullying expert Joel Haber tells Yahoo Beauty that though it’s hard to determine how much an impact a bullying incident will have on a child, it’s one that has the potential to make a lasting impression: “It is a situation where a girl is made to feel helpless under other girls’ power in a physical or emotional way.”
He adds that there is a lot the school could be doing do to support Raeann at this time, such as rallying around her to let her know that she’s not alone or at fault for what happened to her. Haber stresses the importance of her getting support not only from teachers and parents, but from students as well.
“The important thing, especially with the data that we know, is that kids in the school rally and offer their support at a peer level,” he says. “Kids want adults to make them feel safe, but they also want the support of their friends to help them not feel isolated or different in a school setting. Especially in a situation like this. Encouragement to others to really be there for her could have a healing potential.”
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