Suicide of Buffy fan, Laura

[Hemiola]

Talk about timely!!
Last night on public television in the New York area they ran a documentary (a British/German co-production, I think) about the Japanese school system.

And lo and behold, what do you think is one of the worst problems they have in Japanese schools? It is called "ijime", which can mean either "bullying", "violence" or "persecution".

It turns out that this problem is so widespread and so serious, that 42% (!!) of all yearly suicides in Japan are either young children or teenagers.
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"Who gave you permission to exist?"
Cordelia to Willow in "The Harvest"

[Cipher]

quote:

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The school's headmaster, Peter Barnard, said any bullying Laura suffered was not serious enough to warrant a suicide bid.

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What a strange thing to say. How much would be enough to "warrant" suicide? And at what level would he bother to do something about the bullying? Does suicide have to be a "warranted" response before the bullying would be considered unacceptable?

Good points, tommo, Hemiola, and others. (Though I disagree about forgiving Xander, as he wasn't exactly himself.)

supermus, the obvious comeback to Cordelia's cruel line in The Harvest is, "her parents, duh!".quote:

[The Next Tara Maclay]

..This is sooo sad, I mean teasing can just go to far..

[alexis_18]

i live in manila, and as far as i could say, you guys are luckly to at lease have some of the schools there (i think most of them already) have set up anti-bullying program... because here, students who gets bullied only have themselves as companions. when i was in 10th grade, i was also bullied, but there really was no one to run into, everybody thinks that it's just a "phase" kids undergo... but now, being 18 years old, i know that it is not. the reason why kids bully others is so that they could feel good about themselves. now, i try hard to talk to other kids who are bullied even if i'm busy with college. i guess that's the best i could do right now in this country.