Lucy Montcir: Bullied Or Cyberbullied?

Far away in England, there is a girl in the 7th grade named Lucy Montclair who was being cyberbullied. She was usually, a happy, positive, smart, outgoing, go-to person, who loved to laugh, have fun, and go outside. She was the smartest student in her class because she had the immense capacity to put effort in studying to make her parents proud. She had a best friend who was like her sister, named Anna, and she did not hate anyone. But all of this changed, the fateful day of January 24 when she started receiving anonymous hateful text and email messages and hurtful taunts in school. Everyday she received mean comments on her email accounts and her social media like “ I HATE YOU!!!! YOU SHOULD CRAWL IN A HOLE AND DIE!”, “YOU LOOK SO UGLY, NO

Her best friend Anna, did not sit with her anymore, Anna and her classmates laued at how she looked, and she could not eat in the cafeteria because she would be pushed and her food would be thrown in the garbage by her classmates. Lucy did not know why this was happening all of a sudden and she started to isolate herself from others. She made an invisible bubble around herself to try to avoid getting hurt. She locked herself in her room and refused to go out, and she lost her appetite, and refused to eat anything. Her parents, Mr and Mrs Montclair, were very worried and scared for their daughter's well-being so they tried everything to make her feel better but nothing worked. They were slowly giving up hope, but they had one more option, and they put all their faith that it would help Lucy overcome the depression she was going through. They went to a small newspaper company in their neighborhood called “The Quibbler” who released weekly issues about things that were going on in the neighborhood and they told them about the situation of cyberbullying that their daughter was going

Cyberbullying is different from other types of bullying because when you are cyberbullied, you don't know who is bullying you and it is very difficult to track them to report them if they are anonymous. As our good friends from www.stopbullying.gov say “Cyberbullying messages and images can be posted anonymously and distributed quickly to a very wide audience. It can be difficult and sometimes impossible to trace the source” When you are cyberbullied, you don't know who is bullying you and it is very difficult to track them to report them how they are anonymous, so this is one of the reasons why being cyberbullied is very hurtful. They also say “Deleting inappropriate or harassing messages, texts, and pictures is extremely difficult after they have been posted or sent” This means that it is sadly very hard to delete or erase pictures of someone (the victim) once it is sent. So the victim will be negatively affected if these pictures go viral. Another reason why cyberbullying is very hurtful is because you can be cyberbullied very frequently, even at home. www.stopbullying.gov also says “Cyberbullying can happen 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and reach a kid even when he or she is alone. It can happen any time of the day or night” This means that Cyberbullying can happen everyday very frequently, at home and at school compared to other types of bullying that happens only at