file photo by Boyd Loving
Let me preface by saying what happened to this boy is extremely sad. Nobody should ever have to experience what he is going through.
Every single day we see bullying happening. Whether it is the current over protective idea of bullying or straight up bullying – this isn’t a new thing. Almost everyone on this site “bullies” other commenters on a daily basis, parents are bullying other parents on the Ridgewood Facebook group, other towns are bullying Ridgewood residents on social media by associating every Ridgewood resident with this incident and worse, grown adults are bullying the one who threw the punches to the extent of wishing the worst upon him without knowing the full story.
I’ve seen the expression “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” when referring to the boy who threw punches numerous times. Why don’t we take a minute to stop and think about his parents, about his siblings, his teammates, coaches, etc. People who were ultimately shaping this boys life up until this moment. How dare we point fingers i’m sure i’m not the only one who feels as if I’ve let loved ones down on more than one occasion and wish they didn’t have to deal with the consequences of my own actions. Our children see everything, they hear everything, and even mimic most things (whether we want to believe it or not). The behavior that is going on in this town on all sides is baffling and embarrassing. Words being thrown around, parents who don’t even have children in the school system pointing fingers because they want to be involved, gossiping everywhere like it’s a recreational game of telephone and we’re letting our children think this is appropriate behavior.
As for our children- what are we teaching them? That a girl who sent inappropriate pictures (doesn’t matter to who)is having her honor defended? Because that has got put on the back burner. To believe That one side and only one side only is completely innocent should be assumed bible? Yes violence should not have been involved. 1000%. But let’s all take a second to band together as a community and realize that yelling and accusing isn’t getting us anyone. Let’s take a day to not judge another parent, another child, another administrator.
I’ challenge all of you…let’s try to help each other, lift one another up. Put our trust in the justice system. Go a Day…maybe two with trying to see positive instead of negative. Go a day without checking every social media for the latest town gossip and basing our opinions off one side of the story. We will not get anywhere with the way things are going now. The children of this community are counting on each of us.