In our own schools! We see this everyday!

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By MEGHAN BARR, Associated Press Writer Meghan Barr, Associated Press Writer — Fri Oct 8, 4:01 pm ET
MENTOR, Ohio — Sladjana Vidovic's body lay in an open casket, dressed in the sparkly pink dress she had planned to wear to the prom. Days earlier, she had tied one end of a rope around her neck and the other around a bed post before jumping out her bedroom window.

The 16-year-old's last words, scribbled in English and her native Croatian, told of her daily torment at Mentor High School, where students mocked her accent, taunted her with insults like "Slutty Jana" and threw food at her.

It was the fourth time in little more than two years that a bullied high school student in this small Cleveland suburb on Lake Erie died by his or her own hand — three suicides, one overdose of antidepressants. One was bullied for being gay, another for having a learning disability, another for being a boy who happened to like wearing pink.

Now two families -- including the Vidovics -- are suing the school district, claiming their children were bullied to death and the school did nothing to stop it. The lawsuits come after a national spate of high-profile suicides by gay teens and others, and during a time of national soul-searching about what can be done to stop it.

[Related: School-yard bullying: A survivor's tale]

If there has been soul-searching among the bullies in Mentor — a pleasant beachfront community that was voted one of the "100 Best Places to Live" by CNN and Money magazine this year — Sladjana's family saw too little of it at her wake in October 2008.

Suzana Vidovic found her sister's body hanging over the front lawn. The family watched, she said, as the girls who had tormented Sladjana for months walked up to the casket -- and laughed.

"They were laughing at the way she looked," Suzana says, crying. "Even though she died."

Click image to see more photos


AP/Amy Sancetta
___

Sladjana Vidovic, whose family had moved to northeast Ohio from Bosnia when she was a little girl, was pretty, vivacious and charming. She loved to dance. She would turn on the stereo and drag her father out of his chair, dance him in circles around the living room.

"Nonstop smile. Nonstop music," says her father, Dragan, who speaks only a little English.

At school, life was very different. She was ridiculed for her thick accent. Classmates tossed insults like "Slutty Jana" or "Slut-Jana-Vagina." A boy pushed her down the stairs.
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A girl smacked her in the face with a water bottle.

Phone callers in the dead of night would tell her to go back to Croatia, that she'd be dead in the morning, that they'd find her after school, says Suzana Vidovic.

"Sladjana did stand up for herself, but toward the end she just kind of stopped," says her best friend, Jelena Jandric. "Because she couldn't handle it. She didn't have enough strength."

[Related: Cyber-bullying: When enough is enough]

Vidovic's parents say they begged the school to intervene many times. They say the school promised to take care of her.

She had already withdrawn from Mentor and enrolled in an online school about a week before she killed herself.

When the family tried to retrieve records about their reports of bullying, school officials told them the records were destroyed during a switch to computers. The family sued in August.

Two years after her death, Dragan Vidovic waves his hand over the family living room, where a vase of pink flowers stands next to a photograph of Sladjana.

"Today, no music," he says sadly. "No smile."

___

Eric Mohat was flamboyant and loud and preferred to wear pink most of the time. When he didn't get the lead soprano part in the choir his freshman year, he was indignant, his mother says.

He wore a stuffed animal strapped to his arm, a lemur named Georges that was given its own seat in class.

"It was a gag," says Mohat's father, Bill. "And all the girls would come up to pet his monkey. And in his Spanish class they would write stories about Georges."

Mohat's family and friends say he wasn't gay, but people thought he was.

"They called him fag, homo, queer," says his mother, Jan. "He told us that."

Bullies once knocked a pile of books out of his hands on the stairs, saying, "'Pick up your books, faggot,'" says Dan Hughes, a friend of Eric's.

Kids would flick him in the head or call him names, says 20-year-old Drew Juratovac, a former student. One time, a boy called Mohat a "homo," and Juratovac told him to leave Mohat alone.

"I got up and said, 'Listen, you better leave this kid alone. Just walk away,'" he says. "And I just hit him in the face. And I got suspended for it."

Eric Mohat shot himself on March 29, 2007, two weeks before a choir trip to Hawaii.

His parents asked the coroner to call it "bullicide." At Eric's funeral and after his death, other kids told the Mohats that they had seen the teen relentlessly bullied in math class
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The Mohats demanded that police investigate, but no criminal activity was found.

[Related: 6 signs of cyber-bullying and what you can do about it]

Two years later, in April 2009, the Mohats sued the school district, the principal, the superintendent and Eric's math teacher. The federal lawsuit is on hold while the Ohio Supreme Court considers a question of state law regarding the case.

"Did we raise him to be too polite?" Bill Mohat wonders. "Did we leave him defenseless in this school?"

___

Meredith Rezak, 16, shot herself in the head three weeks after the death of Mohat, a good friend of hers. Her cell phone, found next to her body, contained a photograph of Mohat with the caption "R.I.P. Eric a.k.a. Twiggy."

Rezak was bright, outgoing and a well-liked player on the volleyball team. Shortly before her suicide, she had joined the school's Gay-Straight Alliance and told friends and family she thought she might be gay.

Juratovac says Rezak endured her own share of bullying — "name-calling, just stupid trivial stuff" — but nobody ever knew it was getting to her.

"Meredith ended up coming out that she was a lesbian," he says. "I think much of that sparked a lot of the bullying from a lot of the other girls in school, 'cause she didn't fit in."

Her best friend, Kevin Simon, doesn't believe that bullying played a role in Rezak's death. She had serious issues at home that were unrelated to school, he says.

After Mohat's death, people saw Rezak crying at school, and friends heard her talk of suicide herself.

A year after Rezak's death, the older of her two brothers, 22-year-old Justin, also shot and killed himself. His death certificate mentioned "chronic depressive reaction."

This March, her only other sibling, Matthew, died of a drug overdose at age 21.

Their mother, Nancy Merritt, lives in Colorado now. She doesn't think Meredith was bullied to death but doesn't really know what happened. On the phone, her voice drifts off, sounding disconnected, confused.

"So all three of mine are gone," she says. "I have to keep breathing."

___

Most mornings before school, Jennifer Eyring would take Pepto-Bismol to calm her stomach and plead with her mother to let her stay home.

"She used to sob to me in the morning that she did not want to go," says her mother, Janet. "And this is going to bring tears to my eyes. Because I made her go to school."

Eyring, 16, was an accomplished equestrian who had a
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meagjones
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By the end of her sophomore year in 2006, Eyring's mother had decided to pull her out of Mentor High School and enroll her in an online school the following autumn. But one night that summer, Jennifer walked into her parents' bedroom and told them she had taken some of her mother's antidepressant pills to make herself feel better. Hours later, she died of an overdose.

[Related: Stop bullying by complaining — in writing]

The Eyrings do not hold Mentor High accountable, but they believe she would be alive today had she not been bullied. Her parents are speaking out in hopes of preventing more tragedies.

"It's too late for my daughter," Janet Eyring says, "but it may not be too late for someone else."

___

No official from Mentor public schools would comment for this story. The school also refused to provide details on its anti-bullying program.

Some students say the problem is the culture of conformity in this city of about 50,000 people: If you're not an athlete or cheerleader, you're not cool. And if you're not cool, you're a prime target for the bullies.

But that's not so different from most high schools. Senior Matt Super, who's 17, says the suicides unfairly paint his school in a bad light.

"Not everybody's a good person," he says. "And in a group of 3,000 people, there are going to be bad people."

StopCyberbulling.org founder Parry Aftab says this is the first time she's heard of two sets of parents suing a school at the same time for two independent cases of bullying or cyberbullying. No one has been accused of bullying more than one of the teens who died.

Barbara Coloroso, a national anti-bullying expert, says the school is allowing a "culture of mean" to thrive, and school officials should be held responsible for the suicides — along with the bullies.

"Bullying doesn't start as criminal. They need to be held accountable the very first time they call somebody a gross term," Coloroso says. "That is the beginning of dehumanization."

___

Associated Press writer Jeannie Nuss in Columbus contributed to this report.

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caligula
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oh so your "black friend" who gave you license to call black people nigger is the same asshole who made you think it was appropriate to call vietnamese people gooks?

you're a piece of shit peri. you hurl slurs in real life you racist piece of shit and don't use your fucked up "black friend" to justify your real life behavior.

as far as me being a bully, FUCK YOU! i put my e-foot up assholes who follow me around this site like bitches in heat. you start some shit...fine. i will gladly give you just what you're looking for...on my terms, not yours.
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caligula
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it WAS an interesting thread given the media's recent focus on the topic and i'm sure you're all well equipped to continue in spite of.

peri's incessantly racist foot-in-mouth and subsequently blaming it on his "black friend" does not go unnoticed. he's a shit...a little shit but a turd nonetheless.

for some reason he thinks not being white gives him the right to be a racist hole. but truth is, he seems like a bitch who would only utter this shit on the internet because if he dared say nigger or gook to someone in real life...especially when his "black friend" isn't around, i have no doubts that his ass would be handed to him.

but anyhoo...vas-y!

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BeatrixBecks
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Nice and sad topic.I've also been a victim of bullying,I remember how cruel the kids were,they would throw rocks at me,spit on me,fight with me,call me names each second, push me around,sue me for no damn reason , one of the bullies put gum in my hair once,they would beat me if I didn't give them my english homework to copy,they always made fun of how stupid I was at math or romanian (not my mother tongue but it's the country I live in) , they would laugh if I make small accidents and always mention them ti'll I'm so ashamed that I would even hide under the ground from the world. Eh,what can I say? I wasn't a cool kid,I was always silent and a loner,which later wasn't in my advantage cause I didn't have friends to be there for me/stand up for me/etc. I also had problems at home.First school,middle school was a nightmare,by the 2nd half of middle school i got lost in the alcohol,the cigarettes,and then later in High School I made it to be one of the "in" kids.How?I'll never know,but I will remember how I would always daily end up crying at school from the age of 7 ti'll 10 years old cause I couldn't understand the cruelty at such a young age.Later in life,I became emotional,firstly I tried to not pay attention to the bullies,but then I also faught them. But the bullying left me with a low self esteem for loooong loooong years.
Fuck you my bullies,I'll see you all in hell 🙂
xD
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caligula
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Posted by KingPisces


Gook is the derogatory term to call Korean people, you dumb fuck and not the Vietnamese...Viets are called 'Charlies'. Before trying to lash out on me, get your shit straight. And I don't go around thinking I'm the sauce when my black friend is around. We rarely see each other since we're busy with stuff.

You missed the point in its entirety based on your wrong focus. I wish for you and your BF to get held at gun point by some thug and let's see how diplomatically and level-headed you react when you're in the heat of the moment.

And are you sure I'm the one acting like an e-tough guy? Says the girl that tries to act tough, talks shit about Pisces and then melts like ice cream for a Pisces...

And let's not forget your 'Chip and Dale' voice...I bet you're 5'2'' ft at best.





wow!

you're racist AND stupid.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gook<BR> http://www.seattlepi.com/opinion/hongop.shtml
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libra sun
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Posted by Pesca2
i would say, uniforms for school-kids.

we wore uniforms at school. so at first sight there were no ways to read your social status. you did not get judged at first sight as the "snob" or the kid of the single mom who works at the grocers....the solidarity of the class and of the school in general were super. civic education was also a pluspoint.

school rules were applied to each pupil no matter what background.



In the UK all school kids wear uniform but bullying is still VERY prominant. My uniform was a white Shirt and tie Black trousers and black shoes, but you could easily tell who had money as they were wearing designer shoes and shirts.

I remember though at Primary school it was the other way round, people laughed at me because my mum refused to buy cheap shoes!! I was actually annoyed because my mum insisted on me having good quality shoes that would last and refused to buy me these shoes that were ??5 from the shop on the estate lol
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libra sun
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@KP i have never used a racial slur in my life regardless of the situation, anyone who feels the need to drop that low is a RACIST! hence the term "racial slur" the answer is in the name. I find it pathetic, and i hate the "i have a black friend" excuse and the "i have a black cousin" is even worse! I AM black and i dont see that to mean i can use a racist term. IF you were as intelligent as you make out you were then you would be able to think of better words to throw around at people.
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caligula
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how can you be racist if your best friend is black?

i don't know who or what gave people the notion that black people are the gateway to not being racially offensive. if you know a minority of any sort, that absolves you from saying fucked up, discriminatory shit. ie...

- my best friend from HS is lesbian. so i guess that makes it ok for me to call gay people "faggots" or "flamers?"
- one of my good friends is pakistani so i that gives me the right to call anyone of middle eastern descent a "sand nigger."

peri you're using your "black friend" to justify your racism. has it dawned on you that your friend is fucked up? that he has issues and lacks self-respect? the shit you say here you wouldn't DARE say in a crowded room and if you can't say it in REAL life, don't bitch up here and offend any and everybody because your "black friend" gave you pass to be amoral and ignorant.

YOUR true colors are clearly evident and nah bitch, you don't get a pass from me and frankly, if we were face to face right now, you'd be swallowing your teeth...i'd get my "black friend" to do it for me of course.

anyhoo, yall enjoy the topic.

OUT!
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phoenixinflames
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how can we tackle racism if we cannot dissolve the ego of our global monetary economic society? we have not learnt to let go of competition as a whole as a species yet . having a competition based society creates products of the ego... the ego will not hesitate to scapegoat an individual or group of individuals for what loss or inadequacy competition has forced upon the individual experiencing (loss). . . when we can evolve consciousness as a whole racism sexism xenophobia etc will dissolve on its own. the question we should be asking is why is so little in scale being done in effort to change global society as a whole. we can nitpick every social problem but if we seek to change we should challenge the source of every social illness. when we start to understand that a monetary economic system is the progenitor of social illness by competitive debt creation then we can set our selves free and evolve as a whole
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LadySag
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I swere if I was a teacher in a class where a student is being bullied, woooweee! The things I'd do to torture those kids (without breaking the law). OMG! Dear lord, I'd bring hell apon them. And if I was a student, knowing that the damn school isn't going to do anything about it, I definitly would do something huge.

Students aware of others being bullied from the slightest to the extreme should stand up too to let those victims know they're not alone, that if they're's a fight that someone would jump in and help him. And that's how it should be.

It's kind of like the Ants. A single ant alone can do almost... nothing to a bigger bug right? BUT all the ants coming together CAN DO something.

I know that's a cheesy example (and that I watch allot of disney) but it's true.

Principle isn't doing shit, parents beside removing their children can't do shit, but all those students, I'm SURE there are more kids who know it's wrong then the amount of bullies a school can contain.


Oh wait, I'm sorry. We happen to live in a world where "every man for themselves!"

Children should be thought better then that don't you think?

After all, it all starts with the parants.
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crzydiam63
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This is a big problem in our society. I personally just can stand it or stomach it. Being very intuitive to the feelings of others doesn't allow me to treat people in the bad ways we are seeing. I guess that's why I was friendly with just about everyone during high school.

I also think that the subjects taught in our schools is very outdated and has for a long time needed an real overall. Look at for instance all the people that don't know how to manage their money, not only does it destroy families but the rest of us are paying the price because people don't know how to spend within their means. How long can people rack up $ 10,000 and up in credit card bills, only to file bankruptcy and then not have to pay it all back. If it doesn't come from the person that bought on credit to begin with then it comes from you and I. So, why aren't schools teaching financial awareness topics.

Another, look at this thread and what it represents. I think we all know that empathy for other individuals has throughout history been an issue, just look at Nazi Germany or Somalia and the list goes on. But, could we do more in teaching our children the importance of acceptance and understanding the differences of others through awareness. Doesn't look to me like anyone is talking about it, not really addressing it. Heck, maybe a support group or therapy for young kids of alcoholic or abusive parents is a much more appropriate use of time at school than learning a 2nd language. If we aren't mentally healthy then all the knowledge in the world in my opinion is useless as far as the quality of life and our ability to live and contribute to society.