in brief: school tells 13 year old student to have breast reduction

Fox2 News reported late last week that a school employee in the USA allegedly told the mother of a 13 year-old girl to have her daughter undergo breast reduction to stop her peers from bullying her.

The employee of Riverview Gardens School District, Missouri allegedly told the mother, who phoned the school with concerns about her daughter, that her daughter would still be bullied regardless of the school she attended and a breast reduction should be considered instead.

The School District Superintendent Clive Coleman said they are investigating the claims and insists they may be the result of a miscommunication.

‘But to be honest with you, I think it’s maybe a product of miscommunication and misinterpretation,’ Mr Coleman said.

This response in a taped interview did not give much satisfaction to the mother.

She said that it shouldn’t be her daughters fault for being bullied for her shape and that education of the students was the key.

The story has ignited the never ending debate about bullying in schools and how to stop it happening.

The response allegedly given by the employee in this situation was not the answer. Bullying in schools is a complex issue and one that sadly does not have a magic fix.

This story raises a number of issues about how we identify and deal with bullying. Should we be opening instances such as this to the internet community, anonymous users and trolls? Do we need to hear horrifying stories such as this to bring the dialogue back to the issue of bullying and what is needed to be done about it?

Any girl should be able to attend school regardless of who they are, where they come from and what they look like. They should feel safe and not have to worry about what others may say about them. Adolescence is a turbulent time though and this kind of attention cannot help.

It shouldn’t happen though that a girl is bullied for simply being who she is.

By Carrie Wilson

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