Jeffrey Johnston committed suicide in 2005 at the age of 15, after years of relentless bullying and harrassment throughout middle school. His mother, Debbie Johnston, worked tirelessly to assure that no other child in the State of Florida would feel such desperation. The "Jeffrey Johnston Stand Up For All Students Act" honors Jeff and requires all Florida Public School Districts to implement a bullying prevention program.
Read Jeff's mom's words here. Feel her anguish. Applaud her courage. And understand the urgency for bullying prevention.
In seventh grade, a classmate of his started, as so many times it started over a little girl. He told the little girl that Jeff (right) was kind of going with ... that Jeff had been laughing at her and said unkind things about her behind her back, which wasn't true. All Jeff knew was that she broke up with him and she wouldn't tell him why. We thought, these things come and go, nothing a little trip out for ice cream won't cure. I told him, girls get over these things really fast. But the next day it was like a lot more people.
And this boy who was behind it started calling our house and I heard Jeff on the phone. And you know your kids get this note in their voice when they're upset. So I picked up the phone and I heard this boy calling Jeff a stalker and telling him that he was ugly and making fun of him and threatening him. The smooth teacher, I said, 'Do you know who I am? I'm a teacher and just you wait.' I went right into the office the next day and went to the administration and they made the teachers aware of what was going on, and they pulled the kid aside and told him, knock it off and stuff. But there wasn't really anything they could do because it happened outside of school hours....
Then it was like, well, they didn't really do anything, ha ha ha. And Jeff told. So it got worse. They'd follow him around and make comments about him, write things, you know, slam books. And start rumors. He used to get chapped lips, and they'd call him the mummy or the crypt keeper. It didn't quit. It would die down for a while. And if the teacher said anything, it would go underground. It was pretty much confined to school hours, as far as I know, that first year through seventh grade. But there was one episode that year that was particularly painful.
Jeff had a project in the science fair and we were there. I was a science teacher. I was there to hand out trophies to the kids and that kind of stuff. And we were watching. And they were standing there in front of Jeff's project and making fun of him. And I looked, and the boy's mother was standing not 10 feet away. I kept expecting her to come over and say something, and she didn't. So I walked over and I said, do you know that's my son? And she just laughed in my face and said, of course I do. And just walked away laughing. And they sat there just a few rows away from us, just laughing the whole time.
She continues...
When we first lost Jeff I was absolutely taken aback to learn, I mean I was shocked, just plain downright shocked, to learn how often this happens. How many teenagers commit suicide. I mean, the suicide rate for this age group is over twice the homicide rate. I had worried about, you know, all parents should worry about, child molesters and predators and kidnappers and cyber terrorists. And you worry about getting hit by a car, and drugs, and skateboard accidents, and bicycle helmets and everything. When your child is twice as likely to die by his own hand as by anybody else's. ... And what they have found out is that bullying is a major factor in almost all of these instances.
And ends with this...
That's our legacy to Jeff. (Tears up) Jeff was from the time he was little, people said, that little boy, you know, he's going to change the world. And, he always believed he could. He never retaliated. He never quit trying to make peace. Just, after three years of just horrendous abuse, he just gave up. And that's what he wrote in the notice. He wrote dreams were just better as dreams and the world couldn't change no matter how much he wished it could. And for all the other little boys out there and little girls who think that the world is just an unkind place that doesn't care and can't change, we want Jeff's bill to be a message of hope that we do care about our kids and no matter what it takes we're going to change things and we're going to make the world a better place.
Debbie Johnston's entire interview can be read at:
http://blogs.tampabay.com/schools/2008/03/a-weekend-int-3.html
