His name was Mitchell Wilson. He suffered from muscular dystrophy. But that didn't save him from being savagely bullied. When he learned he would have to testify in court against his alleged attacker, it was too much for the gentle boy, and he killed himself.
But now his words will speak from beyond the grave.
A judge has ruled that written statements will be allowed as evidence against a boy charged with bullying and robbing Mitchell Wilson, an 11-year-old Pickering, Ont., boy who took his own life.
The Crown alleges that Wilson, who suffered from muscular dystrophy and used a walker, was bullied and attacked in November 2010. He was walking in his neighbourhood and allegedly attacked and robbed of his father's iPhone. Wilson suffered broken teeth in the attack.
And he will not have died for nothing.
Mitchell did not die in vain. His tragedy and this trial have helped illuminate the plague of school bullying. “It seems like after this story broke, this was an underlying problem all over the province, all over Canada,’’ says Craig Wilson. “So, if this story brought more of it to light, that it’s going to make that kind of thing stop, yeah, it’s a good thing, for sure.
Whatever the outcome, that will be the legacy of sweet Mitchell Wilson.
Just like sweet Marjorie Raymond, who was also bullied to death, didn't die in vain either.
For this is her legacy.
And I'm so proud of my province.
Too bad gentle kids had to die for adults to do the right thing.
But at least Mitchell and Marjorie will now live forever.
And the war on bullying continues...
Some individuals will always be bullies. But to the extent that we fight against a CULTURE of bullying, that is the way we should be judged as a society.
ReplyDeleteRight now, there's a sickness and it isn't just apathy.
hi thwap...nicely said, and I completely agree with you. It's the culture of bullying we must fight. Although I focus on bullying in schools, because children are the most vulnerable, and it's where fighting that culture must begin, bullying is everywhere. In the workplace, in senior's homes, in our hockey arenas, and of course now it's in our Parliament, and it's killing this country...
ReplyDeletewill be judged for what we did not do
ReplyDelete