Example of a Possible Bullying Incident that Led to Suicide

           On this occasion I will discuss an online article regarding the suicide of Hailee Joy Lamberth, a 13 year old girl from the state of Nevada. The article is titled “Father: School received bullying report before daughter’s suicide” and can be found on the “reviewjournal.com”.

According to the article, Hailee Joy Lamberth committed suicide on December 12, 2013 and left a “farewell note” in which she mentioned that she had been bullying in school. Despite the aforementioned “farewell note,” school officials initially reported that Hailee had no bullying record. However, Hailee’s disciplinary file, which was recently requested by Hailee’s father, proves otherwise. According to Hailee’s disciplinary file, on November 21, 2013, an anonymous tip was submitted to the school district’s website in which someone reported that Hailee was being harassed. The school district’s policy requires school administrators to investigate the incident within 10 days and report their findings. According to Hailee’s father, “the incident was confirmed” and “the school’s administration told him the child was disciplined.”  However, now the school district will not confirm nor deny the incident because of federal student privacy laws. Currently Nevada law requires “principals to investigate all suspected incidents of bullying within 24 hours of receiving notice [… and] if bullying is found to have occurred, the principal must provide written notice to the parents.” According to Jason Lamberth, the father of Hailee, nobody in his family was contacted about any bullying issue.

The lack of adequate communication between school officials and parents is a key feature I noticed within this article. Although it is unknown if informing Hailee’s parents about her harassment report would have prevented Hailee’s suicide, I still believe it was wrong that Hailee’s parents were never informed about Hailee’s possible harassment incident. It is possible that by informing Hailee’s parents about the possible harassment, they would have been more attentive to Hailee. The fact that this window of opportunity for a possible intervention was completely taken away is undoubtedly an issue that should be addressed, especially since it is an easily amendable issue. Perhaps one feature school officials should try to implement is revising school policies regarding bullying by making it mandatory to immediately inform parents about bullying incidents, even if they are still being investigated and have not been completely confirmed. The aforementioned article demonstrates just how much little time is needed before disaster strikes. Perhaps school bullying policies should be revised in order to leave someone explicitly responsible for informing parents. In my opinion creating this role and sense of accountability will improve the lack of communication highlighted within the article analyzed within this blog.

            According to the article, current Nevada laws define bullying as “a willful act that ‘exposes a person repeatedly and over time to one or more negative actions which is highly offensive to a reasonable person’ and either physically or emotionally harms, threatens to harm, or exploits an imbalance in power.” It is uncertain whether Hailee’s case is an isolated case of error on behalf of the school district or if the incident met the state’s definition of bullying which would have required the parents to be notified. In either case, the Lamberth family feels that they should have been informed when Hailee was harassed, especially after Hailee’s death. Recently the superintendent of Hailee’s former school announced the creation a bullying task force to address the concerns of the Lamberth family.

            The normalization of bullying is a feature I also noticed within this incident. It seems as though the school is downplaying the incident as an isolated case that is very unlikely to occur once again. In my opinion every case not only should every case be taken seriously, they should also be studied in depth so that future incidents may be prevented. In addition, schools should be focusing on preventing bullying from occurring, not on helping families cope with the disastrous effects of bullying.