This saddens me

Gay teen’s family blames school for death

I understand loss, but I cannot comprehend the loss of a child.  I cannot imagine the sorrow the parents must feel when their son’s life was taken by a classmate.

But I think it’s wrong to blame the school for allowing their son to express himself.  Larry King’s school was more accepting of his identity exploration than his own parents.  I’m saddened for their loss, but also for their denial.

I pulled the Mommy card

I don’t do it too often.  I try to let my kids sort their battles with their peers out for themselves, offering advice and listening, but I usually don’t intervene. 

However.

My daughter and her ex-boyfriend got back together about a week ago.  Take into account that they’re both 13, and they now go to two different schools.  I understand how important having a boyfriend is at that age, and I really didn’t have a problem with it.   This weekend, though, she had friends over from her new school for a video marathon/pizza pigout, and one of these friends happened to be of the masculine gender (take that adjective as you will, considering their age).  I had met the boy a few times prior, and all-in-all, he seems like a good kid and hopefully a friend she can keep in her life.

Now, the ex/new boyfriend got jealous that he wasn’t invited.  I have to say though, she had planned this occasion before they had gotten back together, and she wanted it to be a gathering for her friends at her new school.  Through the course of the evening, she got a series of texts from the boyfriend and a supposed friend of his (texting on the same line), and by the end of the night she was single again.

We talked about it the next day.  She was a little disappointed, but she understood.  But what happened after is where I intervened.  For the next 36 hours, minus school time, she continued to get text messages from her ex’s phone.  Again, I would have just let her work it out, but these were coming in when she should have been asleep.  And then she came to me with them, showing me the content.

I don’t care how old you are, to me, the word “gay” should not be used as a weapon.  And there were over ten messages from his phone with various phrases of the such.  One was so bad that I won’t even reprint it here.  So yesterday close to bedtime, after another text message, though this one was not too particularly cruel, I made the call.

I told the 13 year old boy that he needed to stop texting my daughter, and that his text messages would be considered harassment if he continued.  He tried to claim ignorance, as he had been blaming some of the ruder ones on a friend to my daughter.  I informed him that these were coming through on his phone line, and therefore his responsibility.  He again tried to argue, and I asked him very clearly, Do you understand what I am saying to you?  He said he did, and I calmly but firmly told him goodbye.

Amy told me it was a bit embarassing, but she was really glad I called him.  I won’t be able to rescue her from stupid stuff like this her entire life, but she needs to know that if she is in a bad situation that she doesn’t feel like she has the ability to get out of, I will be there for her.

 

Score: Gays 1, Telemarketers 0

My sister’s phone rang, and my SIL answered it. She likes to entertain the telemarketers. I hear her answering the typical questions and then I hear,

“I don’t know how to answer that question.”
pause
“Well, I would be married, but in this country I’m not allowed to.”
pause
“Because I’m gay!”

She said the poor girl on the other side was speechless.