Thursday, September 11, 2014

Are you brave enough?

Yesterday EmmaLeigh told me something that happened at school.


She was sitting in class and a boy was laughing about and shared a story about an Ice Bucket Challenge that he either heard or saw (Emma couldn’t remember). There was a group of boys that challenged a boy with autism to do the Ice Bucket Challenge. The autistic boy didn’t really know what they were talking about but agreed to it. The boys then filled up a bucket and dumped in on the autistic boys head. Little did the autistic boy know that the bucket was actually filled up with human waste. Again as I said before the boy sharing this story, with Emma and some other kids, was laughing. The other kids in the group started laughing too. EmmaLeigh was very upset and said “Stop laughing it’s not funny! I have 2 brothers that are autistic and that is just not funny.” (I can’t remember exactly what she said) The boys in the group immediately stopped laughing looked a little sheepish and went back to doing their work. The boy sharing the story then went and shared it with someone else trying to get someone to laugh with him.

When she came home telling us the story she was very upset and was crying about it. I’m sure she was thinking about if that were to happen to her brothers. I know that these boys are children and are probably completely ignorant to what autism is, but even if the boy wasn’t autistic it was still a form of bullying that shouldn’t be admired or thought to be funny. 

This is just so disturbing to me. Why are people doing such awful things to another human being? And why is it getting spread around and being laughed at by others? 

I am so very proud of EmmaLeigh of how brave she was to stand up to that boy and let him know that what he was saying wasn't funny. It made me think.....Am I brave like that too? Do I stand up for what I know is right and stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves? 

Are you?

My brave girl, so proud of her!