Bullying leads to tragedy for Copper Basin teen

Many people knew a school bully as a kid. Maybe it was even you. The movies are full of bullish kids, usually boys, shoving other kids around for lunch money or forcing smaller kids to do their homework. These stories of the screen seem to work out, but art does not always imitate life and no place is immune.

Some may be skeptical it even happens in a small place like Clay County schools. Others may contend bullying has always happened and it is a “rite of passage,” even saying kids should “suck it up.”

However, the stories tell something different and the consequences for the bullied child can be much more dangerous today.

After a local mom posted her own anti-bullying Facebook video a few weeks ago, a request for more information was given and many messages were received from people who have been bullied or whose child has been bullied. Some stories are similar, but they all show it can happen anywhere, even in a small school or community.

Angel Harris contends the problem is often worse in smaller schools. Not only does the bullied person encounter the aggressor outside the school, but it is harder to blend into the student population in a small school, she said.

And Angel Harris should know. Her daughter, Jazmine Harris, will never be bullied again. After constant bullying at school, the Copper Basin, Tenn. high school student took her own life May 15, 2015, just two days before her 14th birthday. Her mother said Jazmine had been called fat and worthless by other students and had even been told she should die.