Bullies for Christ

Tell me again about how Christians are so persecuted in the U.S.

I don’t know how I missed this glimpse into the dark heart of W’s America, over at John Hoke’s Asylum, about a girl who attempted suicide because kids at school harrassed her for not being Christian. (The initial article John linked to isn’t available anymore, apparently. I tried to find it, with no success.)

[The girl’s mother] said that on Nov. 30, a group of girls surrounded her daughter and called her a ‘’pagan’’ and said she ‘’would burn in hell.’’ Later that night, she refused to return to the school and her mother protested.

‘’she just grabbed the kitchen knife and just started slicing her arm,’’ said the mother, who was not identified by the newspaper.

It brought to mind a story I remembered reading a few years back, about another girl who was taunted because of her faith (she was Wiccan), and committed suicide as a result.

Twelve-year-old Tempest Smith sat alone in her bedroom one chilly morning late last month and gazed into the mirror. Shortly before her classes were to start at Lincoln Park Middle School, she kissed her reflection goodbye.

The lipstick smudges still adorn Tempest’s mirror, sad reminders of the day the tall, troubled girl slipped a leopard-print scarf around her neck and hanged herself from her bunk bed.

Tempest’s journal, discovered under her bed after her Feb. 20 suicide, offers a glimpse into a problem family and friends didn’t fully understand: the incessant teasing she faced every day about her shy demeanor, choice of clothing and religious beliefs that made each day of school — then eventually life itself — unbearable.

…Although Tempest had a few friends, many of her classmates had teased her constantly since elementary school. They teased her because she wore dark “Gothic” clothing to school. They teased her because she read books about Wicca, a pagan religion often associated with witchcraft. Her classmates often taunted her with Christian hymns.

“Now people aren’t chanting Jesus luvs u. They’re singing it.”

John has posted an update on his blog, about what Peak to Peak is like for non-christian students on a daily basis.

Derien Jastrzebski, a sophomore at Peak to Peak, said there’s a “huge” Christian culture at the school but also students who practice other religions.

“I was surprised when all this came out,” she said. “I don’t see it happening. The popular group is rude to everyone, but they don’t pick on someone because of their religion.”

But one boy sitting alone at the edge of campus Tuesday told a different story. The 13-year-old stared at his lap and nervously plucked the grass while he talked about the popular “fundies” who regularly push him and his friends around.

“They’re in your face, kind of rude about it, saying ‘You’re going to die, you’re going to burn in hell,’” said the boy, dressed in all black. The Camera is withholding his name out of concern for his safety.

He said two years ago in sixth grade, it was the other way around. The Christian students got picked on. They had no friends. But as their circle of friends grew, now about 60 strong, so did their influence.

“This is kind of like their revenge, I guess,” the boy said.

Here’s the rub. It’s not a private, christian school. It’s a public, non-religious charter school. School officials claim they don’t know how things got this way.

School officials acknowledge the 5-year-old school’s Christian image but say they don’t know its origins.

Howard said it may be because the school attracts Christian families who like the focus on “character education,” which teaches children about basic human values, including honesty, courage and respect. Peak to Peak’s character program is part of the curriculum.

“There are people of all religious backgrounds, and there always have been,” Howard said.

“Human values?” Sounds like they’d do better to teach humane values. Clearly there’s something wrong at this school, but from the comments in the school officials seem reluctant to admit there’s a problem and deal with it. If they don’t, then it’s just a matter of time before the situation results in something that no one wants to see happen, whether its a successful student suicide or a Columbine-like affair. And when it happens, everyone will be about as sorry as they were when Tempest Smith committed suicide, but it will be too late to do much good.

Students at Lincoln Park Middle School are now trying to find peace themselves, haunted by the feeling that they may have driven their classmate to end her life. Many of Tempest’s classmates have told teachers and counselors they feel responsible, because they teased the girl so ruthlessly. More than 100 students showed up at Tempest’s funeral last Saturday, bearing cards and placards expressing their grief — and guilt.

“I’m sorry if I said mean things to you,” one of Tempest’s classmates wrote. “I didn’t mean them. It was the easiest way for me to hide what was wrong with me.”

“I am sorry that it led to this,” was the message written on a placard. “None of it should have happened. If only they had understood, then you would still be alive.”

Lincoln Park school officials and grief counselors have been working with the students.

“The last thing we want to do is make our students feel guilty,” said Lincoln Park Middle School Principal Robert Redden. “But, maybe there is a lesson to be learned here: that we should strive to treat each other with more kindness.”

Not guilty? For driving a young woman to take her own life? Or is it a matter of just not forcing students to try and reconcile their behavior towards this young woman with the values they claim to embrace through their faith. In searching for the Tempest Smith story, I came across one editorial response to her suicide that pretty much sums up why there’s such a disconnect here when it comes to “not making students feel guilty.”

I will argue, though, that the death of Tempest Smith by her own grief-stricken hands has not received as much attention because of a desire to filter intolerance out of view in our society. Rather than remind America that someone can still be treated as less than human for holding a different faith, a different lifestyle, or otherwise divergent from the norm, it is much more comforting to simply ignore the issue.

To acknowledge that Tempest Smith’s classmates were exerting cruel psychological torture on the young woman with the hymns their church had taught them would be to indict not only the school children, but the hymns as well. To make this tragic event public knowledge would be to put a mirror to the face of the majority, forcing them to see the intolerance in their own eyes, crumbling their arguments that it no longer exists.

Maybe I’m brining my own issues to this—with bullying, with organized religion, and the christian church in particular—but I think the author has a definite point.

John sums it up well, so well that I’d rather quote him than attempt my own summation.

This should be a clarion call to the education system that something is amiss at this Christian charter school, and regardless whether it is institutional harassment, or just systematic, it must be stopped — period.

Public schools, be they traditional or charter schools exist for one reason, to teach children. They are not recruitment stations for religious fundamentalism of any stripe. Imagine the outrage if Muslim children started beating up those who are not Muslim, or picked on kids until they converted — and the school either turned a blind eye, or promoted it — the National Guard would be called in to close down the school. This is the point — you want to teach your kids religion, great! Do it in Church, do it in Church Schools, do it in your home, just do not force it upon all children, you do not have that right in this society.

Where is the “Christian Love” for these harassed kids anyway? Obviously not coming from these “Christians”.

Actually, there’s only one thing I’d change in what John said. They do not have that right in this society…yet.