UPDATED: This post originally addressed what Anguished Repose thought of as a wrong response by the parent of the bully that perpetrated this incident. A response that was discovered to have been misinterpreted by the media, so I felt it was important to come back and add in the correction at the TOP of the post:
But she had, in fact, said she wanted her son to apologise to his victim.
The Daily Telegraph apologise for the error. [Read More]
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The first part of this? Makes me sick just watching it…
However forget the way it ends, even as satisfactory as it is…
Now get this, the mother of the little bully WHO SWUNG FIRST AND REPEATEDLY is actually asking that Casey Heynes (the kid DEFENDING himself in the video) apologize for…?
Yes, defending himself.
And yes, I understand that she is being an amazing mother by defending the unworthiness that is her son–Totally awesome job on her part (now) too!–But honey, sometimes the protective ‘mothering’ must be focused within (on improving your bully of a son) and not outside and towards that in which you have NO defense…
Say, you know, like towards a kid who was just trying to make the punching (done by YOUR son) stop.
I am normally not big on cussing, and I seldom if EVER do it here, but special circumstances warrant special attention and if this isn’t it? I don’t know what is.
Only two words come to mind when I think of the mother of this little vicious bully and her having the audacity to think her boy deserves an apology: Bitch. Please!
Very much like, say an alligator chasing after a heron who has her baby, but this time the bird is ALREADY in flight…
Just not going to do you any good.
The damage is already done and you are only going to wear yourself out with the futility of your efforts.
I get it, but your son is NOT the victim here, no matter how much you may feel like he is…
[MSNBC] An Australian kid became an Internet sensation on Monday when a YouTube video of him striking back against a bully went viral. Now the mother of the bully, a seventh-grader, wants sixteen-year-old Casey Heynes to apologize for body-slamming her son.
The smaller boy’s name is Ritchard Gale.
The emotional mother of Ritchard Gale, Tina, told the Seven Network last night that she and her family have been victimised by the footage, which has spread worldwide. She also demanded an apology from the victim.
“We don’t need this posted everywhere,” she said. “I would like him to apologise.”
She said she was “shocked” at her son’s behaviour, but did not think he deserved to be bodyslammed by Year 10 student Casey Heynes at Chifley College’s Dunheved Campus, St Marys.
“I was actually shocked because I always brought my three children up to walk away from fights,” she said. [Read More]
And now thanks to this mother, who though I understand her reasoning and rational, I cannot accept it…
Casey’s victimization continues.
“Just as alcohol affects your liver, stress affects your brain,” said lead researcher Yoav Litvin of Rockefeller University in New York. The anxiety that can result from being teased and otherwise treated poorly is organically based, Litvin said, meaning it arises from physical changes in the brain.
In the study, adult male mice were basically set up to be humiliated. (Mice are thought to have roughly similar responses to stress as humans.)
The researchers placed a small, young test mouse in the cage of a bigger, older mouse. Due to the instinctive territoriality of mice, a fight always ensued, which the newcomer always lost. The fights were rarely vicious, but the younger mouse quickly understood he was lower down on the social totem pole. (The experiment caused more psychological stress then physical harm.)
The same mouse was subjected to 10 different cages on 10 different days — and was knocked around by the cage’s resident bully each time. Then the researchers examined each mouse’s brain, looking at areas associated with emotion and social behavior, such as the amygdala and the lateral septum, which is located near the middle of the forebrain.
In bullied mice, the genes for hormone receptors responsible for making the brain sensitive to certain social stimuli had become more active, leading to the production of additional receptors. (Receptors act as hormone-specific doorways; when a brain region has more of them, more hormone molecules can come in at one time, causing the region to be more affected by the amount of hormone molecules in its midst.)
Specifically, the amygdala and lateral septum became more sensitive to vasopressin — a hormone involved in many different social interactions, including male-male aggression.
Social anxiety
This extra sensitivity may cause a victim to feel scared even in situations when he is safe. At the end of the study, after spending a full recuperative day alone, the bullied mice froze and stayed far away from new, relatively friendly mice. [Why Bully Victims Suffer in Silence]
It is not yet known how long the effects last but the finding suggests that the victims of bullies may find it difficult to start friendships, Litvin said, due to persistent social anxiety.
Studies in animals and humans have previously shown that psychological abuse can have long-lasting consequences, he said.
“Still, these brain systems are dynamic,” Litvin said. “What goes one way, usually can go the other way — although it may not be able to be totally reversed.” [Read More]
Mothering is a powerful instinct. I truly feel bad for the bully’s mother. How horrible a situation must she be in that she wants to protect her son FROM HIMSELF, and his atrocious actions, but cannot.
Much like the rest of the internet, and seemingly the world however, my support lies with bullied boy.
You have a fan in me Casey, 100%.
As for the mother?
She just has my pity, both for the futility of her plight and for her bully of a son.
