Bullying is a massive problem that we seem to hear more and more about all the time. Sometimes, it can be so rough on kids that they end up hurt or traumatized as a result. And one 2021 incident involving bullying is one that will likely stay with an 11-year-old for the rest of his life.
The boy was being threatened and taunted by bullies, and his back was up against the wall — literally and figuratively. Unfortunately for him, he was on a moving school bus and felt his only option was to jump out of the vehicle. So that's exactly what he did.
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The boy, who lives in Walton County, Georgia, leapt out of the bus and landed on the roof of a truck, then rolled out onto the highway. But by some miracle, he suffered only minor injuries. He ended up with a concussion and a broken elbow. The sheriff's office shut down the intersection to investigate while paramedics helped the child.
It's miraculous that the boy is OK. But his father was beside himself with worry. Dion Murphy, the boy's dad, told Fox 5 Atlanta that he thought his son had died.
"Death. First thing I'm thinking when I hear you jumped out a vehicle … I was concerned he'd got ran over or killed," he said. "My son could've lost his life."
The incident is really upsetting, especially to the boy's family. But what's more troubling is that the child's dad says he's been bullied before and that the school had been alerted. Some of the incidents are on tape, too. “There’s more tapes and that’s why I’m so upset because the school neglected the bullying act and did not do anything about it,” Dion said. “They took it as horseplay, but my son could have lost his life.”
According to Dion, his son jumped because he felt he was completely out of options. “One student jumped in his face, he was pushing him against the window, when he fell, the other student took his shoe and in a desperate attempt to escape it, he jumped out the window,” he said.
Some people want to blame the bus driver for not intervening. But bus drivers have a very important job to do: driving the bus! It's tough to focus on driving with even a couple of kids in a vehicle. Most people don't have any idea how hard it is to focus on the road with an entire busload of kids.
The boy is no longer enrolled at Young Middle School, his dad says. While that's good news that will hopefully help him avoid getting bullied any further, the entire incident shows just how dangerous bullying can be. Oftentimes, kids don't realize just how harmful their words and their actions toward other people are. This situation could've ended up far worse.
The statistics around bullying are pretty frightening. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, students who are bullied are more likely to consider suicide than those who are not. We also know that it has serious and often lasting traumatic effects, either way, and that prevention is key.
The Walton County School District says it is taking the incident seriously. "Following a bus incident on May 5, a Walton County School District student sustained minor, non-life-threatening injuries," the district said in a statement. "The other students and driver on the bus were not injured."
The statement continued, "School and district officials are aware of the bullying allegations made in connection with this event. The Walton County School District does not tolerate bullying and harassment of any kind. The incident is being thoroughly investigated by school officials and any disciplinary issues that may arise will be handled appropriately at the school level."
