A bullied teen has received a wave of online support after a video of her weeping over the constant torment that she receives in school went viral.
Dana Hamrick, 16, who is a junior at Harry S. Truman High School in Taylor, Michigan, uploaded a five-minute long video to her Facebook page on Wednesday, April 22, that emotionally and heartbreakingly documented the personal toil being bullied has had on her.
Hamrick bravely shared her experiences of being bullied, and her effort soon went viral. Not only has it been viewed close to 200,000 times in just seven days, but it has also received 3,581 likes and been shared 4, 670 times too.
Speaking directly to the camera, Hamrick asks her tormentors, “Do you know how bad I feel?,” while adding, “Please understand how your words affect people. I am sitting here, bawling my eyes out and you tell me to get out of your sight.” She also explained, “People make fun of the way I look… This school sucks. I don’t want to go there anymore, but I don’t have a choice.”
Hamrick admitted that she has been reduced to hiding from her fellow students on her lunch because of the bullying, and when she approached her teachers to complain about her treatment, she insists that they don’t take her seriously.
Hamrick even explained that after originally posting the video on Monday, April 20, school officials asked her to take it down. She then reposted in on the Wednesday.
FOX Chicago have since met with Hamrick to discuss her treatment, and when she was asked why she posted the video she remarked, “I posted this video because I wanted people to know that bullying hurts. It does. Words do hurt.”
The school have since told Fox that they contacted Hamrick and her parents about the bullying months ago, but the trio refused the offered support. However Harick’s parents, who admit that they were alerted by the school, insisted that the school only then followed up after the video went online.
Teresa Winner, who is the assistant superintendent of the Taylor School District, detailed their efforts to stop the bullying to Yahoo Parenting in an email.
“Per district policy, interventions were put in place several months ago to address this student’s needs. At no time following that were incidents of bullying reported to any school personnel.”
“Furthermore, the student refused help from counselors, teachers, and social workers on different occasions when it was offered and could not provide the school with any specific names of students bothering her. As a follow-up measure, her parent was contacted, and a meeting was scheduled.”
But Harmick believes that more needs to be done at the school to protect victims from bullying, and she even called for members of staff to be sacked because of their lack of intervention.
In fact, alarmingly, Hamrick added that while school “should be a safe environment” she confessed that currently she doesn’t “feel safe” at Taylor’s Harry S. Truman High School.
[Image via CDN]