A few weeks ago (January 5th, to be exact), I was rocked by a tragedy in my hometown of Alamo Heights, Texas. A 16-year-old boy who attended my high school committed suicide after suffering relentless bullying from his “peers.” I didn’t know David Molak, but I knew of his family. The circumstances surrounding his death really affected me for a reason that I couldn’t initially identify. I found out about David’s death after seeing a Facebook post from his brother—a post that has since garnered national media attention—that was incredibly heartbreaking and moving. In it, his brother described the awful abuse that David endured prior to his death. David had begun dating a popular girl at school, a fact which greatly bothered his tormentors. For months they attacked him over his physical appearance on social media, primarily Instagram. In his Facebook post, David’s brother, Cliff, details the last few weeks of David’s life and the transition from a vibrant, outgoing teen to a depressed, anguished outcast. There are screenshots of the Instagram harassment with which David dealt. The sickening comments are cruel at best and threatening in the most lenient of terms. Students mocked David’s features, calling him an “ape” and “monkey.” They advocated to: “put um inna coffin,” and, “put em 6 feet under,” warning him to not show up to school. The night before David’s death, he was added to a group text with eight unknown numbers, only to be incessantly berated and then kicked out minutes later.

Perhaps the thing that disturbed me the most about the news of David’s death was the fact that I was not surprised by it . That is certainly not a bash on my hometown community in any sense, but a testament to the dangers facing adolescents today. Technology is an amazing thing, but, like any powerful entity, it can and has been abused. Cyberbullying is all too prevalent in today’s society, giving emotionally misguided teenagers an outlet for their toxic actions. It’s very easy for someone to advise a victim of cyber bullying to simply “turn off the screen.” But, again, with such a cultural emphasis on all forms of technology, that is a nearly impossible task. Words, even when read through a screen, have the unfortunate capacity to linger and fester, both in conversations and in a victim’s own mind.

We can not anticipate the tragic consequences of every child’s technological activity, but there must be someone who is held accountable when tragedies do occur. Currently in the state of Texas, there are no laws regulating the effects of cyberbullying. School officials may have a “zero-tolerance” policy regarding bullying behavior that happens on school property and during school hours, but such policies do not extend themselves into the cyber world. The Molak family, and specifically Cliff Molak, is pushing for “David’s Law” to be implemented. Under this legislation, school authorities would have much more latitude in their “zero-tolerance” policies and would be able to extend their regulations to cases of cyberbullying and other forms of online harassment.

The fundamental issue of cyberbullying lies in the values and mentalities of the perpetrators. I really do not know how to put a permanent stop to cyberbullying and it’s frustrating. I wish that I had an answer. It’s been suggested by many people that parents need to be actively involved in their children’s cyber activity in order to completely reconcile the problem. However, all that that is doing is prolonging the antagonism of a bully. Parents should be allowed to foster independence and technological responsibility in their children without fear of their child becoming a cyberbully due to a lack of helicopter parenting. School-mandated anti-bullying rallies may be the bane of a middle schooler’s existence, but I do think that there is some merit in them. If nothing else, it’s the least that educators can actively do to instill good values into their students. Cyberbullying is not an issue that is easily mediated, especially with presences online and on social media increasing at an alarming rate. That is why I believe that David’s Law is an integral part of legislation for which we should advocate in these current times. While people are proactive in their attempts to reverse the mentalities of superiority and entitlement in online abusers, it is vital to have a system of consequences in place to reprimand those who violate the basic codes of human interaction.

I could not have given Cliff Molak’s Facebook post its due justice in a paraphrase, so I will not attempt to do so. Here is an excerpt of the text, which I urge you all to not only read fully, but to truly reflect upon.

“In today’s age, bullies don’t push you into lockers, they don’t tell their victims to meet them behind the school’s dumpster after class, they cower behind user names and fake profiles from miles away constantly berating and abusing good, innocent people. The recent advances in social media have given our generation a freedom of which has never been seen before. Freedom is a beautiful thing, however as freedom and personal liberties expand (and they rapidly are), there needs to be an equal expansion of personal accountability. Right now there is no expansion of personal accountability. The households and the school systems are failing. The only way to end the suffering in this nation whether it be from bullying or discrimination is not to highlight differences between groups of people, but to focus on the importance of accountability and ultimately character. The only way to heal this country and our communities is to accept and embrace the notion that we have to begin character building from the ground up before the elementary level or our society will never recover. The healing needs to start now before we fall even further down into the pits of evil. It is my dream for the healing of this nation to be David’s legacy. Please help me share this message.

Sincerely,