In December of 2014, a thirteen-year old girl in Ohio shot herself in the head with a gun. The girl's parents, Marc and Cindy Olsen, have been adamant that the reason behind their daughter Emilie's suicide is related to bullying. More specifically, the family has contended through various court-filed documents that the school district that Emilie belonged to failed on every level to provide a safe learning environment for her, accusing teachers, counselors, assistant principals, and employees of every kind of several different types of crimes. Although the school district has claimed all allegations to be false, there have been nine more students that have formerly belonged to the same school district that have spoken out against the lack of action taken by school administrators in regards to bullying. Awful text messages have been released from students at the same school Emilie attended, with many of them including racial slurs, violent threats, and even death wishes. One girl was even admitted into the psychiatric ward at a local children's hospital, despite the fact that her father had already met with assistant principal at Fairfield Middle School, Mark Rice, to discuss the problem and urge him to take action to stop the bullying. What makes the situation even worse is that Emilie's parents are now alleging that Emilie's middle school principal appeared at their house recently unannounced with two policemen. Marc Olsen contends that after refusing to leave after being asked multiple times, the party demanded that the Olsen's "shut up and cease all interviews with the local media" and to stop "stirring the pot and entertaining rumors". In spite of all of the terrible allegations surrounding the school district and other victims of bullying, the real tragedy of the story lies in the way that Emilie went out. Disturbing details about the tale have been released, with many of them indicating that there was much that could have been done to stop Emilie from shooting herself.
Ten days before she had committed suicide, she had told a friend that she was a target of mockery and was planning to end her life. In an online chat to another student at Fairfield Middle School, she wrote, "I'm causing all this trouble on Earth. And people look at me like I'm a freak and I'm tired of it... It hurts when you have to explain yourself to people you don't know or like... I've made up my mind, I wanna die... My New Year's resolution is to... have my perfect suicide go as planned".
Just four days after her suicide, the school district released a statement claiming that, in spite of all of the rumors of bullying surrounding Emilie Olsen's suicide, there was never a single report that had been filed by any party related to Emilie in regards to bullying. However, just a few hours later, the school district released another statement claiming that the middle school administration had, in fact, been advised of concerns regarding the bullying, but that they had allegedly believed that the issue had already "been resolved with the complete satisfaction of the family". Just one day later, Fairfield Township police officers closed their investigation into the suicide, claiming that they could not find any evidence that bullying had occurred recently.
Countless e-mails from Marc Olsen and school administrators detail disturbing concerns and details about the bullying, as Olsen contended that Emilie had told her parents she had been abused physically and that she had been a direct target of bullying at the hands of two specific girls. On a number of occasions, he continued to e-mail administrators with his concerns. There has even been a screenshot released that shows a fake Instagram account made which specifically parodied Emilie. The account name was "Emilie_Olsen_Is_Gay" and contained a biography with fake self-claims about being gay and loving to have intercourse in the woods and chew tobacco. Marc Olsen had already informed administrators of the account a year before Emilie's suicide, but even now, Superintendent Paul Otten still claims that he had never been aware of the account.
Obviously, there is nothing that can be done for the Olsen family now. Their daughter is gone and nothing will ever change that nor the intense pain and remorse that they feel for their fallen daughter. Every year, kids commit suicide and tragic stories come out in the news, but this story is particularly disturbing because it highlights a complete lack of care and diligence for bullying which ultimately resulted in a teenage suicide. Do we simply not care anymore? Why was more action not taken by school administrators in this case to stop the bullying of Olsen or the nine other students that alleged to have been intensely bullied in the same district? And even better yet, why has more not been released in the national media about this case? News outlets are flooded every day with the latest updates on where Drake was last night or where Kendall and Kylie are going to lunch, but no one seems to pay any mind to a teenage suicide instigated by violent bullying which was continuously ignored by school officials. Is it simply more important to pay attention to the latest fashion trends and celebrity gossip than it is to concern ourselves with the greater good of students and future generations? Is it too easy to act sad about such a death for a mere minute or so, and then continue on with life without even thinking about the evil behind it? Why has this not become a bigger issue?
