Experts: Mediation is not the answer to bullying - Off Duty, Military Health and Fitness - Air Force Times

Experts: Mediation is not the answer to bullying

Army wife Lisa Williams knows all too well the effects bullying can have on teens — she believes her 16-year-old son, Christian Taylor, took his own life because of bullies.

She thinks bullies began taunting Christian as long ago as January, when he started at Grafton High School in York County, Va., after the family moved there from Fort Hood, Texas.

Christian’s stepfather is a soldier on an unaccompanied tour to South Korea.

Williams said she tried to get school officials to address the problem, but the bullying continued.

A sheriff’s office school liaison officer met with Williams, her son, and the other students involved and determined that no crime had been committed, a department spokesman said.

Bullying is not a crime under Virginia law.

On Memorial Day of this year, about three weeks after Christian first told his mother about the bullying, his friends found him dead. He had hanged himself in his bedroom. An investigation is ongoing.

Williams says that when she pushed school officials to take action, their response was to ask for mediation between her son and one of the other students.

She refused.

“I told them they couldn’t put my son in a room with a bully without me, and they refused to allow me to be there,” she said.

But according to the “Stop Bullying Now!” website, “School staff should never have a joint meeting with your child and the child who bullied them. This could be very embarrassing and intimidating for your child. ... Bullying is a form of victimization, not a conflict. It should not be mediated.”

School officials said they don’t have Williams’ permission to talk about the incident but had been “very proactive.”