Lawsuit Mom Says Bullying Led To Girl’s Eating Disorder
Posted by: Jessica Wakeman
Filed in:
news
11:20AM, Thursday August 20th 2009
A Pennsylvania mother is suing her daughter’s school system because she said classroom bullying caused her daughter to develop anorexia.
The lawsuit alleged that in 6th grade, three boys called the girl “fat” and two more boys joined the taunting during her 7th grade school year. One year later, the girl checked into an in-patient program for an eating disorder. The family is suing Pittsburgh Public Schools because she said the school’s guidance counselor failed to deal with the alleged bullying, which would likely make it the first lawsuit of its kind. [CBS News]
Lynn Grefe, head of the National Eating Disorders Association, said the link between bullying and anorexia is tenuous. Dr. Alberto Goldwaser, an expert on mental illnesses from NYU, agreed and told CBS, “We cannot say that anorexia is caused by bullying or brain issues or mother-daughter relationships or any one thing.”
But we’re not so sure—we think the lawsuit has a point. I don’t think bullying causes anorexia. Personally, I believe that the propensity towards eating disorders, like depression, is something we are born with, but I believe bullying exacerbates and inflames a problem a person already has. Perhaps the lawsuit isn’t so much about what causes someone to be anorexic as it is about what constitutes bullying.
Persistently being called “fat” over the course of two years is bullying—whether it comes from the boys who sit next to you in Spanish class or whether it comes from your mother or father. This lawsuit could draw attention to the fact that words do hurt and “fat” (perhaps even “ugly”) should be added to the list of hurtful words that should have consequences if consistently used. A middle school has to help youngsters who are called racial slurs or homophobic names; they should help the ones who are getting bullied over their looks. I’m purely guessing here, but the girl’s school probably thought “fat” was just a mean name that middle school kids call each other. Unfortunately, that girl whose troubles they allegedly mishandled just happened to be a ticking time bomb for an eating disorder.
What do you think? Is suing a school system because bullying allegedly contributed to a girl becoming anorexic too extreme? Or do you think this mother is right to sue?
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writergirl
wrote on August 20 2009 @ 10:32 am: [report]
I think suing is out of line, but I think suing over most anything is out of line. That’s just me. I don’t believe in clogging the court system.
Having said that, I became anorexic over bullying and being called fat over the years by boys. So while it may not have been the direct connection, I can remember the reasons why I stopped eating, the bullying being one of them.
Hopefully the mother is getting the daughter help in addition to suing the school.
lea322
wrote on August 20 2009 @ 10:40 am: [report]
I think if the suit brings attention to the issues at hand, it’s a good thing. Middle school is such a hard time for kids…it’s embarrassing just to be alive with all the changes they’re going through. Having to listen to people taunt you all day about a body that is likely going to change dramatically over the next few years makes it that much harder. While teachers, staff and administrators ARE there to teach academics, they are also there to guide students through this phase in their development, and apparently more needs to be done to prevent students from hurting themselves because they’re being hurt by others.
joyy
wrote on August 20 2009 @ 10:41 am: [report]
Ah, litigious America. I agree that suing is out of line, but I do hope that Pgh Public Schools has the resources necessary to change the atmosphere/environment in which this was allowed to happen. Why didn’t the guidance counselor do anything? The answer to that is likely as complex as the reasons the girl developed anorexia.
More staffing to better handle things like bullying and student wellness might be a positive outcome. Changing policy to specifically broaden the terms of what constitutes bullying and a commitment from the school to actually implement that could make a difference too.
Nancy G
wrote on August 20 2009 @ 10:44 am: [report]
I agree that legally it will be tough to prove that the bullying caused anorexia. I completely agree that schools need to take much more seriously the bullying that goes on related to looked. Based on what I read every day from girls ages 8 and up posting at NewMoon, it’s just as painful for them to be taunted about their looks as it is to be taunted about race or sexual orientation. And I think it’s FAR more common. It IS bullying and adults need to become part of the solution rather than just dismissing it as unimportant. If this lawsuit can build awareness and sensitivity about that issue, it will be helpful to many kids.
sadie
wrote on August 20 2009 @ 10:57 am: [report]
I don’t know if bullying causes ED. I do think bullying is an issue and schools should make more of an effort to teach kids not to do it buuuut, the world is not nice. In the real world sometimes people say things that hurt your feelings. You cannot sue every person who says something not nice to you or blame every institution where the insults occurred. As much as I think schools should try to curb bullying, kids also need to learn to cope with the real world because they can’t be protected from every little thing. It has to be a reasonable balance of trying to teach civility and trying to teach kids to have a thicker skin when bad behavior does occur.
lea322
wrote on August 20 2009 @ 12:01 pm: [report]
@sadie: It’s only like that in “the real world” because we let this kind of behavior go unchecked. Why is it EVER acceptable to say degrading things to someone, especially with the intention to hurt? Parents, schools, the media (I’m talking to you, Sitcoms) need to teach children that laughing at another human being’s flaws out of the context of a trusting relationship is inappropriate. The world may often be cruel, but we don’t need to encourage it to be so.
sadie
wrote on August 20 2009 @ 12:25 pm: [report]
I didn’t say we should encourage it. I said mean behavior should be discouraged amongst kids, but it’s unrealistic to expect to eliminate it so it’s probably a good idea to teach kids to cope, in addition to discouraging rude behavior.
Honestly, I can’t even imagine a world where everyone was nice to everyone all the time. How much do people make fun of Gwyneth Paltrow on this site (and others) for her dumb GOOP newsletter? If she couldn’t take a few jabs she’d probably be off committing suicide right now.
I think it’s ok to make fun of GOOP. I think it’s necessary that GP can live with it. I think it’s realistic that we’re all going to be made fun of sometimes and we should all be able to handle it without going nuts.
Coral
wrote on August 20 2009 @ 12:32 pm: [report]
I think suing is way out of line, as in most cases when people sue.
However, I can somewhat believe that bullying can help further along an eating disorder, not cause it in the first place. I have always been very thing and with a small frame—although I’m not short, and I have very long legs. But around 6th grade, many of my classmates and some of my friends at that time TOLD me that I was anorexic and ACCUSED me of being anorexic (as if it were a horribly bad thing). First of all I was absolutely not anorexic at that time—I do admit to being thin, but that’s because I always was. I hadn’t really grown in yet. But by the time of 9th grade, I began to feel that I had a stomach (in those 3 years I had gained about 10-15 pounds, but many people were now telling me that I looked healthier and whatnot). I was/am a serious dancer who worked out a lot, and close friends assured me that I was not fat and that i had a very flat stomach. I admit that I have definitely struggled with weight and being able to keep it on, but never have I had anorexia or any other eating disorder. I do feel that the people who sure of me having anorexia did affect my eating habits and my self-consciousness about my body. But in no way did they fully cause it to happen. A lot of it is psychological based on genetics, environmental reasons, and past experiences.
lea322
wrote on August 20 2009 @ 12:42 pm: [report]
@sadie: I do understand what you’re saying, and I do agree that there are going to be times in life when we’re going to need to take people’s comments in stride. I guess what I really mean is that we should work toward raising confident children who become confident adults, people who CAN handle some ridicule from time to time. I don’t think that comes from telling kids to “toughen up”. I think it comes from discouraging blatantly mean behavior whenever possible and instilling a sense of self-worth in children as early as possible.
BobbyCanuck
wrote on August 21 2009 @ 12:21 pm: [report]
A special tax for parents that own fat, ugly, retarded kids. Sure send them to mainstream schools, but the parents pay special fees to hire anti-bullying monitors