My tween became a target of cyber bullying, but it showed me that there are lessons for all ages when it comes to social isolation and exclusion, Joanne Nixon writes
First Person is a daily personal piece submitted by readers. Have a story to tell? See our guidelines atI didn’t want to be a mother who keeps tabs on her kid’s phone or monitors her texts. I trusted her to be careful. I wanted my daughter to grow up feeling unguarded and free. Perhaps it was because my mother hovered over me. During my adolescence, I felt like I was under surveillance. When I rifled through a cupboard or grabbed a snack from the fridge, she used to watch me.
That evening, the police showed up at our door. They were from the human trafficking division. They suspected a pedophile was disguising himself as a young teen and was pursuing my daughter. They interrogated her for about an hour. My daughter, eyes large and terrified, answered their questions. She was wrapped in a grey comforter. She sat frozen and stiff on the couch, barely moving. Her eyes never met mine. When they did, she looked away. Her words were faint and breathless.
My daughter didn’t believe me. Perhaps the principal was lying. “It couldn’t be my friends,” she said. “What have I done to make them want to hurt me like that?” The level of betrayal was severe. Every member of our family was deeply troubled.For weeks, my daughter walked around pale, bug-eyed with a blank look, her usual exuberance extinguished. She cuddled our dog. She refused to talk about the “incident.
By this time, everyone in our town knew what had happened. Some mothers from the neighborhood had me over for tea. They invited my daughter for a sleepover with their daughters. They were sympathetic, disgusted and on edge. I could tell they were worried that their own daughters might be the next victims. How had cyber bullying found its way to our sheltered, little village?
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