Middle School Student Takes a Stand Against Bullying

Jason Cianciotto

October 16th, 2010

An NBC affiliate in California covered this story about 7th grader Marco Melgoza, a victim of anti-gay bullying at his middle school in Madera, CA. Despite efforts made by school administrators to curb the bullying, Marco reports that it is still happening. It’s amazing to see youth standing up for themselves with the support of their parents.

David Malcolm

October 16th, 2010

I’m sorry, the kid’s had his head stomped on the pavement four times and all the school administrators have done is moved the bastard kids to another class?

SERIOUSLY!?

Have people ever heard about expulsion? Calling the police? Who cares if the little brats have apologized, I’m sorry I’m all for trying to simply solve the problem, but when you’re stomping on a kid’s head sometimes there needs to be straight out punishment as a deterrent since apparently the kids doing it don’t have souls! (Yes I know they probably have souls they just aren’t acting like it.)

andrew

October 16th, 2010

When I was physically threatened as a kid — and it happens all the time for all sorts of reasons — none of it was ever taken for what it was: criminal activity.

At the risk of taking sides with murderers, doesn’t anyone remember Columbine? What do folks think will happen when kids reach their breaking points with crap like this? Those cases that were suicides have, in other situations become murder-suicides, and no one ever gets around to analyzing the situation on the ground and examining an environment so toxic that it leads to suicide and murder. WTF?

Kaleo

October 16th, 2010

Inspired by a 7th grader. He reminds me to stand strong in my own walk.

Regan DuCasse

October 16th, 2010

Holla Andrew!
Assault and battery, are actionable as CRIMES!
I’m baffled that even those two humps that outed Tyler Clementi haven’t been expelled!
WTF indeed.

The PARENTS of bullies should be required BY criminal arrest and expulsion of their children, the seriousness of this issue.
And since school shootings ARE precipitated by this, you’d think people would get organized the right way.
We’ve heard of idiotic zero tolerance policies we’ve heard of where children were expelled for pointing their fingers at a kid and going ‘bang’, or because they had gay parents.

But actual assault and vandalism against personal property didn’t warrant it.

What kind of stupid are having to deal with here?

That Marko is a real cutie pie. Looks a lot like Seth Walsh.
He reminds me of that lone man at Tiannamen who faced a tank.
Considering he was almost the only one out there, it sure looked like the school system is just another level of bully.

Rob San Diego

October 16th, 2010

What a great inspiration. I am so amazed that this kid is taking matters into his own hand. Let’s hope that it’s a wake up call to all those parents who are picking up their kids. Of course I’m sure that most of those kids get it from their parents.

Jonathan Oz

October 16th, 2010

First, I applaud tMarco Melgoza for speaking out. It requires a rare level of courage to do so, especially in middle school.
I feel the “hang ’em from the highest tree” attitude about bullies reflected in many of the responses to this story, however, is counter productive for kids in elementary, middle and to a certain extent even high school, and is part and parcel of the same value system that promotes and accepts bullying in the first place. Solutions to this problem need to reflect a deeper and more reflective understanding of the problem.

BlackDog

October 16th, 2010

The more I see of this, the more convinced I am that in a lot of schools bullying is de-facto tolerated and they only punish or remove the bullies to cover their own asses. When the hell are we as a society going to wake up and realize that all the American “rugged individualist” myths not to mention most of our other mythology that feeds into the fucked-upness of our society is just that, MYTHOLOGY. More to the point, it’s mythology that, at best, serves what the status quo was when *I* was a kid and at worst enables the most reactionary among us. Both the stereotypical “ignore them and they will go away” approach and the learning to fight back approach work for some people, but not for everybody! I was bullied because on the one hand I’m reasonably intelligent but on the other I had/have a learning disability, and the only reason it stopped was I learned how to fight back…AND the principal understood that an ass whupping is sometimes necessary AND I was defending myself.

I’ve heard of cases from two or three of my friends around here where the kid who was being bullied fought back, or someone fought back on their behalf and then THEY were punished while the bullies were allowed free reign!

In my experience, a lot of it boils down to classism and elitism, as well as fear and hate of that which is different…and I think bullying is tolerated by some because OF these screwed up aspects of American society.
In a lot of other countries, people would be going to prison over this bullshit already.

It’s not the 1950’s anymore, people need to wake up and realize that, before the rest of the world leaves us behind.

Bernie

October 16th, 2010

What strength and courage!

Timothy Kincaid

October 17th, 2010

Okay, I gotta say: I LOVE this kid’s father. He’s taking his parenting job seriously.

justsearching

October 17th, 2010

The kids should have been kicked out. Their apologies mean nothing. And switching around a few classes might be a good short-term solution, but they had better do more than that. Maybe they should keep all the weird gay kids in one class to let the straight kids feel safe from the temptation of smashing a gay kid’s face in.

Robert Ray

October 17th, 2010

Bullying is tolerated because it simply reflects the attitudes of the adults. The children do what the adults can’t, and the adults teach the kids that bullying is what they should do.

Expulsion is what should be done for bullying. The moment a child is treated in any manner that could be physically dangerous, like smashing their head on the pavement, expulsion should be mandatory and the parents should be FORCED to place their children in a private school without ANY financial aid.

customartist

October 18th, 2010

Call your congressmen here:

800-828-0498 Congressional Switchboard

202-224-3121 Main Capitol Switchboard

Tell them to create and pass a “National Bias Intimidation Law”. This will allow, and require, the FBI to step in when local authorities do not act with due diligence.

This is the he most correct and accurate definition of the needed legislation. This includes Intimidation and Bullying which is not necessarily physical, nor specific to LGBT’s.

The operator can connect you to your congressmen if you do not know who they are.

Steve

October 18th, 2010

The problem is that we keep calling this “bullying”…and in the national consciousness, bullying is almost cute, a right of passage. We have movies about bullying where the bully gets his comeuppance or learns a valuable lesson or [insert cliche here]. There are movies that include bullies: Stand by Me comes to mind as does Pay It Forward. Bullying is when one kid and his posse demands your (and every other nerd’s) lunch money. It’s wedgies and atomic wedgies. Well, maybe in 1956 and probably not even then…and it should be taken seriously.

But this isn’t bullying. What we see here is the same systematic anti-gay harassment that permeates our culture at all levels; it has simply seeped down to the Lord of the Flies worlds of grade, middle and high school.

Roxy Angulo(friends

November 17th, 2010

Well I just met Marco today. He has been transfered to Howard Elementary. He’s been going to Howard for two days now. I simply don’t know why kids would do this to him. He’s a really nice guy. He explained to me and my friends today what had happened and i don’t think it was right, I felt sorry and wanted to make him welcomed to our school. Me and my friend Vanessa Munoz decided to say hello and wanted to get to now him. We told him we were all for it to stand up for someone who has been bullied. I don’t think saying sorry is enough. I know theirs expulsion and suspension, but nothing will make those kids change this situation is serious and i think everyone should do something about it. We’re all in it to help some one in need. I just hope for the best to Marco.

Sincierly,
Roxy Angulo.

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