Bailey O'Neill, 12, Dead Weeks After School Bullying

[Judi Lynn]

Source: ABC News

Bailey O'Neill, 12, Dead Weeks After School Bullying
By KEVIN DOLAK (@kdolak)
March 4, 2013

A 12-year-old boy has died after being placed in a medically induced coma following a fight at his suburban Philadelphia school.

Bailey O'Neill died Sunday, a family member who did not want to be named, confirmed to ABCNews.com. Bailey turned 12 on Saturday. He was taken off life support Sunday morning.

In January, Bailey was involved in a fight at Darby Township School in Upper Darby, Pa., west of Philadelphia, Jan. 10. The boy was allegedly jumped by two classmates, one of whom hit him in the face several times fracturing his nose, his father Rob O'Neill told ABC affiliate WPVI.

Bailey was knocked down in the incident, his father told the station, which caused a concussion. From then on, something with the 6th grader wasn't right, his father said.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/bailey-oneill-12-dead-weeks-school-bullying/story?id=18649201

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Horrible, horrible.

No words, really.

[slackmaster]

2. Sounds more like assault and battery than "bullying"

[Saviolo]

8. Indeed

I would love for the media to call a spade a spade and stop labeling these sorts of things with the term "bullying." This is assault and battery. If you, as an adult, did the same thing to another adult, you'd be locked up.

Also, hold the parents responsible. Any of that "boys will be boys" crap is just enabling.

[Wednesdays]

15. 2nd degree murder, at the very least.

[Posteritatis]

16. Yep. Isn't minimizing language fun? (nt)

[loudsue]

3. There needs to be as much control over someone caught bullying as there is for someone bringing

a knife to school. Both are deadly.

[riderinthestorm]

4. The 2 boys who murdered him (yes murdered) got 2 days suspension. Thats it.

There haven't been any charges filed. These 2 psychopaths have had no further ramifications for murdering Bailey O'Neill.

[Kelvin Mace]

5. I am sure that will change

The state will perform an autopsy and if it is the medical examiner's opinion that the injury contributed to his death, they will be charged.

[Tempest]

7. Not to mention what the wrongful death lawsuit will do to those families. n/t

[harkonen]

10. If the murderers are charged, what will they be charged with?

I'm unfamiliar with juvenile law. What can the two murderers be charged with? Can the parents be charged as well?

[Posteritatis]

17. Murder would be the obvious charge.

That can definitely be applied to minors. The parents probably can't be directly charged, though they'll certainly be sued into a thin gruel in civil court.

[azurnoir]

18. homicide possibly as intent to kill cannot be

proven as with a murder charge

[benld74]

6. Prayers to him and his family

[BeyondGeography]

9. Sad as all hell

[Zoeisright]

11. Certainly hope the charges are murder one.

Those little fucks should be in jail for life.

[displacedtexan]

23. If they waited somewhere to "jump" the boy...

there had to be some planning invloved, which does sound like premeditation, doesn't it?

Any planned attack that results in a death sounds like murder to me.

This whole situation is just so damned sad!

[woodsprite]

12. So sorry for this little boy and his family.

We will never know what our kids have to go through at schools, on playgrounds, with their peers or on the bus rides to/from places where they're supposed to be safe.

[chuckstevens]

13. I just watched the Documentary Bullying Last Night

Last edited Mon Mar 4, 2013, 07:00 PM - Edit history (1)

It is extremely sad that these things seem to keep happening. I was bullied and make fun mercilessly in grammar school, yet there are 2-3 occasions later as an older kid that I bullied (not physically) a couple younger kids in the neighborhood. I knew at the time it was wrong, yet I still behaved that way. It has been over 40 year, yet I am still so deeply ashamed and to this day I wish I could go back and undo the few times when I was the bully.

What I still don't understand then and now is why some schools don't tolerate it, yet other seem, at best, to be passive and at worst, indifferent. My heart aches for all the young bullying victims and their families . It pains me that they feel there is no hope whatsoever. RIP Bailey!

[historylovr]

14. So sad.

[Smilo]

19. Oh my heart goes out to Bailey's family and friends

the boys that did this need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and I would like to see the school officials be brought up on something - what they did, or rather not do, was criminal.

[HughBeaumont]

20. The worst news. Having lived through this . . . GOD I'm insanely pissed off.

Please, oh please, anyone . . . tell me how assault "builds character". Tell me how it ..."toughens you up". Tell me how "it makes a man out of you". Tell me how it "prepares you for the real world" or whatever dumbass excuse one pulls out of their ass to justify a CRIME.

I always ask "When are adults going to take bullying seriously - when one of the victims gets killed at the hands of his assailants?"

Well, here you go; this poor boy died for fucking NOTHING. If an adult did this to another adult, they'd be locked up. WHY is this perfectly OK if it's kids?

NOW will you adults own up? NOW will you parents own up? NOW will you school administrators STOP PUNISHING VICTIMS (because when you do that, it pretty much gives the assailant a free pass to assault)?? NOW will you start taking this epidemic problem seriously with real consequences?? NOW WILL YOU START TREATING ASSAULT FOR HOW IT SHOULD BE TREATED . . . AS A CRIME?????

[smirkymonkey]

21. Poor little kid!

This is just so tragic!

[Nanjing to Seoul]

22. So when will the negligent homicide charge come, along with the lawsuit against the following:

1) the school
2) the district
3) the principal that did not stop bullying
4) the teacher that did nothing to stop bullying
5) the bully's parents who did nothing to stop bullying
6) the superintendent for doing nothing to set policy to stop bullying.

This little boy deserves all the justice the law provides and those negligent and culpable deserve the book thrown at them.

Negligent Homicide at most, voluntary manslaughter at the least.