Today, I read about an 11-year-old Aboriginal child, Kathleen Beardy, who hung herself in despair because she was being bullied by neighbourhood thugs. (Read the story here.)
Her father was arrested and beaten in front of her by plain clothes police officers the day before Kathleen took her life. From the news stories, a gang of neighbourhood bullies stole the child’s puppy and threatened to sell it.
Kathleen couldn’t take it anymore and climbed up a gravel pile to a half dead tree where she hung herself with the dog’s leash.
My God.
My eyes started to tear up after reading the story. I can’t imagine the desperation that a baby… she was barely alive a decade, was feeling when she made the decision to kill herself. She must have felt like there was no other choice.
And a lot of people in Canada’s Native communities feel like that (The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care study found at here ):
- Suicide rates in the Canadian Native population are more than twice the sex-specific rates, and three times the age-specific rates of non-Native Canadians (56.3 per year per 100,000 persons for Native males and 11.8 for Native Females).
- Among Aboriginal males, the rate for the 15-24 year age group was 90.0. This is more than double that for all Aboriginal males: 39.0.
- Suicide among northern Native youth has reached epidemic proportions. In Alberta the rate in the northern region was 80; in the central region, 71.2, and in the southern area, 35.3.
- An extremely high overall rate of 80.2 has been found for 10 - 19 year-old Native males living on the northern coast of Labrador.
- The 1991 Aboriginal Peoples Survey indicated that 41% of Inuit, and 34.5% of Native Indians on reserves, report that suicide is a problem in their community.
Wow. This is a group in terrible need of something – the way our society has pushed these people one side, off in reservations or barely eking out an existence in urban centres is ridiculous. Add to that the seeming hatred and disgust that some have for Native Canadians it’s not surprising that suicide and alcoholism are destroying the community.
People in Kathleen’s hometown of Winnipeg, MB are sick over the situation, but, of course, you have your rednecked Canadians who have to their ignorance and hatred of the Aboriginal community, which is one of the most marginalized groups in Canadian society.
One bold and very ignorant person from Winnipeg wrote this at theglobeandmail.com:
Nancy Stokell from Winnipeg, Canada writes: I feel very sorry for the family at this time.And for them to lash out at the police is natural so they don't put the blame on themselves for not being better parents.I know this sounds harsh at this time, but if they hadn't gotten in trouble with the law they wouldn't have been arrested.
Newsflash Nancy: when you’re a person of colour – whether you are Brown or Black – the police don’t necessarily need a reason to arrest your ass. Especially when you’re living in very white communities like part of Western Canada (which you would never catch the Sista in – I like to see my own people. I like to deal with my own people. Work with my own people. I like multiculturalism.)
Nancy thinks in her lily-white life that she can understand how it feels to be targeted. Nancy, I don’t think so. I don’t think that I can understand how marginalized the Native community in general feels. Man, I turn on the news here, I will see a Black person. I walk into work, I see Black people.
How often do you see a Native person on TV? And I ain’t talking about that crap Corner Gas? How often do you work with Native people. I’ve worked with one Native person my entire life and he gave me a completely different outlook on a group of people that I did not run into on a daily basis.
I don’t really know what to say on the whole bullying thing except parents have to be really involved in the lives of their children. And if the school is telling you your child is a bully or is being bullied, don’t say, ‘oh well, they’re just kids.’
Kids are cruel. And what one child can shake off can affect another child for life. Back in the day, my older sister was bullied. A big, lawless boy punched her in the face and broke her glasses when they were in Grade 3.
My mother made a beeline for the school and threatened to fix everyone – including the child – if she didn’t get satisfaction.
Well, my sister changed schools a while after that and went on to be bullied again, but she made it to high school where it got better. That little boy who punched her and broke her glasses (my mother wasn’t pleased, buying glasses wasn’t cheap back in the ‘70s) was killed in a prison brawl.
Now, who says that bullying isn’t something that needs to stop?
I’m feeling really heartbroken for this child who didn’t see another way. Rest in peace, Kathleen.
