When Bethany Thompson was just three years old, doctors discovered a brain tumor that had her fighting for her life.
Luckily, the toddler was able to beat her cancer after radiation treatments and has been cancer-free since 2008. However, the brutal treatments that saved her life left her with permanent nerve damage in her face that left her with a crooked smile, which bullies from her sixth-grade class have ruthlessly taunted her about for years. And when the school failed to help, 11-year-old Bethany took matters into her own hands.
For months, Bethany’s mom, Wendy Feucht, tried to help her daughter deal with cruel bullies by making complaints, making sure she had supportive friends, and getting her counseling to find coping mechanisms and improve her self-esteem. It seemed to be enough. However, after a particularly bad day at school dealing with the constant bullying and having the school administration turn down her and a friend’s idea for an anti-bullying poster campaign, the sixth grader told her friend she couldn’t take it anymore.
Once she got home, Bethany managed to find one of her parent’s guns in the home, which were kept hidden in a safe place, and tragically used it to end her life. “There’s a piece missing, I’ve had this constant in my life for 12 years and now it’s gone,” Feucht said. “Nothing’s going to be able to fill that hole.”
“She was my princess, that’s my baby girl. Life revolved around her for me,” Bethany’s dad, Paul Thompson, said. Now Feucht and Thompson are sharing their daughter’s story to hopefully help put an end to bullying.
“Something has to change, something is broken in the system and there are lots of different ways that this could have been handled,” said Feucht who feels she didn’t do enough and is warning parents not to make her mistake. “Call them, call them every day if you have to and eventually they’ll be tired of hearing from you and actually do something.”
“I am Bethany. Anyone who’s been picked on, they’ve been Bethany,” Feucht said. “If this were the last life, that her death could stop it, she would be thrilled.”
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[Featuered image: Paul Thompson]
Cancer Survivor Kills Herself After Being Bullied About Her Smile is an article from: LifeDaily