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Anti-Bullying Month
Hey guys,
This month at the Long Island Center for Speech and Myofunctional therapy we are celebrating Anti-Bullying month. We are having our clients create posters that support anti bullying to show how important this month is to us. I was on twitter and saw Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, posted this heart breaking story about a special needs girl being bullied in Texas. I felt compelled to share it with everyone.
Shea Shawhan, of Plano, is 18 years old but has the mental capacity of an 8-year-old as a result of a severe brain injury she had suffered at birth. She is a junior in high school and participates in many of the extra curricular activities her school has to offer, like cheerleading and softball.
Eight months ago, the 18-year-old girl began receiving hateful text messages on her iPhone mocking her disability and her appearance. One of the texts read: ‘Why are u still here. Clearly no one wants you. U only have special needs friends. And ur ugly and have a horrible fashion sense. Honestly ur clothes suck.’ This is one of the more “PG” texts, the rest of them were unbelievably cruel as well. I will post the rest of the article for you to read at your leisure so you can see what this poor girl has been going through.
Shea’s bullies are so malicious that the texts she has been receiving are from a website that generates fake telephone numbers to “text” the recipient. This site makes its impossible to identify the sender of the message, though Shea’s mother believes that a group of girls from her high school are responsible.
Miss Riddel, Shea’s mother, had set up a Facebook account called Imwithshea to spread the word about her daughter’s predicament and raise awareness of bullying. So far, the page has drawn more than 19,000 followers.
This has to stop! Spread the word about Shea because she is just one of many kids that has to suffer at the hands of a bully. By spreading stories like Shea’s we can hopefully end this vicious torment!
Here’s a link to Shea’s story… http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2455556/Shea-seizure-die-Special-needs-girl-tormented-bullies.html
Stop the hate, spread the love.
–Steph
