We are not doing enough!

We are not doing enough to protect our kids from bullying.

Ask any parents or guardian of the No. 1 thing they look for in a school system and the answer will be safety for their child.

We are failing our children.

Rachel Ehmke, a 13-year-old girl from nearby Kasson-Mantorville Middle School, just hung herself because of bullying. Her family is now speaking out against bullying. Her 22-year-old sister Brittany of Austin stated: “I wish I would have known what my little sister was going through.”

The reason we do not know what our children are going through is that bullying is not something that the person being bullied will tell you about.

They will not tell their parents because they do not want to have it blown up more or amplified because they are scared it will lead to more bullying.

They will not tell their own best friends because in many cases that is who has turned on them in the past.

They will internalize.

They will make sure everything seems OK.

They are scared. They are frozen.

They are killing themselves.

We need to challenge schools districts

We need to challenge school boards.

We need to challenge teachers.

We need to challenge our children.

We need to challenge ourselves.

What are we doing about bullying?

What did our school districts do when they found out about Rachel Ehmke?

Are we having full assemblies to train everyone and raise awareness of bullying?

Have we invited Rick and Mary Ehmke and Brittany into our schools to speak out against bullying?

Why not?

This is an open invitation to all children, schools, parents, superintendents and school board members to write in to us and let us know what is being done. The Tribune’s publisher will give you a spot in our newspaper to tell the public what you are doing to curb the hatred and bullying in our schools.

We are not doing enough.

Children are in pain and killing themselves.

It is our problem.

It is our responsibility to fix it.