Brielle raised her hand. “I rejected him, which is why he is acting this way. He has an obsession with me.Am I? Mason asked in a low voice.
He selected a different slide.I wanted her true self to be revealed to everyone.”
At 4:47 p.m. that day, a solitary message that had been sent from her phone to the group appeared on the screen.On the dance floor, watch me destroy him.
The gym fell silent.
I grasped a chair to keep myself upright when my knees gave a little.
With her mouth hanging open and no words coming out, Brielle stood still.
And my son, the boy I had been worrying about every night, waited while gazing out over a room full of shocked faces.
He wasn’t done yet.
To keep myself upright, I held onto a chair.
The auditorium was motionless.
As her own comments glowed on the screen behind my son and were read by parents, teachers, and classmates, Brielle’s face lost all color.
Mason didn’t yell. He evenly addressed the microphone.Brielle, I didn’t put this together to make you look bad. Every child you made fun of needed to know they weren’t alone, so I put it together.”
The events that followed demonstrated the extent of the harm that Brielle and her pals had already caused.Every child you made fun of should have known they weren’t alone.”If anyone has experienced bullying at this school or elsewhere,” Mason went on. “I would like you to be aware of something. You are not required to carry it in silence.
One boy in the back got to his feet slowly.
Next, a blue-dressed girl.
Then six more, strewn all over the gym, rising like an unexpected tide.
My knees shook. Just a few minutes before, the guy I longed to embrace was suddenly the silent, motionless focal point of the whole space.
Then, with an angry expression on his face, Principal Carter approached the stage. I prepared for him to remove the microphone.You are not required to carry it in silence.
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