We sure have been getting a lot of negative national attention lately. If it isn’t freaky cops tasering cows, it’s local children beating up the same kid over and over for seven years.
Yesterday’s New York Times article, A Boy the Bullies Love to Beat Up, Repeatedly, is causing quite a stir across the internet. From news sites across the country to blogs small and large, this story is becoming an overnight giant.
The trouble is, nobody seems to really have a grasp on what the hell is going on. At first glance, it seems like you’re about to settle down into a long, detailed story about bullying in general with a strong focus on Fayetteville High School student Billy Wolfe. But before you know it, the story’s over and you’re left thinking to yourself, “Wait a second, what?”
Apparently, Wolfe has been beat up and made fun of for the last seven years and from the sound of it, there’s nothing that anyone can do about it. From getting “pummeled” on the school bus, “beat up” in the bathroom and “punched” during Spanish class, Dan Barry tells an incredibly disturbing story of a boy who seems to have no hope of seeing any justice carried out on his attackers.
We’re not lawyers here at the Flyer but it sounds like what is happening to this kid is normally categorized as assault. The fact that the attackers are minors should make little difference in a situation as unique as Wolfe’s. Getting pushed around by a bully is one thing but if you’ve spent nearly a decade as a live punching bag, then there’s got to be something you or your school officials can do (besides moving away).
There are a ton of interesting tidbits of information scattered throughout the story that never get fully expanded upon. For example, there’s some talk of Wolfe being called gay (which apparently he’s not) and the possibility of him actually contributing to the problem himself. There’s even mention of a Facebook page that was set up by some Fayetteville students called “Every One That Hates Billy Wolfe.” But with all these seemingly loose ends, it’s difficult to get a grasp on what’s really going on.
It’s also impossible not to think that we aren’t being told the full story here.
Does anyone have any insight as to who this kid is, who is attacking him, why they’re attacking him or why nothing is being done?
If Barry’s facts are all in order, it would seem as though our school officials have a much bigger problem on their hands than trying to agree on whether or not to sell some property to the University of Arkansas.
[UPDATE: The Arkansas Times has updated information including a press release issued by the Fayetteville School District.]
March 25th, 2008 at 11:14 am
What was up with all the “heh heh” in the NY Times article. I felt like the reporters language skills were as bad as their reporting.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:45 am
I wondered that, too. I thought, maybe, that the writer was poking fun of the line that was before it, but it didn’t really come across that way. Regardless, bullying is dumb and when there’s a focused target, it’s even worse.
Make sure you read the updated information from the Arkansas Times. It appears that the whole story wasn’t, and kinda can’t, be told.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I’m pretty sure that a reporter should never write, “heh heh,” unless it’s in a sources quote. I thought that was pretty unprofessional.
March 25th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
If the school distict is “investigating” and “dealing with” this problem, why does it continue to occur? Sounds like somebody got caught with their pants down.
March 25th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
This story is spiraling out of control. It’s about to be all over the national media. Go Arkansas!
March 25th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Is it just me or does anyone else wonder just how the NY TImes seemed to find this blockbuster story?
,
March 26th, 2008 at 9:03 am
The whole story is NOT being told… It seems that this child is neither entirely innocent, nor entirely responsible for bringing his troubles upon himself. No doubt there have been kids who have picked on him/bullied him for being different (most likely his learning disability), but at the same time, there are firsthand accounts of incidents in which he has instigated conflicts and just hasn’t had the muscle to back it up. The articles I have read and the pictures I have seen portray this boy to be small and practically defenseless. The truth is likely somewhere in the middle and this is more a situation of a kid having more trouble than some getting along. His parents having filed suit has just brought it into the spotlight and now, various groups – without knowing the whole story - have seized upon the elements that serve their particular agendas and have magnified them to further their causes. So now, let’s add exploitation to the list of insults this child has to face.
As one can imagine, the school district has received a flood of correspondence, mainly criticism - criticism it can’t answer to the “satisfaction” of the general public due to confidentiality issues. Hmm…funny…the very policies that protect the students are the ones that leave the district unable to “defend” itself in the court of public opinion.
March 26th, 2008 at 10:23 am
I love how the Fayette Flyer and some townies from Arkansas are giving writing tips to a Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist.
March 26th, 2008 at 10:40 am
I guess it proves that even Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnists can have a slow week at work…
March 26th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Sounds like this is just a small town with nothing going on for itself so the local kids with little prospects of achieving anything real in life take out their frustrations on a kid that’s actually going somewhere. I thought this was a corporal punishment state. What these kids need is a good ass beating.
Ahh well, the only thing that will happen is the local dumbficials will say a few fancy things to pacify the general public having no real intent on backing it up.
You locals are just like the dumb cows you herd–just blindly following the next cow. Hey…is that banjo music I hear? Can y’all squeal like a pig?
March 26th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Mark: Don’t be jealous.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Where are the parents of these little punks who continuously beat this kid up? I love how some of you are trying to justify this kid getting his ass whopped by claiming he may deserve it. Even if the kid does have a mouth and can’t back it up it doesn’t make it right for groups of kids to jump him. Sounds like some parents need the ass whoppin, albeit it will probably be in the form of a nice settlement check. I hope the kids gets millions.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I put the blame on Billy’s parents. If this has been going on for seven years, wouldn’t you think the parents should’ve put poor Billy Wolfe in a “defense” class that’ll show him how to defend himself? I mean, c’mon! SEVEN YEARS! This kid should have been whoopin’ butt by the second year. Thumbs down to Billy’s parents!
March 26th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
@worlder
1) Everyone feels like there is a whole lot missing from this story. Normally a good news story makes leaves you feeling somewhat informed about the subject, hence the comments about bad reporting.
2) The repeated use of “heh heh” was completely out of context. Was it the reporter laughing? A bully? Beavis? The point is that it just confused people. When someone uses internal dialogue in a written piece with no context, that’s bad writing.
Just because you win a prize doesn’t mean you can’t have a bad day.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Here’s something interesting. Drudge has a page dedicated to this story and it looks like a few of Billy’s peers are chiming in with their take on the situation.
For example: “In response to the previous comment yes I’m the guy in the wheelchair but not mentally retarded. Yes that was my cat the he killed, not only that, he picked on me for being the way I am. I have cerebral palsy (CP), I live across the street from the kid, I’ve been in school with him since 4th grade. There have been too many incidents (bullying) with him, that I could not name all of them. The person who wrote the previous respone is right, most of you don’t even know this kid, you’ve just read the lies that he and his mother are telling. You haven’t even heard or listened to Teeter’s side or the rest of the people that he’s provoked fights with, the list is endless. So before commenting make sure you know both sides (the real bully)”
Read the rest of the comments here.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Now that Billy has gone public, he should have no problem finding volunteers willing to 2×4 these bullies to within inches of their lives. I wish I lived in his town.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
People! The purpose of the “heh-hehs” are to capture the cadence and attitudes of the bullies. If you took a college or even high school english class or two, you would know that. There are also these people called editors who review articles before they actually go with a story…they don’t just sh** words out and print it; no such thing as a “slow day” when you’re a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter working and researching on an article for months, sometimes years. I think he and the New York Times editors know a thing or two.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Once again will someone please post proof that billy killed a cat or made fun of a kid with CP. a anonymous post DOES NOT cut it. We have video proof of this billy kid being attacked and dental records to confirm a history of violence done onto him. Were is your proof?
March 26th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
A decade ago a Fayetteville student was mercilessly harassed and beaten for being gay. you guys are real class acts in Fayetteville
March 26th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
once again here are the highlights:
“It began years ago when a boy called the house and asked Billy if he wanted to buy a certain sex toy, heh-heh. Billy told his mother, who informed the boy’s mother. The next day the boy showed Billy a list with the names of 20 boys who wanted to beat Billy up.”
“Things got worse. At Woodland Junior High School, some boys in a wood shop class goaded a bigger boy into believing that Billy had been talking trash about his mother. Billy, busy building a miniature house, didn’t see it coming: the boy hit him so hard in the left cheek that he briefly lost consciousness.”
“Ms. Wolfe remembers the family dentist sewing up the inside of Billy’s cheek, and a school official refusing to call the police, saying it looked like Billy got what he deserved. Most of all, she remembers the sight of her son.”
“Not long after, a boy on the school bus pummeled Billy, but somehow Billy was the one suspended, despite his pleas that the bus’s security camera would prove his innocence. Days later, Ms. Wolfe recalls, the principal summoned her, presented a box of tissues, and played the bus video that clearly showed Billy was telling the truth.”
March 26th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
In ninth grade, a couple of the same boys started a Facebook page called “Every One That Hates Billy Wolfe.” It featured a photograph of Billy’s face superimposed over a likeness of Peter Pan, and provided this description of its purpose: “There is no reason anyone should like billy he’s a little bitch. And a homosexual that NO ONE LIKES.”
I hope the parent of these boys are beaning with pride.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
According to Alan Wilbourn, a spokesman for the school district, the principal notified the parents of the students involved after Ms. Wolfe complained, and the parents — whom he described as “horrified”(that their little angels got caught) — took steps to have the page taken down.
Not long afterward, a student in Spanish class punched Billy so hard that when he came to, his braces were caught on the inside of his cheek.
WTF is wrong with your kids? This IS NOT ‘boys being boys”! This is some serious stuff with some serious consequences. If i am missing something TELL ME!!! its not hard to offer your side of the story!!! Just write down why this kid “deserved” this kinda brutality!!! and hit the post button.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Please be able offer PROOF (police records, video, ect)
March 26th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
A “zero tolerance” police huh. So the kid on the bus was expelled? suspended?
Zero tolerance means BOTH boys in the fight must be suspended. Suspending just one is preferential treatment.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:25 am
O love your PHOTSHOPed picture of Billy too. Could you have used a more based picture. I feel you use the picture without his mom(as the original is) to ostracize him further. There is a reason none of your work for the NYTimes.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Wateva, if he has been abusing animals then there is surly a police report about. I mean it isnt unreasonable to assume SOMEONE WOULD HAVE REPORTED THAT TO THE POLICE!!!! Or you people just dont care about animals. I’ll be waiting for the HARD EVIDENCE of the cat things. I have yet to see any real evidence and like i said before Anonymous post are not proof theyre are called Hearsay.
Sounds from the reporting that other kids just said to the other kid that billy had said something. If what you say is true you better trot the boy with th dead mother in front of the press. and please “he deserved it”? you people all sound like the parents of the little cavemen that tormented me in HS. Offer up some EVIDENCE. Like I said erlier, Their are medical reports from dentists, school bus video, cell phone video, ect ect ect. You need to stop running you mouth and prove something. No more of this “I hear from Jonny mom, who heard it from tommy brother, who went to a school with a kid in a higher grade….” That shit is laughable. I hope he cleans all of you out in this lawsuit.
March 28th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Here are some reactions to the NY Times story published as Letters to the Editor:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/opinion/l26bully.html?ex=1207368000&en=1922571adf289c3f&ei=5070
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:05 am
Why is it that a majority of the people who are immediately outraged by this story of senseless violence tend to end their posts by calling for the “ass kicking” of some kids or parents? I really like the one that, in disgust for the city and state, references Arkansas as a corporal punishment state and then ends by saying somebody needs a good ass beating.
On a good note, it looks like NY Times writers are now reading the Fayetteville Flyer. Way to go. Pretending that the NY Times has been error free in the recent past is pretty funny. Ever heard of Jayson Blair? Google him, homie.
To sum up my stance:
Im so furious that this poor kid is getting his ass kicked that I want to see somebody get their ass kicked. Dont ask me who is at fault. If I hear somebody is being pushed around its time to crack some heads.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Wow. This really escalated quickly. I think GotTruth needs to take a deep breath and try to get over not making the dance team. It sounds like this kid has really had a hard time and I feel bad for him. He shouldn’t have to live like that. However, to imply that Fayetteville is full of haters and gay bashers is simply not accurate. I’m really proud of our city. We are becoming an shining example of mutual acceptance and responsibility (environmental and otherwise). If you don’t know this…you don’t know Fayetteville.