The Story of Rosemary Buttons. Gregory J. McKenzie
Not long after this traumatic event in a young girls school life, Rosemary began to get hate mail. Like all other teenage girls Rosemary was active on various social media sites. On one of these sites the trolls began to target her posts.
When this cyber bullying got too bad to bear Rosemary sought help. With no mother to turn to she thought about approaching her father. But her father was a very busy man. He was rarely home when Rosemary got back from school. Worse still, her father had little idea about anything to do with social media. Struggling to find an adult in her life who was not too old to understand her problem, Rosemary finally chose to go to her Year mistress at her school. Making an appointment to see your Year mistress is fraught with difficulties for a Year Nine girl. But Rosemary was brave and determined. So she eventually found herself sitting in her Year mistress's office. Due to school protocol, the school's pastoral care officer was also present during this interview. Rosemary was apprehensive about appearing to be a whinger so she spoke in a hesitant tone of voice,
"Thank you for seeing me. My problem may be school related or it may not. But just in case I thought I would speak with you. Is that alright?"
The Year mistress was young but experienced in the problems of young girls. She saw the signs of real stress and early signs of depression. Signaling the pastoral care officer to take a record of what was said, the Year mistress, a Ms. Grace Temperance, replied to Rosemary's question in a soft tone of voice,
"Yes Rosemary, that is alright. I am here to help, as is Mrs. Parsons, who will take down what you say if that is okay?"
Rosemary replied with relief threaded through her tone of voice,
"Oh yes. I would not bother anyone but I am being targeted by trolls on my social media page and the insults seem to be based on incidents that are happening at school."
At once both Mrs. Parsons and Ms. Temperance were very alert to what was being discussed by Rosemary.
Relief
The very next day Ms. Temperance called a year meeting. In attendance was both the Pastoral Care Officer,Mrs. Parsons, and the Vice Principal, Mrs. Buxton. The girls in Year Nine immediately knew that something important was happening. Their Year mistress started as she always did, then got straight to the matter at hand.
"I want to clearly state the school's policy on cyber bullying. We have a zero tolerance for any girl engaging in any act of cyber bullying. Mrs. Buxton and I will be very harsh on any girl found to be guilty of this act. Letters are being passed around to take home on this matter. If any girl in this year is being targeted in this way, we want you to see either me, or Mrs. Parsons."
After some more procedural matters, Ms. Temperance dismissed the girls to go back to their lockers in preparation for the start of their next period. Rosemary filed out with all her classmates. She was thankful that she had already been to see her Year mistress about her problem. Like all the other girls in that meeting, Rosemary knew that the class bullies would be watching to see who ran off to see their Year mistress. The talk around the lockers was the usual teen talk of fourteen year old girls.
Rosemary heard girls say to their Fam (what oldies would call a BFF)
"Bruh TBH I'm weak...."
Then their partner in speak would reply,
"Our squad will be salty if anyone skirts off to Temper..."
As usual they would throw in the line,
"We will throw shade on them and tell them to sip tea.."
To be followed by the conspiratorial phrase,
"Keep it low key.."
Looking around they would search for any spies.
Rosemary sighed at the way of her world. It was teenagers against the oldies. She knew that she did the right thing but realized that any more help would have to come from internet searches.
Luckily for Rosemary cyber bullying had been highlighted in Australian main steam media. There was even a National Day of Action organised to have a collective show of opposition to cyber bullying. This did not stop instances of cyber bullying rising across the country but it did stop Rosemary from thinking she was alone with this social problem A search on Rosemary's smartphone told her that there was even a Government Office of eSafety Commissioner. Though this older person was female, she had insufficient resources to handle the tens of thousands of cases referred to her office. But she had been able to shut down some of the more serious cases of cyber bullying.
Ms. Temperance and the other year mistresses went into a special action committee meeting chaired by Mrs. Buxton. They decided to start a poster competition to find suitable anti-bullying slogans for school classrooms. Each year would need a slightly different message written by girls from that year. They also decided to use their cross-age tutor system to encourage older girls to get involved in student counselling of their younger tutor members. Finally they agreed to a Year Twelve girls action group suggestion. These girls who had been through all levels of cyber bullying had come up with the idea of pledge walls to advertise special girls only NO TO CYBER BULLYING events and to promote coping lessons during lunch times for younger girls. Mrs. Parsons, who was attending this special meeting as an expert observer, warned the year mistresses that cyber bullying was entrenched in youth e culture. They were told that any progress would be slow and the fight against these acts of personal attack would be protracted.
Still it helped Rosemary and many more girls in her situation when these initiatives were implemented. The support of senior girls ensured that they were eventually successful. Incidents of cyber bullying which originated from inside Rosemary's school began to drop to very low levels. Lessons on how to avoid cyber bullies helped younger girls like Rosemary avoid many future traps from these cyber predators.
Renewal
Rosemary had many sessions with Mrs. Parsons. They helped her through the rest of Year Nine. Still Rosemary was happiest on the last day of that school year. Whilst other girls made plans to catch up during the holidays, Rosemary had no such plans with anyone in her class. The class bullies had labelled her as 'that strange Rosemary person' and it had stuck. Rosemary was leaving school for the last time that year when she heard two girls in her year cry out to each other
"Goodbye. I will call you as soon as get home."
"Okay. Be waiting for your call. Goodbye."
The sadness of her own social isolation struck her.
It was Rosemary's father who inadvertently rescued Rosemary from her teenage depression. He arrived home that night all excited. Then he called a family meeting. Rosemary's brothers complained about losing valuable gaming time, but Mr. Buttons could always manage his boys. When they were all seated Mr. Button's blurted out,
"As you know we usually go to our rented beach house for four weeks over Christmas. The grandparents, your aunt's family and your uncle's family usually are there too for a big family Christmas and New Years party. But not this year? We are..."
Rosemary's depressed state showed itself in her interjection. In a concerned tone of voice she said,
"Grandma Rose and Grandma Mary