High School and Felicia’s Life Essay

A photo of genus Felicia with nones from her classmates. The friend, Briana Torres, at 16 a year older and a grade ahead of Felicia, hugged her and walked her to sixth-period English class, the girls arms clasped most each others shoulders. On the way, Felicia cheered up enough to laugh at a joke, and make a joke of her own. But there were signs of unraveling. Late Monday night, she had posted a brief cheep message I cant, im done, I give up. After school Wednesday, Felicia walked to the Staten Island Railway station where umteen students board trains home. She waited impatiently for the train, and as it approached, she hurled herself backward onto the tracks. A friend grabbed her arm, hardly she twisted free. She was pronounced fallen that evening. By the time her friends began to congregate in the hospital waiting room, posting messages on Twitter and Facebook in what would become a flurry of online speculation ab egress her death, most had pinpointed a cause Felicia had been bullied, they utter, torment by football players on Tottenvilles undefeated police squad. Some verbalise she was teased because she had piercings and lived in encourage care.Others said players had spread sexual boasts about her over the weekend, after Tottenvilles 16-8 victory over sort Richmond High shoal. To many friends, she appeared to weather the swirl of innuendo with her usual confidence. She never really reached out for help she was a really tough person, Briana said Thursday, wearing a small tri just nowe on her left wrist an RIP Felicia inked in purple. When I dropped her off at class, I wasnt really worried about her. Felicia had reported the taunts to an administrator, who arranged mediation sessions between Felicia and the boys she said were harassing her. Police are now investigating her death. Neither they nor the Education Department nor the school would comment on the bullying allegations. There was already little that was easy in Felicias life. Friends de scribed her childhood as a patchwork of loss and instability both her parents died when she was young, and she disliked living with her aunt, said Kaitlyn Antonmarchi, 15, who said she had been Felicias best friend since eighth grade.At one point, Felicia ran away from her aunts house with an older man. After she entered the foster system, she bounced in and out of different homes, dyed her downcast hair red and sprouted a cluster of piercings. With her latest foster parents, Felicia finally seemed elated and stable, Kaitlyn said. Moving to the other side of Staten Island, she started high school at Tottenville, improved her grades, let the dye sweep out and eliminated most piercings. At Fridays football hazard, Kaitlyn said She looked happy. She was laughing. It didnt look like anything was upsetting her at all. Bullying is common at the school, classmates said, but administrators usually acted to stop it, and it rarely reached the level that Felicia experienced. Tease Felici a, and she would come back with a quick, witty retort, said Alissa Compitello, 17, a senior. If you tried to bully her, shed laugh at you, she said. Somebody mustve said something pretty bad about her for this to happen.They just wouldnt stop. On Wednesday, Felicia had asked Karl Geiling, 15, a sophomore at Tottenville, about how his test had gone. He cut her at the train station later. I was way down, away from her, he said. All I heard was screams, and thusly everybody went silent. At school on Thursday, many students wore black and purple, colors often associated with anti-bullying campaigns, and met with grief counselors. A force of about 500 gathered at the station in the evening, many holding candles. Someone had buttoned purple and black balloons to a chain-link fence overlooking the tracks, with notes and a photo fluttering alongside them. As their classmates created anti-bullying Facebook pages in Felicias honor Wednesday night, several football players took to Twitter to protest what they saw as the wholesale tarring of the team, which is a perennial favorite to win the Public School Athletic League championship. At least two seniors have been offered scholarships to play Division I college football.None of you even no fractional the story so stop pointing fingers at the football team, wrote James Munson, a safety on the team and the son of the teams coach, Jim Munson. Another player, Richy Lam, a senior, said Thursday that many members of the team had not even known Felicia. In New York, an anti-bullying statute signed in 2010, one of numerous laws passed virtually the country in the wake of teenage suicides, requires schools to develop policies to deter harassment of students by other students, including teaching programs and disciplinary procedures.Prosecutions for student bullying are rare perhaps the best-known case is that of Dharun Ravi, who was convicted of bias deterrence and invasion of privacy charges for using a webcam to spy on hi s Rutgers University roommate, Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide a few days later. Mr. Ravi was sentenced to 30 days in jail. Bullying that violates criminal law can be prosecuted criminally, but not as bullying, said Suzanne B. Goldberg, a law professor at Columbia Law School who directs its Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.Physical violence or threats of physical violence could be prosecuted, she said, but what most often happens is that schools and prosecutors try to keep these situations out of criminal court which can be catch if the school system takes the incident seriously, punishes the offender and protects the victim. It is not clear whether anyone will be disciplined in Felicias case. For some students, the schools next challenge is Fridays football game against the rival Curtis High School team, the last of the season, which may be pushed to Sunday. Felicia was a fan. When Kaitlyn last saw her, she said, she had been planning to cheer Tottenville this weekend. Sh e said, Yeah, Im going, Kaitlyn said. And I said, Ill see you there. Al Baker and Christopher Maag contributed reporting.