Feature Story

Bullying and Hate Crimes: What they Really Are

By: Emily Petry

Samantha Piatt was a second grader at Martin Luther King Junior elementary school. She was a good student, always turned her assignments in on time, and never talked back to the teacher. On the playground, a girl named Michelle would come up to her and kick her and pinch her, and even call her names. Samantha would get very mad, but she was also very sad. She didn’t know why they bullied her. “I didn’t tell anyone at first, just kept it to myself,” Piatt said.

Then one day, she found herself at an assembly, and decided she couldn’t keep it to herself anymore. She kicked Michelle, and they both got sent to the principal. The principal told them that they needed to stop, or they would have consequences. Michelle was supposed to stop bullying Samantha, but she continued to do so, and would lie to the teachers. “She would lie, and be rewarded, because the teachers gave her candy as a reward for not bullying.”

Samantha was too afraid to tell anyone, in case Michelle did something, so she just accepted it. When Samantha finally got the courage to tell the teacher the truth, the teacher told Michelle to stop, but she didn’t. She would aim spitballs at Samantha, and slap, pinch and kick her. Michelle also called her rude names and pushed her. Samantha told her mother, and she went to the principal, and they talked. “I don’t know what my mom said to the principal, but Michelle didn’t bother me again.”

Twenty Eight years later, Angela Schlensig still remembers her own bullying incident from when she was twelve. “I was at Christie Heights Park with my cousin and we were just messing around.The playground had a T swing, teeter totters, merry-go-rounds, a tall slide, and kids running around through the grass. This girl Sandy, who was much bigger than I, comes up to me,” Schlensig said. Sandy liked to pick on girls who were smaller than her. She came by and “pushed me to the ground, and I skinned my knee and elbow.” Angela’s cousin saw the incident and came to her rescue. “She went over to Sandy and flipped her over her shoulder. Sandy landed flat on her back,” Schlensig said. She went on to say that Sandy cried, and Angela’s cousin, Bobbie Jo, asked her [Sandy] how it felt to be bullied. “She [Sandy] never bullied me or anyone else.”

Angela said that if Bobbie Jo hadn’t said anything or did what she did, she would have just complained to her on the way home. “I wouldn’t have confronted Sandy,” Schlensig said. Sandy had bullied Angela before, and had “swung her bag and hit my face, which caused my mouth to bleed.” Sandy did this the day Angela found out she was adopted. A day she was very vulnerable. She had low-self esteem after both incidents.

Chief Deputy Patrick Condon of the Lancaster County District Attorney’s office says, “Nebraska deals with hate crimes and bullying in a certain way. If a person is bullying someone, it could be considered an enhanced penalty.” He went on to say that the penalties enhance by one step. Bullying for example would be considered “disturbing the peace or a third degree assault.” Condon also said that if a student picked on another student for a reason that you would find under the hate crime section, it could be considered as a class four felony. “All of this can be found and researched under the Nebraska Revised Statute, Section 28-111,” Condon said.

According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a hate crime is motivated by the prejudice of any race, religion, sexual orientation, or other that usually leads to violence. That means that when people who are prejudice against another race act out violently, they are involved in a hate crime. Hate crimes are very serious, and very dangerous.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) statistics reports for 2010, 47.3 percent of hate crimes reported are because of the race of the victim, 20 percent religion, 19.3 percent are because of the sexual orientation of the victim, and 12.8 percent are because of the victim’s nationality.

Their website also states that a victim of a hate crime doesn’t just have to be a single person. It can also be a business, an institution, or a whole community.

Tyler Richard, President of the Outlinc center in Lincoln says that “hate crimes do happen in Lincoln”, and that the Lincoln Police Department are “well trained” to react in those types of situations. “The recent case involving the Lincoln woman is the first of its magnitude here,” Richard said. The Lincoln woman, a lesbian, was attacked in July in her home by three masked men who cut anti-gay slurs into her skin, and then spray painted slurs on her walls, then finally tried to set her and the house on fire. She escaped and found refuge in her neighbor’s house until police could get there.

According to the International Association of Chiefs of Police(IACP), hate crime perpetrators will also vandalize buildings of people that are different, or destroy the walls with racial slurs. Arson is also a very popular thing involved in hate crimes. Looking back to the Lincoln case, the perpetrators did all three.

They also state that these attacks are almost always brutal, and almost always cause injuries.

Hate crimes also cause many problems in the victim’s life. According to Diane Elmore’s article The Psychology of Hate Crimes, many victims will deal with depression, low self-esteem, and many more mental issues.

Elmore could not be reached for comment to discuss how bullying could potentially lead to hate crimes. Her article also states that in a community, when a hate crime happens, residents begin to feel unsafe in their own homes. They feel that they’ll be targeted next.

To remember so much about a day when you’re that young is remarkable. It goes along with what Elmore said about the impact hate crimes and even bullying in general imprints in your mind for the rest of your life. The fact that both Schlensig, who is in her forties, and Piatt, who is going to be a junior in high school still remember these days with such clear detail just goes to show you how serious these things are.

There is a difference between bullying and hate crimes, and they both have their personal impacts on the victims. Victims of both have experiences they’ll never forget, and communities that can’t always process what happened. Bullying isn’t as serious as hate crimes, although often just as hurtful. Whether that person was picked on because of who they are, or what they are, it could end up being punishable in the state of Nebraska.