Bullying is a reality many of us have to face in life. It is something that is a part and parcel of life. Be it at schools, colleges, universities or even workplaces. People from all walks of life are involved. People of all ages. But sometimes there is an incident that leaves us truly surprised and horrified. This is one those stories:
The whole episode started when Lauren Williams, a student of Franklin High School was going to attend what looked like would be a regular day. Little did she know that she'd be a victim of a cruel bullying incident and then have the entire thing uploaded on the web.
Lauren Williams, also known as Lulu was about to enter her class when someone abruptly snatched her wig off her head and ran away with it. A tearful Lulu ran away to the bathroom when someone even filmed her teary reaction and uploaded it to Snapchat.
It was much later revealed that the whole episode was part of a $5 wager between other groups of friends. The video of her crying was uploaded to Snapchat with the caption of "Weave snatchin." The video became viral across the High school making Lulu even more upset.
When Lulu's mother heard the incident she was as outraged as any mother would be at the absolutely heinous and brutal incident. Not only did she arrive to the school to pick her daughter up and console her at this troubling time, she had other plans for those that did this to her daughter.
Lulu's mother, named Myckelle Williams wrote a lengthy and powerful post on Facebook blasting everyone involved in the incident. She did not spare anyone who was even remotely involved in the whole thing included those that shared the video. She also made some disheartening revelations.
Lauren revealed that the reason her daughter wore wigs is not because of any fashion or other clichéd reasons but because of something far more serious. She revealed that her daughter suffers from a rare form of scalp condition that causes both hair dryness and breakage.
There was some silver lining at the end of it all for both Lauren and Lulu. Lauren revealed later after the whole incident she had encouraged her daughter to completely shave off her head and accept her condition and don't let the bullies dictate how she chooses to live her life.
The mother, Lauren Williams, revealed even further horrible details that had been previously unknown. She revealed that when Lulu locked herself up in the bathroom stalls, she kept begging and crying for the wig back. But the bullies kept teasing her and recording her cries for wig and planned to release the video at a later time.
She then asked the blackmailers to look themselves hard in the mirror and question what they've done to her daughter. She then stated facts about teen suicide rates having doubled in the past few years. Most of these suicides coming because of increased bullying in schools.
Lauren wrote further that after the incident she had to take her daughter for PTSD treatment. The whole incident had left a mark on Lulu and though she was committed to leaving it behind, the memories still left a bitter taste in her daughter's mind and she'll never forget this.
However, she also wrote that in a way she expects her daughter's incident to become an example for other teenagers like her to accept who they are without fearing being bullied or targeted. She stated that learning to live with these things makes a person stronger in life.
A few hours after Lauren posted the status there were some comments stating that the whole issue was a problem between two students and that she had blown the whole thing out of proportion. This wasn't an isolated comment. There were many other comments that shared the same feeling.
Lauren replied to these comments in another post where she stated that she had shared these photos with the permission of her daughter and that what happened to her daughter happened to numerous other teenagers across the country each year.
She further revealed that before she made the initial post she had tried contacting the school administration to get the blackmailers properly punished. But the school was not willing to involve itself nor was it ready to reveal the names of the blackmailers.
Lauren revealed that although Lulu planned to return to the school, this time she would be coming prepared. Not only have the psychiatric class helped her face her bullies; she's started self defense classes to respond properly to bullies if they try something similar in the future.
