Friday 19 February 2010

Mum says goodbye to 12-year-old Elliott Fletcher


"I will lend you, for a little time, A child of mine, He said.

For you to love the while he lives, And mourn for when he's dead.

It may be six or seven years, Or twenty-two or three.

But will you, till I call him back, Take care of him for Me?

He'll bring his charms to gladden you, And should his stay be brief.

You'll have his lovely memories, As solace for your grief.

But should the angels call for him, Much sooner than we've planned.

We'll brave the bitter grief that comes, And try to understand."


- Elliott's mother Brigitte Fletcher, reading from Edgar Guest's poem A Child of Mine, at today's memorial funeral service in Brisbane.

12-year-old Elliott Fletcher was given a send off today, with 2,000 people at St Patrick's College. John Lennon's touching song Beautiful Boy, was played.
Elliott was stabbed to death at school on Monday. Elliott's death was a result of bullying.
Every year young children and teens, many around Elliott's age, commit suicide from bullying. Often such bullying often goes on and not dealt with. It becomes the behaviour that these people take into their adult personal life and in work life, as managers, as parents, lovers and even mates.
Bullying manifests itself by people not respecting different viewpoints, encouraging hate, and intimidatory behaviour, and verbally or physically ganging up for some invisible power fix.
An example of this was when Kim Freebody, partner of waterpark developer Paul, got behind a hate website against Cairns Mayor Val Schier and enlisted her children to fall in behind the campaign. It's one thing expressing differing political opinions - a healthy discourse in a free society. However Cairns teacher Steve Brech said that Kim Freebody's involvement was tantamount to the promotion of on-line bullying, a serious problem that can lead to tragic and violent consequences.
"The fact that she professes to be a Christian, and non-political are merely signs to her state of mind," Brech told CairnsBlog. "She is an adult with many years experience of conducting relationships with teenagers. To set this sort of example as an acceptable way to behave sends the wrong message to the thousands of teenagers viewing life through the prism of an on-line world."
In Queensland, there is a substantial black list of schools that have reported acts of violence, threats and abuse, with at least three recorded incidents at Cairns State High school.
According to Education Queensland documents, schools with more than 200 student suspensions in 2008, based on information released in July last year. Short term suspensions are 1-5 days and long term suspensions are 6-20 days. The survey also listed the figures for suspensions with recommended exclusion. Here's an interactive map showing affected schools across the State.

12 comments:

Maynard said...

Edward's father read the poem. Sharpen up.

Paul T of Edmonton said...

Maynard, who's "Edward"??

According to the Courier Mail, Elliot's mum read the poem that Mike reproduced...

Sharpen up!

saddened said...

a terribly sad event, and u idiots have got nothing better to do than nit pick. RIP Elliot, my sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Alison Alloway said...

What hope do children have when they observe adults bullying? Bullying and abuse is endemic in our society today.
One thing I have increasingly noticed amongst our society is the deterioration in good listening skills. People just don't listen to one another. They won't wait for a person to finish speaking. They interrupt, take over the subject, change it, and almost always bring the subject back to themselves.

Jake Robertson said...

You know I love your work Mike, but I have to tell you that I think that using the death of the young boy in Brisbane to score points on Kim Freebody is really tasteless mate. You are better than that.

A touching piece of poetry, regardless of who said it. What a heartbreaking set of circumstances.

Michael P Moore said...

Jake, the reference about Freebody's bullying wasn't to "score points."

It simply shows you don't see the connections of how bully-type behaviour manifests itself and when adults take certain actions, children will see that that is appropriate.

Online bullying is a serious problem and, especially with young children, leads to violent thought patterns and often result is physical actions.

It's tasteless to not understand how such events and actions are connected.

Jake Robertson said...

I did not mean to offend you, and I trust that no insult was intended in your message.

I can assure you that I am relatively clued in on the issue of bullying. In my short time on this Earth I have played the part of both the bully and the bullied.

I have also taken the opportunity to review the Facebook site about Shier. It is a hate site filled with many tasteless comments that I dont support. I wont join the site for that reason, but if I am asked whether I think Shier is a "crap" mayor I am more inclined to agree than to not agree.

I hope you take my comment in the spirit that it is offered: as a mild rebuke between friends. I still think your blog posting is in poor taste, but we can agree to disagree on this one. After all it is your blog you can post whatever you like. If however you want honest opinions posted as comments on your blog then I hope you will publish mine.

Freebody Fan said...

Mike, your the biggest sook i've ever seen. How is Freebody joining a group on face book got anything to do with the death of a 12 year old boy in Brisbane? It seems almost that you stalk the Freebodys and always find something to get on their back about. They have the choice the bring their kids up how ever they want, they happen to also be damn good kids to. By Her joining a Facebook page and "telling her kids to" which she didn't by the way has nothing to do with cyber bullying you drop kick, it is just a bit of tasteless fun, it's Facebook... Get a life.

Isabella Lightfoot said...

'Freebody Fan', you need to get a life cobber! The ilk of the likes of Freebody, a devotee of the happy clappy mob, know no limits, and will stop at nothing, relentness in their endeavours, for its their belief that God is on their side and what ever is done is a force for good and has his blessing.

Jake Robertson said...

Isabella, what does your post even mean ("..get a life")?

"They will stop at nothing", "relentless in their endeavours" ... you make it sound as if the Freebody's belong to some criminal organisation instead of a church group.

Lets keep some perspective on all of this please!

Isabella Lighfoot said...

'Jake the Peg', the 'Happy Clappy' mob are on the fringe of traditional religion and if anything verge on the fanatic. As such any person who belongs to such a group is a fanatic by association.
Fanatics, are by definition not rational and have the propensity to push their befief by whatever means it takes.
Freebody's actions or at least some of them like promoting hatred and villification via Facebook do verge on criminal overtones!!

Jake Robertson said...

That is rubbish Isabella.

I think you will find that the fanatical qualities that you are quick to observe in others are also manifest in you.

The conclusions you make to attack the Freebody's (and, it seems, so-called "fringe" religious groups) as criminals are not just illogical, but mean-spirited and grossly hypocritical. It seems to me that your postings represent the very promotion of hatred and vilification that you apparently find abhorrent in others.