In 2010, at Naperville North H.S. Naperville, IL

My son Rob, a 15 year old sophomore, was victim of a coach sanctioned hazing event at a swim team practice.  The bullying in school and online started after that. I know high school wasn't going to be easy so I told him to toughen up – High School Sucks! Then a week a later, he called a suicide hotline after a fake FB page representing questionable intentions went out to all the kids at school. A boy was caught after a 3-month cyber investigation but the school didn't punish him. His teammates vowed revenge and they came to our house when I was out of town. They trashed our house and our car. They were there to send a message! The next day, my wife found a butcher knife in his nightstand. He said it was to protect her and his little sister! Just in case "The Guys" came back.  This was 2 months after he called the hotline, as a parent just how do you know? From then on we wondered, “Is today the day our son is going to go to school and get bullied to death? Some days were better than others.

The night before senior year started, they came back again - to send another message. This time it was different. By the grace of God, they made a wrong turn in our neighborhood and jumped in my car and I tracked them down, got the plate # and had them all arrested. Still, the school didn't punish these boys.  5 kids arrested over a 3-year period.  There is a lot more to the story and some very unusual circumstances but I'm not going to get into that right now.

God Bless!