Letters and Editorials 3915 Views by Karsen Lynn

Teen allegedly bullied for being Canadian







Fifteen year old Noah Kilpatrick, a young freshman attending the Faith Fellowship Christian High school was relentlessly bullied about his red and white heritage during his school year. In order to stop further harassment due to his underlying origin, he was forced to drop out from all his classes in upstate New York.  Surprisingly, no students were involved in his choice to pursue at home schooling. Among his classmates, he perceived no one as his enemies but rather perceived the faculty members of Faith Fellowship Christian High school in this manner. In fact, the school principal and his math teach were the ones mocking his birth place and publicly harassing him in front of his peers.

“I think it started as joking and then it went too far,” said Noah Kilpatrick, speaking by phone from Watertown, New York.

Attending Faith Fellowship Christian School has never been an issue before nor has his country of origin said Noah, but since the beginning of the school year, the teachers taunted him in front of his classmates. Many incidents were noted with the principal and the math teacher, whom described Canada as a lampoon, small community filled with communists and seal clubbers.

“History class and sometimes math class … they were stereotyping Canadians and saying we were all stupid — it was offensive,” he said.

Unfortunately, these incidents did not stop there and progressively violated more and more his right as a Canadian citizen.  Kilpatrick began documenting these series of events,  only to report another similar event in a matter of weeks. The principal, Theodore Curinga, not only laid judgement on the Canadian's society but rather implied  Noah's behaviour was inadequate and reflective of his country.

"He would make fun of the way I dressed and he’d say, ‘Oh, you’re wearing Canadian colors,’ and I’d be like, ‘Yeah, I am. Thanks, Mr. Curinga.’ He’d say, ‘That wasn’t a compliment."

This lead to an unfortunate escalation of events, of which the adults became significantly intolerant towards Canadian manners. Kilpatrick raises awareness to the moment where the staff publicly  humiliated in front of  all his peers for the first time.  With no meal in hand during lunch time, Noah tried to pay for his meal at the cafeteria with Canadian currency due to his lack of funding. Consequently, the school principal immediately called an assembly to purposely remind his students that Canadian money is not an accepted form of payment and is an illegal tender, purposely targeting the self worth of this child. Never did it cross his mind why this child did not have a lunch or to confront him directly about the issue.

Noah's mom, Tina Kilpatrick, collaborated with the school board and requested a meeting with these two teachers in order to understand and settle the situation in a respectful manner. Instead, the commanding authorities refused to schedule a meeting and only agreed to tell the following teachers to leave Noah alone. Not only did these teachers did not obtain the relevant information on the present issue, they did not get penalized for their wrong doings. Without doubt, this procedure was not successful to indulge any positive changes but rather engaging negative outcomes.

No longer was Noah faced with humiliating remarks, instead he faced complete and utter seclusion from his surroundings.

“But then it seemed like they were completely ignoring me — I felt like an outcast,” Kilpatrick told the National Post.
A city of approximately 30,00,0 only 40 km southeast of Kingston, Ont., Watertown has never been known for implanting any prejudice against the Canadian's lifestyle.  Indeed, a Canadian flag even hangs in the public's view on Faith  Fellowship's  property. Yet again,  Noah's family stated that their son was endlessly, inexorably bullied by his superiors.

Unfortunately, these incidents shine light on worldwide bullying towards youth. No matter if these comments were misunderstood or misinterpreted by this child, these following remarks offended him and greatly affected him psychologically and emotionally . These teachers degraded and demeaned Noah's nationality and portrayed themselves as dominant and more powerful as  American citizens.  This child suffered first hand from low self-esteem,  reluctance to attend school and systemically leading to complete isolation from the outside world due to these circumstances.

" I was born in Canada, I can't change that" stated Noah after abandoning his education within the Faith Fellowship institute.

None of the less, members of Faith Fellowship did not take action and did not accommodate this child's concerns nor his fears. They did not respond to his parents concerns and did not feel obligated to explore the issue further. It is not because an issue is not reported publicly, that it means it is non-existent. Many cases of bullying have not been identified because of our lack of attention to youth's and their problems.
“There are many teachers and staff that I think are wonderful there, the issue, is this was not handled, period ... no resolution,” Tina posted in a Facebook comment.

Verbal abuse has many consequences and many of which cannot be noticed before it is too late. In this case, it does not matter if these comments were  meant or not to harm this child, first and for most, it is the teacher's job to settle a possible conflict rather than avoiding it. In this case, the administration chose the easier alternative.

When the school got the word that this story was going public, Ms.Kilpatrick was awarded a meeting with the teacher's council. Beyond any doubt,  it was much too late to show interest in this long going issue. No longer was it about the discrimination her son had faced but raising awareness about discrimination within educational institutes.

Noah Kilpatrick case is no different than any other. Just like Amanda Todd, a young girl who was tremendously bullied by her schoolmates, no one came to their rescue until it was too late, until the news came forth to the public's attention. Fortunately, Noah had his family by his sides and managed to escape from these individuals before suicide became the only option.

Regardless of obtaining a meeting with the administration of Faith's Fellowship , Ms.Kilpatrick and her family are planning to move back to Canada in the next few months. They will live within their kind, accepted and loved by everyone, without facing any form of discrimination.

Verbal abuse is an enormous issue within our society.  Over 4000 teenagers lose their lives  or become significantly impaired by these gestures every year.  It isn't something someone can grow out of , bullies  use their superiority and power to control someone who is different, to target someone's weakness. Your child could be a victim of this form of abuse , your child could be the one withdrawn  from his rights.  Raise awareness of this young boy's story and help resolve this world wide on-going issue.  Make the first Monday of every October the day that bullying prevention is heard all around the world by participating in Blue Shirt Daym -- World Day of Bullying Prevention.


Comments

There are 0 comments on this post

Leave A Comment