At School, a Cruel Culture

By Darcia Harris Bowman

Elizabeth Catherine Bush's parents hoped her life would improve after they removed her from the reach of bullies in the Jersey Shore Area School District in Pennsylvania last year and placed her in a small private school.

But even at Bishop Neumann High School—a 230-student Roman Catholic institution in nearby Williamsport with a mission to educate "in a climate of love and hope"—the teasing continued. When the distraught 14-year-old shot and injured a popular cheerleader in the school cafeteria on March 7, and then threatened to turn the gun on herself, some believed the treatment she had received at the hands of other students was to blame.

"At Jersey Shore, she had stones thrown at her, she was chased. There was a note left in her locker that said, 'Get out of this school, get out of this town, or we'll harm your parents,'" said the girl's mother, Catherine A. Bush. "[The bullies] just gravitated to her. I think it's anyone who chooses a different path ... or believes something different from...