Hmmm, he's a been a victim of bullying for most of his life, therefore "he must have a problem about something"? If you are not feeling ashamed about your attitude, at the very least, you should be feeling embarrassed about your obvious lack of education on this subject.

Carol- He has been bullied for so many years because there are a lot of students in middle school and high school that think it is alright to tease those that are different than them, not popular, weaker socially. HIs problem was that he had adults around him that failed him. Why should he have to transfer because of others bad behavior? Get a clue, get out of the bubble, and don't comment on things you apparently know nothing about!

Carol, I'm very sorry to inform you that you have no idea what you're talking about. There aren't many unanswered questions and I think you need to read up on this threat. As an alumni, I can confirm that it is the school's fault and they let this happen before. So Carol, before you go bullying the poor kid further, do your research on the event, and maybe familiarize yourself with the Greendale School District administration.

Carol that is one of the dumbest things I have heard yet! What are the teachers and administration doing every day? I can tell you, NOTHING! Said it before and I will say it again, everyone knew what was going on. They refused to get off their dead butts and do anything because it required work. The schools and school board in Greendale are a joke.

Why would you assume he has a problem? Maybe he just is who he is, and it triggers the anxiety of kids around him who respond by taunting him--and making a game of it. These kids lack empathy. They're the ones with a problem.
If he has social deficits, then the students around him should have been educated on what that is. Even kids who struggle to read social cues deserve respect.
Changing schools may help the victim but it may not. Kids with friends tend to be less of a target, and a new school means starting out with no friends. Also, the bullies just find another victim to project their anxiety on to. It is a community and school problem that should have been addressed long ago. Unfortunately, kids often don't report each and every incident--and administrators don't find out until the behavior has been going on for months or years.
My question is, why weren't the other kids speaking up for him? Where they present--but getting nowhere in stopping the pattern? Why? Why were the bullies' parents in the dark about all this? Was no one talking to their kids about the homecoming election, and what their vote was and why?

What wouldyou like them to say? Lets blame the teachers who have no authority to punish and if one of them does there is a parent waiting to beat them over the head with a lawyer.What should have been done to prevent this? Come on people lets hear it,if you don't know, shut up.

Concerned: Oh! I wasn't directing any of my comments towards you! I completely agree with your comment. I replied to Carol's comment, and left my own comment! Nothing directed at you! Sorry for the confusion!

Thanks Greendale Citizen for your comments. Seems like we agree on not blaming the school district. I had 3 kids go through the Greendale school system.Also had one who left for school crying one morning cause she was made fun of for being an accelerated student. Was that okay? No, but she didn't threaten to blow up the school. We were always there for our kids, which lots of parents aren't nowdays. And I agree that most parents now are happy if their kids are not in their way. If this kids ;was bullied all his life (?), I'd like to know the reason. And like I said before, why didn't the parents transfer him to another school?
I am involved in alot of things & do know what's going on, like someone said I didn't.
So get real, people and get this kid some "professional" help. The Greendale teachers are good, and teach our kids and the help should be coming from home.

Absolutely - comments by turfmonster and Lotus are very one-sided. VERY. Unless they have first hand experience directly with this family, the bullies, the adminstration, the Guidance Counselor who "failed" and every nuance of this from start to finish, they should not tell anyone else they do not know what they are talking about.

PARENTING is the cornerstone building block of this issue. Another poster said that the Teachers are rendered powerless by a bevy of Lawyers for the Parents who are litigious. And, that's a LOT of them.

If this kid was indeed bullied for years, then that's a shame and it should be investigated and the appropriate people held accountable. But, to sit here, day after day and post one-sided comments that jump to conclusions, really do point to the real people that "don't know what they're talking about."

Greendale is an excellent community in which to raise a family. But, people, we are raising wimps! We go to such great lengths to instill self-esteem, not hurt their widdle feewings and go out of our way NOT to teach a work ethic that it makes me want to puke. For the record, I was not bullied as a kid, nor did I do any bullying. When I grew up, if it was happening, we talked about it, solved the problem and moved on with our lives. We didn't keep it all bottled up, and then wonder why the "boom" happened. Sure, there were problem kids - there always will be. But unless the parents STAY involved, it will only get worse!

tgif: I do have first hand experience with the bullies, the administration, AND the staff at the school. I went there last year. I know how it's run. I was highly involved at the school also. I know how bullying is dealt with. I've known for the now more than 4 years experience I have with the school. So yes, I can tell you that you have no idea what you're talking about. You can blame parents if you want, but the school is letting off bullies every single day. Hell, I was even let off of picking on kids. That's how I know that it's messed up. Thankfully I have grown over my years at that school to learn how messed up it is. So I put myself in his shoes, in his shoes, I know that there is no where to go do anything. If I go to admin, they'll just blow me off or tell me to get over it. If I go to my counselor, he'll talk to me about it and tell me how to cope with it. If I go to mom and dad, they tell me it can't be that bad and I'm over reacting just like the teachers. Complain a little more, they'll call the school and the school will tell them it happens every day. I know this FIRST HAND. So once again, yes, I can tell you that you are wrong and you have no idea what you're talking about.

As for his "widdle feewings", he was bullied EVERY SINGLE DAY for 4 years. I would love to put you in a classroom for 4 years and have everyone spit gum at you, poke you, draw dicks on your important papers, and call you names. Then we'll see how "widdle" your "feewings" hurt.

(tgifreespeech): You're kidding me, right? Please point out where I said that someone didn't know what they are talking about? While you're at, explain how you think I'm one sided? All of my comments were to make a point about parents getting more involved and being held accountable for their children's actions and well being.
In all honestly, it sounds like your post is pretty much addressing the same thing!

(Lotus185) - I'm not sure if you were addressing just me or everyone in general. Nonetheless, I'm not denying that there are problems in Greendale. Don't kid yourself though, these same problems exist everywhere else too. I'm also not denying that this young man was bullied. My whole thought process was this. Why didn't the parent(s) of this young man sit him down to try and find out who was doing what to him? If the ability to discus this in a parent/child relationship wasn't there, then this is a part of the problem. If that wasn't the case, then once the parent(s) of this young man gathered some names, they should have contacted these bullying kid's parents to confront them and explain what's going on. If these bullying parents didn't do anything, then it's just another example of what I'm saying about parental responsibility or lack there of. Don't make the schools do this. You said it yourself, they are supposed to be teaching the kids. That's how things use to be done back in the day but obviously society has evolved to a point where people don't want to take responsibility because it's too hard so they would rather blame and complain because it's easier and that's what everybody else does. Of course all we're doing is contributing to the snowball affect because everyone that reads about this will see that it’s easier to blame someone else. What's sad is that this includes our kids who are the future.

A few comments: So are you implying that the school's guidance counselor should get reprimanded because the parents failed on their end? How do you figure? Also, you're implying that the counselor knew about what was going on. What if he or she didn't? You’re drawing conclusions from assumptions. I will agree with you on one thing though. Society is getting more complex by the minute (thanks to the onslaught of social media) and like you said, it will only get worse unless the theory behind accountability is restored.

Turfmonster: Based on everything that has been reported if the counselor took all of this information in and did NOT attempt to assist this student then he/she is at fault and i would say failed in the job. If he/she did attempt to assist the student and work with the parents then I agree there is only so much responsibility the counselor is required take on.
Ultimately the parents and child failed in this situation. That is where the buck should stop.

(wiscoleeds) - Hey! If the counselor in fact did know about this ahead of time then yes, I would agree that something should be done. But we don't really know all of the details at this point. Did the counselor reach out to the parents? Was there a plan in place and was it or wasn't it working? Did the counselor report everything like he or she was supposed to and someone else dropped the ball? These are things that we do not know. Like you said though, all of this should have really been addressed at the parent/child level. At the end of the day, believe it or not, parents do have the power to make changes in their child's life.

I agree with Lisa that the blame should be shared with the student who wrote the threat and the students who did the bullying to push him to this level - is anyone familiar with the novel/movie "Carrie" where the students voted the school misfit/freak Prom Queen? The bullies should be punished as well (by the school), but from what I understand the homecoming voting is anonymous. Maybe that should change for next year - at least allow nominations and allow nominees to reject being put on the final ballot.

Authoring a liberal blog in ultra-conservative Greendale I empathize with young Mr. Olson, as I (and my family, sexuality, occupation, ect,) are constantly attacked by online bullies every time I post something... Stay strong Nicholas and remember, “Bullies are always cowards at heart..." ~ Anna Julia Cooper.

I don't totally blame the school. I think it is a combination of failures. Children in our schools have a right to feel safe in that environment. That is the school's responsibility and it is the reason there are rules set in place incase of bulling. The problem with your theory is you expect every parent to be socially and morally responsible adults. Not every child has a great parents to communicate with, the parents are possibly bullies themselves. It sounds like the bulling only happened at school and school sponsored events and those in charge knew there was a problem. Again it is the school's responsibility to keep a safe environment for everyone. I think they knew they let the ball drop on this one when they lessened the charge against Nicholas.

(Lisa417) - Just some comments. The bullying isn't just a school time thing. Thanks to Tweeter, Facebook, phone texting and all of the other social media avenues out there, bullying can go on 24-7-365. With these avenues, it makes it just that much easier to pick on people. In my opinion, I think this whole social media thing will eventually do more harm than good. As for the comment regarding parents, that is a problem, isn't it?
(Carol) - BINGO!

(Lisa417) - I didn't mean to come off like this didn't happen at school. I was more or less speaking in general and was just mentioning that it is very easy to bully someone through the social media outlets 24/7. How would I know that? I have a Twitter account and when you have an account, you can see "everything" that people post as long as they don't wall their account off which in this case it wasn't.

That's just simply not true - The President of the School Board is VERY involved in the music department and every school-related event that I go to I see a member of the School Board there. And now that Jim Schutte is gone, there isn't one school board member that really needs to go - They all put the needs of the students first. But that doesn't mean that sometimes their lack of action is a little frustrating. The board does need to be more proactive than reactive, but let's not forget that our State Senator who represents Greendale was one of only three Senators who voted against the anti-bullying bill that ended up passing with flying colors.

Your kidding right? According to lodes this kid wasn't bullied.

Mr. Woodman I could not agree with you more!

I don't recall either Mr. Woodman or Mr. Toader running for the School Board or Village Trustee or speaking at any of the School Board meetings . . . but all of a sudden they are experts and policy wonks on education and anti-bullying! Numerous times Mr. Toader has commented on my blogs in a bullying fashion, so yeah - he might be an expert on bullying, but not anti-bullying.