Standing Up to School Bullies

By Rod Anderson, CP Cartoonist Thursday, September 04, 2014

I am truly grieved that Lynzee Benoit never had the chance to meet Bart Palosz.

She would have warmed Bart's heart with words of encouragement, assuring him that his towering stature, Polish accent and pockmarked face couldn't keep the God of the universe from lavishing His love upon him. And Lynzee would have undergirded Bart's spirit with truth, the truth that the God who so loved him also had a unique role for him in this world, a role that ultimately would lead to indescribable fulfillment.

But all 15-year-old Bart Palosz knew and experienced on August 27, 2013, was discouragement … denigration … and desperation. It was the first day back to school, and it would turn out to be Bart's last day. He went home and later that afternoon killed himself with the family shotgun.

You see "back to school" for Bart meant "back to being bullied," and when he discovered that his sophomore year in high school was going to be just like the previous seven years, full of torment and pain, he drowned in hopeless despair.