Teen Suspended For Anti-Bullying Video, But OK With Paying Price

LEBANON, TN — Emily Gipson took her punishment like an adult. The 16-year-old Lebanon High School sophomore was suspended after posting an anti-bullying video that gained online traction, officially because her five-minute slam poetry video, “Welcome to Lebanon High School,” was recorded on school property.

So be it, says Gipson. She has already served the two-day suspension without complaint, reasoning that courage often comes at a price.

“All people who make a stand have had some sort of repercussions,” she said. “I’m here to make a difference, and I’m here to pay the price. The punishment is over, and I’m still committed to making a difference.”

The suspension has gained almost as much attention as the original video, which Gipson said she felt compelled to make after the suicide last fall by an LHS student. There were reports the girl had been bullied, Gipson said.

Her powerful video struck a chord across a nation coming to terms with a bullying problem many call epidemic. Hundreds of thousands of people have viewed the video posted on YouTube and widely shared on social media. In it, she makes no secret that she doesn’t think Lebanon High School officials are doing enough to counter a culture of bullying.

School Principal Scott Walters did not immediately return Patch’s request for comment, but Gipson confirmed published reports in which Walters said the problem was that the video was recorded on school property. If we hear back from the principal, we'll update this story.

Gipson’s mother’s version is a little different. In a comment on her daughter’s Facebook page, Ashley Saunders wrote that Gipson was officially suspended for making the video in a classroom without permission, “but the teacher even admitted after the fact that she did have permission.”

Gipson was also told that “if she posted anything else there would be additional punishment, insinuating that the post had something to do with the punishment,” Saunders wrote. “I talked to the principal myself so I know that is what was said.”

But Gipson isn’t dwelling on that. She posted a second video about bullying and there hasn't been any fallout, she said.

Two other Lebanon High School students have died in the past two years, Gipson said, one of them as a result of suicide. She declined to speculate on the circumstances of those students’ deaths, calling it unproductive gossip.

But when school officials talked about the STOPit app, an anonymous incident reporting and management tool, students laughed. Gipson was incredulous.

“I have to speak out,” she thought at the time.

“Everybody was just making fun of it,” Gipson said. “Everybody’s laughing at suicide?”

She thinks the app could be effective tool to help kids suffering the torment of bullies.

“Anything to encourage students to talk to someone, anything to stop bullying, anything that helps at all, I think could make a big difference,” she said.

Increasing rates of teen suicide are startling. The federal Centers for Disease Control said in a study published last fall that teen suicides increased more than 30 percent overall from 2010 to 2015, when the the study ended. For girls, the increase soared by 65 percent. In numbers, that’s about 5.4 adolescents per 100,000 who killed themselves in 2010, compared with more than 7 per 100,000 five years later.

Gipson was surprised by the online reach of her video, and the extent of the bullying problem nationwide.

“It’s a huge problem, and not just at my school,” she said. “It’s huge problem everywhere, and something that needs to be dealt with — people don’t like to speak up about it, and it’s easier not to talk about it. It needs to be talked about, it needs to be dealt with.

“I’m just trying to make a difference in as many lives as possible,” she said.

Gipson said she can’t keep track in her email inbox of all the comments that have come in since her original video was posted. Most, but not all, responses have been positive. Some people commented on YouTube that the video was overly dramatic and unfair to school officials.

She has tried to read all of them objectively and further refine her anti-bullying message.

“I very much believe everybody is entitled to their own opinion,” she said. “I’ve learned from the feedback, and take into consideration the positive and negative, so I can be better next time and be a stronger voice next time.”

See Also: Teen Hangs Herself, But Bullying Killed Her

Photo courtesy of Emily Gipson