Political Quotes

“Thank you. I wish to give one example of a particular individual--a real-life example of what bullying means, and I will have some comments as well about prekindergarten education. This is a real-life story. Brandon Bitner, 14 years old, of Mount Pleasant Mills, PA, walked 13 miles from his home on an early Friday morning in November of 2010 to a busy intersection and threw himself in front of an oncoming tractor trailer after leaving a suicide note at his home. That is what happened to a 14-year-old Pennsylvanian. I cannot even imagine the horror of that, what led to that action he took when he took his own life. It is, unfortunately, not an isolated example. There are too many of these today. There would be too many if there were one, but unfortunately there are many more than one. So there seems to be little doubt in our minds and certainly in the minds of those who knew Brandon why he did what he did on that day in November of 2010. I am going to quote a friend, Takara Jo Folk. Here is what Takara said: ``It was because of bullying.'' That was written in a letter to the Daily Item, a newspaper in central Pennsylvania. Quoting again from that letter: ``It was not about race or gender, but they bullied him for his sexual preferences and the way he dressed. Which,'' she said, ``they wrongly accused him of.'' Brandon's suicide note reportedly explained that he was constantly bullied at Midwest High School in Middleburg, where he was a freshman.…”