When the story of Spencer Nilsson’s suicide was published on the Idaho State Journal’s Power County webpage on Tuesday, April 9, the website was flooded with heavy traffic. As of Saturday, April 13, the story has had over 100 comments from local citizens and the story’s post on Facebook has had 107 shares.

    The comments that were posted online covered a wide range of topics involving the Nilsson case, and have been printed here as they appear online, grammatical errors and spellings were unedited.

    Some commentators spoke of the nature of bullying in general, as well as ways to fight back.

    “There is a natural pecking order that exists throughout nature. Human beings are supposed to have an emotion called empathy. The definition of empathy is; identification with and understanding of another’s situation, feelings and motives. Clearly it is the lack of empathy in a person that allows them to be so cruel.”

— Mary Kay

    “I taught my children from the age of talking that if someone said or did something to hurt them, they had to say, “That’s not okay,” and walk away. I always taught my kids that no one had the right to hurt them and it was important to assert their rights immediately. I believe this has been incredibly helpful to all three of my children. If there has ever been an instance when that was not enough, then they were to speak with their teacher or another helpful adult. I can state with surety that my children were acknowledged, and something was immediately done about the problem. Being assertive with direct words and strong body language has been the ticket.”

— Elaina Treasure-Hall

    Many of the commentators spoke of their own experiences with bullying in the Aberdeen school district, as well as in other schools around the country, and how it has affected their lives, even as many of the commentators are now adults.

    “I also was bullied, to the point of attempting suicide multiple times. I made myself sick so I could stay home and I would come home everyday crying myself to sleep. My min [mom] did everything she could think of to try and stop it but nothing seemed to work, and actually I would be teased worse because I ‘ran to mommy’ my mom finally pulled me out and sent me to snake river for a couple years.”

— Aberdeen Graduate 2006

    “I was bullied for over two years by VERY ‘prominent members’ in the Aberdeen society. I remember so clearly going to school and having everyone laughing, not quite sure what was going on it wasn’t until after lunch when I went to computer class and saw that girls and guys had made a survey about me. With questions such as ‘who will be most likely to grow up as an alcoholic like their mother.’ ‘Who doesn’t have the money to join sports like the rest of the normal kids.’

— Amanda

    “Bullying has been going on everywhere for a long time, in grade school I rode a school bus and many times was made to stand or sit on the floor of the bus because other kids absolutely refused to give me a seat. I was spit on and beat up many times. Bullying will continue as long as people who have never experienced it will never know the pain and dread someone can feel over the thought of going to school.”

— Melissa

    Though Aberdeen School District 58 did not return the newspaper’s phone calls for comment on the online statements, many commentators discussed in detail their frustrations with the district’s handling of bullying cases. Many reiterated the Nilsson’s family struggles with school administrators to stop the bullying towards Spencer with similar stories.

    “As an ex-cop who worked in. Aberdeen as the School Resource Officer and a father of children who went to the schools, my son was bullied for quite some time. Both his mother and I went to the teacher, the principal, school board meetings and even the superintendent to get the issue resolved. With each meeting we were told that the bullying would be looked into and stopped, but yet the bullying continued.”

— Russ

    “In Aberdeen the faculty does take sides. Take the side of the bully if they come from a wealthy family or their parents is in the school board etc. They chose favorites and there is students they dislike and when those student get bullied they laugh along other students.”

— AberdeenTiger

    “I was also a victim of bullying while in school in Aberdeen, As I visit every few years for family reasons I still hate driving by the school and remembering the verbal and physical abuse during my 4 years in high school. The few real bullies fed on the weaker and were empowered by the majority that never stood up again the bullies out of fear of being bullied themselves. The teachers and administrators wrote this off as ‘normal school boy behavior’ and we were expected to just suck it up.”

— vandalguy

    “It’s happened to many students. The teachers have never done anything. It’s an ongoing process and most of the time, the teachers in Aberdeen take part in the bullying. I know from experience.”

— Felicia

    Some commentators defended the school and gave examples of how they were pleased with how the school handled their bullying complaints, noting that the suicide devastated the entire Aberdeen Middle School community.

    “I have lived in Aberdeen 35 years and have raised my children here. I have not had all the experiences that have been described above, but did feel like there were times that my children felt picked on at school. A few times it was by teachers. When I had an issue with a teacher at the middle school, I went to Ann Minear [Minnear] with my concerns and she was so professional and helpful with my situation. She was actually good friends with the teacher I was annoyed with and still I felt like she treated my child fairly. She came up with three situations that would alliviate the problem and then let my child and I decide which one would solve the problem.”

— Dianne Poulson

    “I graduated from Aberdeen and I knew some kids that got bullied and they always reported to the principal and the principal took care of it.”

— Aberdeen

    “I have always stood up against bullying and I will continue to but I just don’t like how everybody is cutting my teachers and the principals out to be monsters. I have good teachers. They are good people and they really do care. I’m in the high school but I do know Mrs. Mennear and she is a great lady. I feel like people’s emotions are high and they are pointing fingers. I don’t know if the middle school teachers could have done more and I guess they could have. I guess they overlooked it but please understand that those teachers are good people. I know all of them and they care about their students and they were devastated when Spencer passed on.”

— Lynn

    To join in the discussion, please visit the conversation at wwwpowercountyjournal.com/ and www.idahostatejournal.com.