Ray Rice, the Super Bowl winning running back of the Baltimore Ravens, became very vocal about the topic of bullying upon hearing the story of 12-year-old Bailey O'Neill, who was beaten on a playground and began suffering seizures after being taken to a Pennsylvania hospital. He died Sunday morning.
Originally, O'Neill was diagnosed with a concussion, broken nose, and other injuries, according to CBS. Later though, O'Neill started having seizures which forced doctors to medically induce a coma. The report says O'Neill was challenged to a fight by a taller boy, but didn't take part because he was afraid he'd be suspended. He was then shoved from behind and hit in the head "around five times." He finished out the school day but complained of dizziness and confusion in the following days. He was an honor student who loved baseball and swimming.
When the story was brought to Rice's attention he placed a call to the O'Neill family to let them vent their frustrations. Rice hosted several anti-bullying rallies in 2012, and will be more invested in the problem going forward. Rice left a lengthy message on Bailey O'Neill's Facebook page.
This is Rice's message. "A few weeks ago i shared a link to an article that a fan sent to me. It was about an 11 year old boy named Bailey who had been bullied at school. In the latest incident, Bailey was beat up on the school playground. Hit in the face and pushed to the ground, Bailey began to have severe seizures which required him to be placed into a medically induced coma.
After learning last Thursday that doctors said Bailey had no longer had any brain activity, I reached out to the family and was able to spend about 45 minutes on the phone with them. I could hear their sadness, worry, frustration and grief. They would be faced with removing their son, cousin, nephew, and best friend from life support.
Bailey passed away this morning, one day after his 12th birthday.
I don't think I will ever be able to understand why kids bully each other and how we are all sitting here after yet another "bully death" getting ready to go through this difficult task of picking up the pieces and the even more difficult task of forgiving so we can heal.
I don't know if we will ever get to a point where bullying is actually considered a CRIME, rather than "kids being kids" or a "playground incident."
I don't know if the kid that did this to Bailey will be punished severely enough or if he will receive the help I know he truly needs. Bullying doesn't happen for no reason...we have to figure out what the underlying cause it and treat it like the illness it is.
I don't know when parents, teachers, elected officials and administrators will sit up and take notice...and ACT.
But, I DO KNOW THIS: I will NOT give up my fight. Everyday I will continue to fight AGAINST bullying and fight FOR kindness.
Bailey - my little buddy, I will not let you become just another bully statistic...you are my inspiration and one more angel that will help me continue the fight for kids everywhere. You are going to help me save lives. RIP my little friend."
Rice began raising money shortly after writing this post,
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