Joshua Gallagher from Enniskillen.
THE family of an Enniskillen teenager who took his life after being tormented by bullies online and in school has described social media bullying as an “evil that eats through the victim and destroys their family”.
Jennifer Gallagher, whose 15-year-old son Joshua died at his home in October 2012, has spoken of the emotional trauma the family have endured following his death.
Both Jennifer and her son Andrew are launching a campaign in a bid to tackle bullying in Fermanagh and to warn schools and parents of the dangers of cyberbullying.
It comes just weeks after the death of Co Tyrone student Ronan Hughes who took his own life after being blackmailed online.
Joshua’s mother also revealed that her son’s school, Erne Integrated College, has not been in contact with the family following his tragic death and has called for primary and secondary schools to do more to address cyberbullying.
“These victims have to see the bullies almost everyday and sometimes if they don’t know the bully on social media, it’s the thought of “are they there?”,” she said.
“It’s like stalking and my heart goes out to any family that has to deal with a situation like this. It’s an evil that eats through you and destroys you and your family.
“You are putting a death sentence on a person, especially someone so young. It’s the faceless people that are the cowards.
“I would like to see more happen (in schools) and there needs to be an education programme because there wasn’t when Joshua was there.
“He never talked about the school doing anything about cyberbullying which is the modern form of bullying. It takes every positive seed out of your body.
“They would have made fun of him online and called him ‘specky’, it started off with silly things and then it got nasty.
“Schools like to pass the buck but you can’t pass someone’s life.
“It feels hard to see his bullies around the town and I get very angry but they walk across the road when they see me. It’s what they have done I hate and not the people.”
She added that wants to see school incorporate cyberbullying into their curriculum.
She continued: “The school has not been in contact with me since Joshua’s death. They have property belonging to him that I still haven’t got back yet like his books and art books.”
His older brother Andrew said that the difficulty with cyberbullying is that once it’s typed, “it’s frozen in time”.
“They get into the mind of the victim and controls them. It puts them under pressure and is invasive. When something nasty is said to you it’s in your mind but when it’s written on social media you can go and read it over and over again and feel like it’s etched in stone.
“Stalking is a form of bullying, not much might be said be you are being stalked online. It puts you under pressure and feels like a violation of the person.
“There’s sense of accountability in schools when it comes to online bullying and we found that through Joshua.
“My heart goes out to Ronan Hughes’s family, he seemed like a really well mannered person with such a bright future ahead of him.”
In November the family are hosting an anti-bullying art exhibition in memory of Joshua and are hoping to get primary schools, secondary schools, church and youth groups and anyone who has been effected by bullying involved.
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