Our Childs Bullying turned to Happiness

Every parent wants nothing but the best for their children, good school performance, lots of friends, college and a bright future. We also wanted the same for our two children but at one time it was not to be.

Our oldest child Corey, now 17 was a normal child doing normal things up until mid-September 2010. He did very well in school, had many, many friends, was active in the Music Program, and we never had a bad comment from any of Corey’s teachers from Kindergarten thru high school.

He loved East Providence High School in his freshman year and continued in the Music Program. Then approximately 4 months into his sophomore year, he completely shut down with no explanation at all. He would have hard time breathing and severe stomach pains as soon as we neared the High School. As soon as he went into the school, he headed right to the nurse’s office to be dismissed. He missed day upon day of school, again with no explanation.

After many Doctor and Hasbro visits, with full explanation of all of his symptoms, we were always sent home with Stomach medicine and told to return if symptoms worsened.

In mid-April, Corey completely shut down and out and out refused to return to EPHS. Again any questions we had were met with silence. He did nothing but lay in bed all day and refused to speak to any of his friends.

In the back of our minds, we automatically thought of Bullying, although that really didn’t make sense because he had so many friends. We asked him if this was happening and we got nothing but silence again.

After several more doctor appointments and a weeklong stay in the hospital for observation as his actions were completely out of his character, Corey was finally diagnosed with Agoraphobia, or the fear of being in large crowds, severe depression, as well as severe anxiety and panic disorders.

As parents we could not process this and shed many, many tears for him. We finally found him a good psychologist and counselor to see on a weekly basis. He was subscribed many different medications and after a while these medications started to take affect and the old Corey, to some extent, was returning to his old self.

As he refused to attend EPHS at all, we researched many alternative schools for him to start his Junior year. He chose to attend The East Bay Career Academy (EBCA), where the classes were very small, he could talk with a Psychologist if needed and he felt very comfortable there.

Corey to this day is approximately 95% back to normal although he doesn’t really communicate with his old friends as he says he is embarrassed about what happened to him, however, he has made several friends at EBCA who can relate to what he went thru. Again we received good remarks from the school

Corey has finally disclosed to us that he was physically and mentally bullied at EPHS and had his first panic attack during a presentation in class and had to stop during the middle of his speech. In his own words he heard students in the hallways refer to him as “the weirdo of the school”. He is not ashamed to admit this now as his younger brother will be entering EPHS this upcoming year and Corey has spoken to him regarding bullying and to told him to not hold it in as he did in the past. He doesn’t want anyone to go through what he and his family went through for the last two years.

In closing, we as his parents are extremely pleased to announce that Corey will be graduating on June 6th at the top of his class, and says that EBCA saved his life, which we truly believe as well and he will miss everyone at the school immensely.