I can’t stop thinking about Brodie Panlock.
Brodie was 19 when she took her life following unrelenting bullying at the Melbourne café where she worked as a waitress.
This is what the men at her workplace did to her:
- They poured fish oil into her bag and in her hair and clothes.
- They called her fat and ugly.
- They spat on her.
- They gossiped about her.
- They excluded her.
- They mocked her for a previous suicide attempt.
- One put rat poison into her bag and told her to take it.
This is one of the four men who did this to Brodie. His name is Nicholas Smallwood. What a man is Nicholas Smallwood, so bold and brave to torment a teenage girl.
A former barista at Café Vamp said Brodie “had no confidence in her beauty or worth…I have never seen anything like what those…males did to Brodie,” Meghan Chester said.
And no one – not one person – intervened to help her.
This excessive cruelty – by grown men – led Brodie to jump from a building. Adult men bullying a teenage girl who turns up to work everyday to serve coffee and do her job. Ground down so she thinks she’s worthless.
How does something like this happen in Australia, in the 21st century? What is this, Lord of the freakin’ Flies?
Thinking of you Brodie, and your family who have lost you. Wish we could have done something to help you.
If you are reading this and are a victim of bullying, please don’t hide it. Get help. It’s against the law.
And if you have been bullied, I’d like to hear about it. Please post a comment about your experience. What happened? Did you get help? If it stopped how did it stop? Do you have advice for others who have been targetted by bullies?
Now in its second printing!
