With the third anniversary of Tyler Clementi's passing exactly one week away, it is horribly disheartening for me to hear about the suicide of 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick, of Lakeland, Florida. Another victim of cyberbullying, the distraught girl leaped to her death from high atop a tower, at an abandoned cement plant, not far from her home, this past Monday!
The means by which she accomplished all this speak of her desperation to end her life. Climbing the tower was bad enough, but, to get into the plant, she had to scale a wire fence that was laced with barbed wire. Not only is this desperation, but calculation; Rebecca certainly knew of this place, and must have formulated in her head the decision to end her life at this location.
Of course, school officials are covering their asses by insisting they had nothing to do with her death. The bullying began with a group of girls--15 of them!!!!!!!!!!--at Rebecca's old school, Crystal Lake Middle School. The girl and her mother complained to administrators at the time, who claim they were only speaking of "traditional bullying." Uhm...like, that's OK??????? Only non-traditional bullying matters???????? What kind of specious thinking is that?????????
The bullying continued into this year, at Rebecca's new school, apparently by the same group of girls. Well, now, in the wake of things, law investigators are looking into the possibility of whether these girls can be charged in Rebecca's death, and, darlings, I hope they are, and hauled off to reform school, where they get the shit kicked out of them, and have their hair pulled!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just as someone I once crossed paths with, should have, and who Rebecca's death caused me to think of. This was a girl from my home town, named Laura Sperber! Here she is!!!!!!!!!! Pictured below!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As you can see, this is no Laura Wingfield in "The Glass Menagerie!"
Here is the history between us. When I was in eighth grade, my friend, Doug and I went to one of our high school football games; this represented, for us, back then, our desperate attempt to be "All-American," which we, as suburban children, felt we should be! Well, you know how that all turned out.
One Saturday, during that year, we were seated high in the bleachers, when, through sheer chance, Laura, and a friend of hers, (whose name I do not remember) took a seat behind us.
Laura began haranguing us, me especially, with name calling and verbal abuse, which escalated into a physical attack, when she began striking me on the back with one of those confetti sticks they used to sell at these games--and maybe, to this day, still do.. We got up and moved, but it was no use; wherever we went, Laura and her cohort would follow!!!!!!!! At one point, I lost it, mouthed off to her, and grabbed her stick, breaking it in half! Which should have ended things, but only made it worse; with the torn, jagged part of the stick, Laura began striking me even harder on the back! I was determined not to have her drive me from the game. Somehow, I made it through; I think she may have left before we did, but, when I got home, my back was bleeding! I told my parents about Laura, but, being they never understood what I needed during these school years, judging by where thy sent me to in elementary school, they didn't know what to do here, and so nothing was done! If I had been the parent, I would have called the Sperbers, and given them a piece of my mind!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, here it is, forty plus years later, and now I am calling out Laura!!!!!!!! Chickens DO come home to roost, honey!!!!!!!! Not really expecting to find anything, I Googled her, and found this picture; apparently she is connected with the American Numismatic Association, dealing with coin collecting. You can see how fat and ugly she is; she was tending to that back then, though she still looked cute and baby faced, then! So much for that!
Just for the record, I know this IS Laura, because on the site, she says, "I grew up in Highland Park, New Jersey!!!!!!!!!!" Gotcha, Laura!!!!!!!!!!!! If you read between the lines, it sounds like she is a lesbian, which, what with me being gay, is not really an issue, but she still, on a You Tube video comes off as snide and snarky as she did back then. Lives with her cats and ferrets!!!!!!! Indeed!!!!!!!!!! What, no partner? I wonder why, Laura???????????????? You can bet she is an acolyte of Christine Quinn!!!!!!!!!!
Who knows; if I hadn't had the confrontational, Scarlett O'Hara aspect of my personality, or if social media had been in place during my generation, I might not be here now, writing about this, speaking out for Rebecca and others. Laura and her ilk might have done me in, but, fortunately, they did not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Laura Sperber should not be associated with ANY organization. You can see she is still a rotten human being, and has never changed! Funny that her name popped up when I read about Rebecca. We only had one encounter, but you can see how impacting it was!!!!!!!!!!!
How do you like being outed as a rotten bitch, Laura??????????
Let's see you come after me now!
Again--as I often do--to quote Gena Rowlands in "Gloria!"--"Come on! Come on! I LOVE it!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Nerts to you, Laura!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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