The times they are a-changin’.
This post seems to be older than 5 years—a long time on the internet. It might be outdated.
Amber Caudel of Everett, Washington was called geek, nerd and spit on in school. School officials at Evergreen Middle School had just given her the news she was going to have to repeat the 7th grade. Her dad attributes the cause of her dropping grades to the bullying that was reported to the school twice.
Amber was also cyber bullied.
We visited Amber’s Facebook page to better understand the degree of cyberbullying she was undergoing. We did not expect to find very much since insults often end up deleted, however, the evidence we did find was disturbing. In the screenshot below is a 9/17/2014 post that reads, “HAHAHA RATCHETS:”
Example of Caudel being bullied on Facebook
Her reply was baffling as the meaning of “ratchets” was not immediately apparent to us. We figured it was a slang term so we looked up the meaning of a “ratchet” in a slang dictionary and discovered Amber Caudel was indeed being defamed and bullied on Facebook. Definition #7 was the clearest to us:
Ratchet
adj. a term for someone who is either 1. a whore 2. dirty/nasty 3. ghetto as HELL 4. being annoying 5. busted
Poor girl. 🙁 In this case, it appears one of the bullies is “busted.” The screenshot above provides us with actionable information to stop bullies.
We took a look at the Facebook profile of the child who called Amber a “ratchet” on Facebook and discovered one of the child’s cultural influences is Drake:
Actual Facebook Post of Amber Caudel Being Called a “Ratchet.”
What a tragic post made just 3 days after he called Amber a ratchet. His post indeed matches the overall tone of the bullying she is reported to have unsuccessfully endured.
Terrible things happen when adults fail to protect children.
RIP, Amber Caudel. Our hearts broke for you.
You can learn more about this story and the school’s response, here:
Special message to kids: If you are also being bullied in school, please hang on until an adult does what needs to be done to keep you safe. Keep telling your parents about what’s going on. Keep telling teachers and administrators. Please don’t ever give up. It’s better to refuse to go to school than to hurt yourself. Remember, the bullies will not be around for the rest of your life, they can also be stopped. If you need support now, please visit our anti-bully zone for kids.