College Park teen takes on bullies

People warned the little girl that middle school could be tough.

Still Karmin Mosley had no reservations about leaving fifth grade for sixth. None.

She was friendly. She got along with everybody. To top it all off, she was an A-B student.

How bad could it be?

Day one her teacher sat her next to a boy who took an interest in her. That didn’t sit well with another girl and her gaggle of friends and, well, that’s when things started to change.

Karmin became their target, and like any good schoolyard bully, they were relentless.

“They basically tortured me,” she said.

They took every opportunity to push her books from her hands. They threw pencils at her, shot balls of paper into her face from rubber bands. They called her every name in the book.

Karmin complained to the school principal, but that only got her into trouble. He didn't believe her. Slowly, she started to change. Her self-esteem tanked. Her grades did, too.

Her mother, Carmen Mosley, said their home became a dark place where the sun ceased to shine. She knew there was something wrong, but she just couldn’t put her finger on it. Karmin, her only child, wouldn’t give her any details.

All she knew was that her top student was getting suspended pretty regularly. Not just a day or two but for the entire week of school.

The College Park student might have been many things, but she wasn’t a snitch. Alone in her room, though, she spilled the beans onto paper. Much of the pain she felt found its way into the poetry she wrote, but not even that was enough. Every day, she grew more angry. Every day, she gave up a little bit more of herself, a little bit more of the things she loved like dancing.

One day in October, the bullies cornered Karmin in the bathroom. While the others blocked the stalls and the exit, the ringleader lit into her, beating every inch of her body until Karmin managed to break loose and run.

Bullying was new to Karmin Mosley, but it happens everywhere and it happens a lot. The classic bully is the mean boy, but girl bullies are just as prominent and can be even worse than their male counterparts.

Nationally, 28 percent of students in grades six-12 experienced bullying, and about 30 percent of them admit bullying others in one way or another. Forty-four percent of middle schools students say they've experienced being called names; 43 percent say they've been teased; 36 percent say lies and rumors have been spread about them, and as many as 32 percent say they have been pushed or shoved.

The list goes on and on and on.

Since the beginning of the month — October is National Bullying Prevention Month — my mailbox has been overflowing with story pitches about bullying. That's not a complaint, but telling kids not to bully and raising awareness about the issue over four weeks are unlikely to change anything.

October will soon end, but I hope our attention to this issue doesn’t end with it.

The bullies who targeted Karmin didn’t limit their antics to school. They called and texted her, too.

That’s how her mother finally discovered what was going on. Addressing the issue became a second job, but just like her daughter, Carmen Mosley hit a brick wall, too.

The school, she said, was unresponsive.

Then one day as the school year drew to a close, the mother of one of the mean girls stepped in and pulled her daughter out of school and things finally got better.

“Heaven opened up,” Carmen Mosley said. “I got my daughter back.”

By then, though, Karmin wanted nothing to do with school. By then, she had a notebook of about 70 poems — all about bullying and “teenage things” like wanting more space, more freedom, of letting go and being.

When Karmin saw an ad about Georgia's free online cyber academy K12.com, she insisted her parents look into it and they did.

She’s 17 now, a senior looking forward to college next fall and building on her mission to save other youths from bullying.

It started in 2013, while Karmin was attending the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles.

“God put it in my spirit to do something with what happened,” Carmen Mosley said.

It was her idea to go on the speaking circuit to discourage bullying, but Karmin wanted to combine her experiences with the arts. Music and dance and the spoken word.

Together, they created Miss Jr’s Bulliez.

Next month, they will produce a variety show Karmin calls "Emotions of Bulliez," culled from the 70 poems she wrote during her months of misery.

“I want to honor all the kids who have committed suicide as a result of bullying, and get the message out there that bullying really hurts people,” Karmin said.

More than anything, she said, she wants victims to know they can overcome bullying.

“I’m super excited,” she said.

And just about back to the self-assured girl she once was.