16-year-old suspended after anti-bullying video goes viral
LEBANON, Tenn. — A Tennessee high school student’s anti-bullying video has resulted in nearly 600,000 views on YouTube and a suspension for its creator.
Lebanon High School student Emily Gipson said school administrators accused her of “trying to incite violence” and gave her a two-day in-school suspension for the video entitled “Welcome to Lebanon High School,” posted Jan. 22.
In the video , prompted by a classmate’s October suicide, she asks students to treat each other better. It’s a broad indictment of campus culture, but contains neither profanity nor calls for direct action.
“Welcome to Lebanon High School, where smiles are fake and suicide prevention is something to laugh at,” she said in the video, criticizing her peers’ reaction to the Stop It app the Wilson County school had put out in response to the death.