High school is torture. There's probably not a socially accepted route around it -- you have to go -- but it is not fun, for anyone. It wasn't fun for Carrie White, that's for sure. Carrie was invited to her prom as a joke, then her class mates made it even more cruel by nominating her to be Prom Queen, only to douse her in pigs blood. The story climaxes as Carrie brings down the house and gets sweet revenge.
That's what Carrie is, at the core, right? It's a revenge story. The bullied kid unleashes the fire inside of her -- fire she has kept pent up and locked away deep down -- on her classmates. In the simple plot line, it goes like this: What if a girl with special powers was the kid that got bullied at school? Wouldn't it be cool if the day she really got control of her powers was the day her enemies hurt her the most?
But what if the story could turn out different? What if a teen was nominated for something like prom -- say Homecoming -- as a joke. But what if in the end, she didn't kill them all, instead she shined. (Really shined, not shined in the Shining sort of shined.)
Whitney Kropp was nominated by her school mates to be on the Homecoming court. Imagine how excited she was -- until she learned it was nothing more than a joke carried out by the popular kids. They were being mean. She says she was depressed and even thought about suicide. She told CNN that she felt like "trash." But her town rallied around her. That's right, the entire town!
Sarah Medina at Huffington Post writes:
The 'Support Whitney Kropp' Facebook page, created by a stranger on her behalf, quickly got 3,500 "likes," far exceeding the entire West Branch population of 2,100. The page is dedicated to raising awareness about high school bullying and posting tips about how to overcome it.
"This was something that was really awful, could have ended awful, and because so many people came together, it just turned right aroundPeople Magazine noted that several local business donated Kropp's homecoming gown and shoes – and hairstylist Shannon Champagne donated her services.
It's neat to see a story like this that doesn't turn into a revenge story -- it's about being strong under pressure. It's about a town supporting one of their own and righting a wrong. It's cool.
I'm really proud of this young woman for standing strong when ridicule and depression threatened to cave her in. And I'm excited by her town rising up to stand with her.
Great story, David!
ReplyDeletePoor girl... nice to see people doing something good for her.
Here I hope we see the difference between fition and real life. Yeah, I'm an up with people sort. I'm also a part time barrio boy who's familiar with the kind of behavior Whitney Kropp had to endure. In the neighborhoods were I grew up, if you saw someone acting like the kids who mistreated Kropp you didn't take the situation lying down, and the solution was always close at hand to hand if you get my drift, though I don't say it was right.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what happened to the kids who tried to haze her.
It reminds me of something King said in Danse Macabre in connection with high school and films like I was a Teenage Werewolf. That's what I think sums up people like the ones who tried to get Whitney Kropp.
The irony here is I first saw Teenage Werewolf as an MST3K episode, and yet the funny thing was, the riffs seem to match all the points King made in Macabre. Anyone who wants to know what I'm talking about can either look up MST3K: I was a Teenage Werewolf online to see what I mean.
ChrisC