Recently Curt Schilling's daughter, Gabby Schilling, was the victim of a cyberbullying attack from a slew of anonymous twitter followers. The Incident all began when Curt tweeted a message congratulating his daughter on her acceptance to Salve Regina. He then received many vulgar responses of sexual nature, and even some threats of rape. Being a concerned father, Curt then began to do everything in his power to get justice against these internet heroes.
He began by tracking down each one of the individuals who had sent inappropriate messages regarding his daughter. Curt quickly discovered the power of Google when he stumbled upon information like names, addresses, colleges, sports teams and so on. He then contacted each one individually, confronting them on their behavior and the consequences it can lead to. But this was not enough justice for what his daughter had endured, and Curt decided that the best way to deal with these cyber criminals was to make it public.
When Gabby first found out what her dad had done, she was horrified. Like any reasonable teenager, she just wanted to leave it alone; ignore the bully's and they will go away. But her dad could not ignore it, and felt that women in general need to take a stand against this type of abuse.
Curt Schilling wrote a very inspiring blog post about the incident, in which he talked about the confrontation he had gotten into for his daughter, and cyberbullying on the internet in general. In his blog, Curt decided to name two of the worst perpetrators. One was a Student of Brookdale Community College, Adam Nagel, known as TheSportsGuru. The other, Sean MacDonald, was unfortunately the Vice-President of the Theta Xi fraternity at Montclair State University and sold tickets for the Yankees. Both Adam and Sean were suspended and fired respectively, and probably now realize that their actions on the internet can have consequences.
I have an interesting point of view in this whole situation, as both being a member of the Theta Xi fraternity and a Red Sox fan. I respect and admire Curt Schilling for taking a stand for his daughter against these cowards, and I am glad to see every bit of justice brought to all of these individuals IRL. It is unfortunate how the actions of one individual can bring down the name of an entire organization, but it is a sad fact of life. Also, it is our responsibility as members of said organization, to deal with such individuals with the most severe penalty possible. However unfortunate, I am glad to see Curt's victory in the battle against cyberbullying.
https://38pitches.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/the-world-we-live-in-man-has-it-changed/
http://nypost.com/2015/03/08/curt-schillings-war-against-daughters-twitter-trolls/
Great post! Cyber-bullying is a very big issue nowadays. I am glad that both the father and daughter got justice. The two boys got what they deserved. You can't just make other people's lives difficult and expect to have a good one yourself. And about the second part of the post; unfortunately, people are very judgmental and like to stereo-type everyone. One bad egg doesn't make the whole basket rotten. Moral of the story - don't hurt others and don't stereo-type.
ReplyDeleteI had the same reaction when I saw this article. What surprised me the most about it was how quickly it blew up on social media once Curt put up his blog post and responded to the kids on twitter. All of the sudden it was everywhere, like within the same day. I was also a little upset about some of the responses that I saw people posting either on their personal twitters or tweeting at Theta Xi itself. The responses made it clear that many people assume that either (1) the fraternity makes people act like this (product of environment) or (2) that all "frat guys" are as much of a low life at Sean was. This upset me since, as you know, I'm also a brother at TX here. While I do agree with the general reaction of the public towards what these kids did (it was disgusting), it's upsetting to see the stereotypes that the situation brought out of people.
ReplyDeleteI am so happy you wrote about this. I read his blog post the day it came out and I was just as infuriated as he was (it was actually probably to a lesser extent but you get the point). It is terrible the Curt was trying to brag about the accomplishments of his daughter and how proud of her he was, and people turned it into an outlet to post disgusting and demeaning comments. In my opinion the way he went about it was great. He stated that his intentions were to bring to light the comments of these two men and that he hopes that they receive justice. Cyber bullying is such a popular topic and it was great to see a superstar athlete stand up for not only his daughter, but kind of provide a reality check to society. That just because you can say whatever you want, probably doesn't mean you should. It is sad that the stereotyping occurred, but that is also just a product of society today; guilty by association. I always thought Curt Schilling was one of the best to play during his time, but I was never a fan of him as a person. After I read his blog and how he addressed the "trolls" I can say that I am a fan of him off the field too.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading about this on Twitter last week I had the unfortunate situation of not being surprised that people would tweet incredibly crude responses, but also incredibly surprised to realize I know one of the people involved in the mess. I went to high school with Sean MacDonald, and while he was never too much more than a friend of a friend, you'd naturally think someone who posts like that would be obvious to you in person. That is the weirdest thing about the internet, who someone is in person does not always match the person behind the computer screen, and when you read something on the internet you sometimes forget there is a real person behind it. So while some thoughts are not expressed in person, the feeling of anonymity and distance that the internet provides can reveal the true sentiment of their character and promote poor decisions. Sometimes good people can do bad things when the proper tools are given to them, in this case social media.
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