Reporting A Bully May Have Gotten This Student Suspended

Reporting a bully is usually what most schools will advise a student to do, especially in the world of online bullying where it is so easy to target someone and make their life miserable on a broad scale.

But for high school senior Nayt Taylor, it was following this protocol that got him a two-day suspension after he told officials at Rainier High School about a picture posted to Instagram that targeted his friend Dylan Lane.

According to KPTV, the incident began last Thursday when an unnamed female student posted a pic of Lane that read, “This is the biggest [expletive] I know.”

Several others barraged the picture with other negative comments, leading Lane to get upset and “think about hurting himself,” Taylor said.

That’s when Nayt says he went into action.

Taylor approached a school counselor and reported his concerns, but says he was told to “drop it.” Thinking that meant something might be done to correct the online bullying, he tried to let it go. But when the picture remained up and nothing was done to the parties responsible, Taylor says he’d had enough.

That’s when he approached the principal of Rainier High School twice. The second time, he was suspended for “inappropriate language towards staff and impeding an investigation,” the official paperwork claimed.

“I got suspended before the girls that posted the picture, before the girls that had commented on the picture,” he added.

While that may have been the case, Rainier High School is sticking to its guns on the case and stating that it did not suspend Taylor for reporting a bully.

“No student has ever been suspended or will ever be suspended for coming to advocate for his other fellow student or anyone in the community,” said school superintendent Carter. “That wouldn’t be our policy, procedure. That’s not the right thing to do.”

But that is exactly what happened, according to Chad Taylor, Nayt’s father. “My son was flat out suspended for reporting a bully, which they hold assemblies every week to tell you what to do. They post signs all over the hallway to tell you to do. … You tell me, what kind of message are they sending?”

KOIN 6 notes that the elder Taylor allowed the school to release his son’s discipline file on Friday afternoon.

Do you think the school suspended Nayt Taylor for reporting a bully, or was it truly for the “inappropriate language and impeding an investigation”?