Everyday Erinyes

I'm sure there is more than one thing which has happened which really should call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with it, but I'll only share one this week. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."

So.  Up in East Amherst, New York, at Williamsville East High School (sic), Two brothers, Muslims, say they have been bullied for years and the school has ignored them.  Finally they were goaded into fighting back, and now, they may be expelled.

AlterNet picked this story up word for word from Raw Story (as they actually often do), even with the identical video from the Buffalo TV channel.  So I will do the same.  If Raw Story comes after AlterNet, they are welcome to let us know too, and we'll drop the article.

Adam and Jameel Siam said they have suffered anti-Muslim harassment for at least two years at Williamsville East High School, but they said administrators have done nothing to address their complaints, reported WIVB-TV.

“I was bullied for Osama bin Laden, I’ve been called a terrorist,” said Jameel, a junior. “We’ve been called terrorists, go back home and make bombs in your basement or you’re going to come back and shoot up the school — and it’s just like, people kept pushing our buttons.”

The boys have attended schools in the western New York village since preschool, but they said the bullying has recently grown worse.

“You don’t know if someone is going to come up behind you or come right up to you and say something,” said Adam, a sophomore. “You always have to watch where you are, what you’re doing, who’s around you. You always gotta have a watch out.”

They’re hounded on social media and harassed in the hallways at school, and vandals broke windows and doors at the family’s home over the weekend by throwing rocks and eggs.

The boys have filed at least two reports with Amherst police, the TV station reported — once after a fight in December and then again after their home was vandalized.

Their mother said she has repeatedly asked school officials to help stop the bullying, but she said her complaints have been ignored.

“This has been festering for years now,” Rehab Siam said. “They’ve never looked into the whole serious issue.”

Now the boys face an expulsion hearing after fighting with their tormenters.

“When I go into school, all I hear are these racial comments,” Jameel said. “It just keeps pushing my buttons where I don’t focus on my studies anymore, I focus on my safety.”

The disciplinary hearing had been scheduled for Monday but was pushed back, and the school superintendent declined to comment specifically on the matter but said administrators took bullying seriously and would punish any behavior that compromised student safety.

Police are still investigating the vandalism and fight.

“I can’t live a normal life now, especially how they came to my house,” Jameel said. “It’s not only at school that I need to be afraid, it’s that I have to be afraid everywhere I am now."

Digging just a little deeper, it appears that their tormentors-in-chief are also brothers.  No names were provided by the Buffalo News so the only other detail about them is that the older at least has an Instagram account, and posted there a presentation comprising opposing images of the American and Islamic flags, the title being "Siam Slayer."  It was this which inspired Jameel to demand that it be taken down, leading to fisticuffs.  That was last week.  This weekend, the Siam home was vandalized at 3 a.m. – it was egged, and a front storm door window (sic) was shattered by a rock.

The FBI has been notified, and if local law enforcement determines a hate crime has been committed, will certainly be involved, as required by Federal law.The boy's attorneys feel, and I agree, that school administrative inaction was a major factor in the conflict escalating up to social media and thence to blows.  The administration, incidentally, is refusing disclosure of a "surveillance video" of the confrontation.  Hmmmm.

However, the parents of the other brothers must also be a big factor.  How are they handling it?  No one knows.  They are not responding to requests for interviews.  Hmmmm.  I must say I would love to be a fly on the wall when you ladies sweep in on them and "request an interview."  It's somewhat cold there now, and they're expecting snow showers by Monday – but maybe you can help warm it up.

The Furies and I will be back.