Chapter 98 Public Opinion
Pete’s incident became the trigger to discuss the bullying problem.
There were so many people arguing on television and the internet that Pete’s situation couldn’t be avoided after all that has been done to him.
But there were also those who hated the mutants even more due to that incident. People thought that the mutant could easily kill a human, and there was no guarantee that the mutant won’t plot something using their power in the future!
But after a few days, another side of the story, from the perspective of another bullied student, was published.
The story was gruesome and inhuman that the story of Pete killing another student was outmatched.
The bullying has come to new light; people were starting to look closely at their own children and to condemn any bullies that they came across.
People were starting to judge the credential of the teachers too.
If they couldn’t protect the kid from harming each other, at the very least, they could report it to authorities or to the parents, instead of ignoring the problem like most bullying cases.
Many people started to blame the teacher too, which made some of them lose their job as a teacher.
They were disgusted by the stories that many students across the USA told to the public, they knew that bullying exists but didn’t do anything to stop that, and once something big has been exposed in the news, they suddenly did something about it to look like a saint in the media’s eyes.
Pete was no longer condemned as a killer; his act was considered self-defense and therefore was not guilty of what happened.
Countless people sympathized with Pete’s situation and gave a donation to Pete’s parents as they thought that they would be able to help somehow.
The family of Pete’s bullies was all left to be judged by the public.
Their son’s death was seen as necessary to reduce the crime in the country, as their son who bullied another kid so cruelly like that were no longer human!
No matter what they said and what they did to change public opinion on their family were all for naught.
People were starting to demand a new law to be pa.s.sed by the parliaments.
They thought that there should be a law for those bullying. There should be a law to help the victim of the bullies, which got so much supports from the public.
The government was pressured to say something about that incident, while they could no longer blame mutants for that.
The people started to see mutant as just another human being with a gift, and they didn’t see mutant with a scared look on their face anymore.
They thought that the scary one was just another human being who was able to do something like all the bullies had done.
They realized that they have been afraid of the mutants out of jealousy of the skill and ability that they couldn’t have.
After a short while of being pressured to speak, the president finally made a public speech regarding the matter.
The president agreed that the government would create a new law to help reduce the act of bullying in the country, and he also said that those who were caught bullying and the teacher who ignored that problem would receive punishment befitting their action!
The government also indicated that they’d be adding a curriculum to every school about the act of humanity to teach the basic foundation of morals to everyone in the school.
William Stryker, who planned for things to go against the mutant, was furious hearing all those talks that support the mutant. He destroyed everything around him in his room as his temper tantrum.
He didn’t expect that the SHIELD would intervene back then at the school; he knew that the person who took the body from his soldier was SHIELD’s, but knowing didn’t mean he could do anything about it. His higher-ups didn’t find any flaw in SHIELD’s report and, therefore, couldn’t pressure them for anything!
Meanwhile, Professor X looked relieved after hearing all the news about the incident. He didn’t expect things would turn out that way, but he was very grateful that there were still so many level-headed humans in the country!