# Nice hair, cancer girl. Need a light? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 3, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922 "2004-12-03T17:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/21 "2004-12-04T01:51:59Z")
I’d set that little prick’s ASS alight. Just so he could experience the feeling himself. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/22 "2004-12-04T03:04:48Z")
[Here’s](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_west/4062895.stm) a BCC article on the incident . The Beeb tends not to be sensationalist about stuff like this. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/23 "2004-12-04T14:36:33Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > You should have kicked him in the balls. Meaning of course Rilch should’ve kicked her tormentor in the balls. I even thought about specifying in the event of a simulpost but then thought “naaaaah!” ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/24 "2004-12-04T16:40:32Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#): > > Man, they were just flashlights. You don’t have to hit the choir director in the 'nads. I was trying to work out a joke involving Nancy, but alas, I was too slow. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2004, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/25 "2004-12-04T21:01:14Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > Meaning of course Rilch should’ve kicked her tormentor in the balls. I even thought about specifying in the event of a simulpost but then thought “naaaaah!” I could have, but…If I’d done it while he was brandishing the lighter, I might have gotten burned further as he was falling to the floor. If I’d done it afterwards, he might have retaliated against my retaliation. This was not a “kid”; he was 18 and had been in juvi. Who knows what more he was capable of. As it was, I didn’t get burned physically, just my ego. No one else approved of his behavior, and shortly afterwards, his friend apologized to me on his behalf. He’s probably been in and out of jail a few more times by now. What can you do. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/26 "2004-12-05T00:57:27Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > "He had a cigarette lighter and was messing around with it. So how did a 14-year-old have a cigarette lighter in school? Her parents should find out who provided that lighter to him, and **sue the hell** out of them. Real good case for adding emotional distress, disfigurement, & similar damage claims. Get her whole life story before the jury, and they should get more than enough to keep her in nice wigs for the rest of her life. That’s how a _real American_ would do it! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/27 "2004-12-05T04:44:36Z")
My best friend in highschool set her _own_ hair on fire once. We must’ve been only about 15 or 16. She was leaning in a doorway at a party flicking her lighter absent-mindedly while we were chatting. This was the 80s so she had super-ultra-poofy bangs – the kind requiring half a can of hairspray each morning. Hair ignited, I raised my hand to slap out the flames… I had a beer bottle in my hand (yes, underage drinking at a party – deal with it!) she ducked thinking I had lost my mind and was about to bludgeon her to death with a bottle… then she smelled the whole “burning hair thing” and was able to slap her self in the head repeatedly and put out the flames. Strangely, we didn’t really notice a change in her hair style. Later in the evening, she almost ate a mothball thinking it was gum, the drunken host fell down the stairs, and we had to run away from the police… Sorry, what was this thread about again? I was happily reminiscing… ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/28 "2004-12-05T05:14:45Z")
This has been all over the UK TV news. It’s being presented everywhere as a case of bullying, and the school isn’t denying it. The girl’s face is slightly odd-looking due to her cancer, and I’m fairly sure this was a case of singling her out for victimisation due to her ‘otherness’. I can believe it. My school in England housed an autistic unit, with the (IMO) misguided intention of integrating autistic kids with ‘normal’ kids, and the cruelty expressed towards them was horrendous. If this is true, I hope the boy is severely punished, in a manner that makes him realise the gravity of what he did. Setting someone’s hair on fire is shitty, but for someone who has been undergoing chemo it’s pretty much the most vicious thing you can do. His punishment will not be worth it if he feels victimised, because he will blame the system and lose empathy with _his_ victim. He really needs to learn just how much of a fucking wanker he was. Perhaps a few months’ community service on a juvenile cancer ward. That should do it. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/29 "2004-12-05T14:58:50Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Perhaps a few months’ community service on a juvenile cancer ward. That should do it. :mad: So… put someone who abuses cancer victims in a juvenile cancer ward? Am I the only one who sees the fundamental disconnect here? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/30 "2004-12-05T16:44:16Z")
Am I the only one who thinks that, even with her facial scars, she’s still a pretty girl? Such lovely blue eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Avenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Avenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avenger)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/31 "2004-12-05T17:00:51Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > So how did a 14-year-old have a cigarette lighter in school? How else is he supposed to light his fags?? You’ve never been to Swansea, have you? ---
**Author:** ![Boggette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@Boggette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boggette)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/32 "2004-12-05T17:13:11Z")
This kind of stuff happens all the time. When I was a teen, I was the last one to get on the bus each morning. Nobody ever moved over enough to give you more than an inch or two on the seat. So, with my ass hanging off the seat, it was a perfect target for the little f-er behind me to burn a hole in my pants and my ass with his lighter. All the while I got to listen to them saying things like “Doesn’t she feel that?” And I knew that if I said or did anything about it then and there, it would just get worse. And these kids “ruled” our neighborhood so you didn’t want them “upset” with you. Problem was, reporting it did nothing. The school knew these kids were jerks, but didn’t know what to do. I went to the principals office and was told to change into my gym clothes. Yeah! That’s a great idea. Walk around in gym clothes all day while the whispers circulate. Instead, I tied my sweatshirt around my waist and continued about my business. _sigh_ Those were the days alright! Last I knew, though, they ended up in jail for theft. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/33 "2004-12-05T17:16:01Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > So… put someone who abuses cancer victims in a juvenile cancer ward? > > Am I the only one who sees the fundamental disconnect here? You might not be the only one, but don’t you see the reasoning? It’s not like he’s going to be a serial cancer patient abuser. He’s likely a nasty little bully who picks on those less fortunate than himself. Supervised work looking after victims, and watching them die, would kick his arse into empathy mode. Rehabilitate as well as punish. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/34 "2004-12-05T18:35:29Z")
Only if he were given “gory” details of just how the patient was ill/dying, what the various diagnoses meant practically in layman’s terms, what the side effects of the medicines were, and was basically given the same knowledge of the patient as a family member would have. Maybe make him take care of one or two very sick children, strictly supervised, (never allowed to be alone with them) and let him see what it really means. Then let him make the connection. Depending on what kind of soul he’s got beneath his “fourteen-ness” it might work. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2004, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922/35 "2004-12-06T03:45:38Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > You might not be the only one, but don’t you see the reasoning? It’s not like he’s going to be a serial cancer patient abuser. He’s likely a nasty little bully who picks on those less fortunate than himself. Supervised work looking after victims, and watching them die, would kick his arse into empathy mode. Rehabilitate as well as punish. I don’t think he cares, quite honestly. I think he’d see it as an unconscionable waste of his free time and would see himself as the victim in the whole situation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-hair-cancer-girl-need-a-light/277922.md?page=1)