To the editor:
I was always a very competitive person in my high school years. I was always trying to talk over the teacher, tell people jokes and occasionally tease people over topics.
Some people didn’t like my sense of humor, but I knew that was life, and I honestly didn’t care much because I was always preoccupied with my computer and playing Xbox.
I started getting into computers at the age of 8 and was absolutely fascinated with the fact you could program it to do whatever you wanted, including controlling your computer from somewhere else.
I guess this made some of the kids in my grade uneasy because my freshmen year a group of people Photoshopped a really disgusting picture of me. I knew it wasn’t real, but I was under the impression everyone at my school thought it was.
The day I saw it, I freaked out. I dropped out of school. I couldn’t face people. All I could do was sleep and hope it would go away.
I knew exactly who did it and why, but I couldn’t bring myself to the realization someone would do something so nasty to another human. After a while I didn’t really care anymore because I thought I didn’t need school or people anyways.
The two close friends I had instantly were asking me about it, and I denied it instantly. It was hard. They later quit talking to me period because they thought it was true and that I was some kind of sick person.
My mom tried to get me to go to school, but I just couldn’t face anyone. After a while I totally lost control, and my mom and sister committed me to a mental hospital until I stabilized on medication.
I was in transition from leaving a residential care facility to coming back home when I met my wife. Five years and 3 amazing kids later, I finally thought I didn’t need my medication any longer. I had a good job and a good house. I had got my GED, and everything was going good.
It didn’t take long for my past to catch up with me, though. I knew people were trying to tell my wife about these pictures they thought were real and trying to portray me as someone I am not.
After a ton of fights with my wife, we broke up, and I was forced to live with my mom.
I felt like everything that was good in my life was gone because of what happened when I was in school, and I knew it was all because of this man and his friends.
I lost it. I totally lost it, and I’m sorry, but at the time I felt like I didn’t deserve their doing that to me. To add to matters, the last time I saw that man, he told me about it, trying to pick at me and humiliate me. I totally snapped.
After all of this, I want my kids to know it’s not okay to bully others and that I confronted my problems in the wrong way. People always told me I shouldn’t worry about what other people think, but in this scenario I forgot that, and I’m sorry.
I am trying to raise money for a lawyer to defend my case. If you would like to help, please donate to my PayPal page and make a donation for my legal defense.
Colton Siglin
Perry
As Colton’s wife, I stand by him, and I support his speaking out about what happened. He is not a monster as some may think. I want people to know that just because you do something bad, that does not make you a bad person.
Colton is an awesome friend. I use to hang out with him a lot, and I never heard anything about this in school or saw any pictures of Colton. But yes, kids in our age group were bullies and rude people. Still to this day a lot of rude people think they’re better than the people they bullied. Now you can see what they caused to people who aren’t in the right state of mind and have to take medicine. Bullies like them should face 10 years in prison and 15 years probation for causing mental illness and causing harm to another person with the intent of physically or emotionally damaging the person and making them go AWOL with some type of willful battery, assault or murder. I believe people proved guilty of the crime of bullying should have serious charges and jail time and probation. Once again, Colton is a good person. I know he is, and so is this wonderful woman named Shirley Colton. I and a few other family and friends of Colton used to hang out at “Grandma” Shirley’s house in the summer and have bonfires and s’mores and everything people do at bonfires on beautiful summer nights. We all had a good time. I would like to honor Colton for being a good friend and neighbor and a Good Samaritan to the town of Perry.