My friend should be landing at Heathrow Airport in about an hour from now so I am going to post now before he arrives and I do not have the time to post. I will try to post while he is here but I make no promises.
I read this morning in the Seattle Times an opinion article, which is critical of the victims of bullying in public schools. The author goes into his own accounts of being bullied in school. Well, I would counter this with the assertion that in his day the mentality of society was different in that preferential treatment was not always given to the bully. Once the bully was turned in, punishment was sure to follow even from his own parents if not society. That protected the victim in ways that are non-existent today. If you are bullied, you will get "support" and the bully will get a "talking to" but no other punishment is meted out. This supports the bully in his ways because there is no negative inducement. People will just say that he has "emotional problems". Well, what about his victim? They are told that the bullies "emotional problems" are more important than the victims pain and that no real punishment is going to be meted out. Quite literally no justice will be done.
I would recommend to schools that to stop bullying, you need stern punishments not "policies". It would be a "one occurrence and you get harsh punishment" rule. If it happens a second time, the bully would be labeled "anti-social" and sent to an alternative high school where they would clamp down on his behavior. This way it would take away kids who bully and they sycophantic followers (because, once the lead bully is gone, the others are just followers and will melt back into the background). This would stop the revenge filled massacres which have happened in the past.
Anyway, I have to get this flat presentable before Tom arrives.
posted by Chris #10:36 AM | 0 comments |
