Billy needs to be a bit more pro-active. He should hunt the thugs down and beat the sh** out of them with a baseball bat.
But Billy needs to be “socialized” to the laws of the jungle. He needs to be taught to do the things that the courts will punish him for in a few years.
This bullying goes on at so many schools. One of mine was the object of bullying for years. Can’t even count the number of times he was suspended after being attacked, again at one of our supposedly ‘better’ public school systems.
Like Mrs. Wolfe, I made the mistake of notifying another parent of her child’s inappropriate behavior, and my kid paid the price.
MOST teachers and administrators were less than worthless, even when the bullying and threats went on in their presence. A few were superb and went out of their way to catch and punish the culprits.
Eventually, my son grew big and strong, and started to protect other kids who were being bullied. He got suspended for that, too. We gave up and home schooled.
This was one of the saddest stories I have ever read on Free Republic. I hate bullies and always have.
The International Alliance of Guardian Angels has useful resources to help combat bullying — both in the schoolyard and online.
Here is a link to some of our resources: http://www.guardianangels.org/program_edu.php
If your child, or somebody you know, is being bullied you can and should make it stop. Try contacting your local Guardian Angels Chapter to see what they can do the help out. We are active in nine countries and about 100 cities worldwide. A list of our active Chapters can be found here: http://www.guardianangels.org/safety_full.php
If there isn’t a Chapter local to you, consider starting one. Drop me a FReepmail and I can point you in the right direction.
In New Zealand, our Chapters teach anti-bullying and basic self-defense to school children from the age of 5 up until age 13. It is one of the more satisfying and rewarding of our programs.
As to what this kid should do: it isn’t this kid’s fault and there is little that he can do, alone. The school has let him down, as have most of the adults in this story. The school principal ought to be ashamed.
bump
My husband is a school counselor. When our boys were little, they were small-built and the target of the local bullies, especially since we were considered “foreigners” to the local Arkansans. Both my husband and myself were from northern states. My husband always told the boys that he was against fighting, and if possible they should seek ways to settle things without having to fight. However, these boys, who harrassed our boys all the way home, kept it up and started to lay hands on our boys to see what they’d do. After repeatedly asking their father what to do he told them, “You know how I feel about fighting (we are Christians), but that said, if you really feel that you are being physically threatened, then I’ll give you permission to fight one time. Just make sure you get the message across so that it isn’t repeated.” Sure enough, within a few weeks, the boys were physically assaulted and the older one took the biggest bully on and let him have it. One thing they didn’t anticipate was Jeremy’s strength. He was our athlete, but even we didn’t know that yet. He was just in 1st grade and these were 3rd grade boys. He hit them so hard that they never EVER followed our boys home again, taking a whole different route altogether! They didn’t live on our street to begin with, so it was just to taunt them that they did so, probably just to see if the counselor’s son would do what his father said to do. (There had been no counselor before we moved to this school to take the position.) Both boys were respected after that incident. The youngest was in kindergarten. Can you believe that 3rd graders would do this to a 1st grader and kindergartner? Fortunately, it ended with one fight.
My kids are in private school and they have a zero tolerance to this activity. I thought long and hard about this issue since I went to public schools and had to deal with bullies.
I don’t think bullying has any place whatsoever in school. Also, I don’t think I learned a damn thing by having to fight in school: I am glad my kids will be spared from it.
IMO, we need a zero tolerance policy to bullying and fighting in schools. School should be for learning academics and not for learning how to survive.
Let’s see, this kid gets beat up at a government school. When his family moves, he gets beat up at another government school. When he graduates from one government school, he gets beat up at another government school.
His family, who are “trying” to do something about the problem, don’t seem to see any pattern going on.
His reward? He was suspended for twn days under the school's zero tolerance policy. He was also threatened with criminal charges. He's 14 and has never been in any sort of trouble at school. He did everything "right" but no one helped him. He helped himself. I'll bet that bully will think twice though about messing with him again. Joseph walks a little taller now. He holds his head up a little higher too. He goes back to school soon and he says the suspension was worth it, but he has absolutely no faith in the teachers or administrators at the school.
For good or ill, every kid needs to learn that basic lesson of life: If someone hits you, you hit them twice.
fighting doesnt solve everything, but sometimes its the only choice you have.
This sort of thing is what causes bullied kids to snap and bring AK-47s to school for revenge.
It's no accident they feel screwed their whole lives, get depressed and start popping meds. Then people wonder why they snap and shoot everyone at the school.
Years ago, my daughter was the target of bullies. She was a third grader and three sixth grade decided that she was a punching bag. This went on for weeks and weeks, and we went to the school and complained. The school administration would do nothing. We called the parents of the 3 bullies and they insisted their darlings would never beat up a girl. So, we enrolled her in Lee’s Self-Defense School, where her first lessons were self defense for young women. Seven weeks later, while walking home from school, the three boys decided it was time to beat her up again. Result: one bully had his index finger snapped (broke), one lost his four front teeth, and the third had his nose broke. The school officials called, had us come in and then had the audacity to lecture us on how irresponsible it was for us to have her learn karate.
She was never beat up again, however.
I am so fed up with this stuff! At this point, our society will be no better than that of Africa.
Homeschooling!!! Heathen kids are animals.
Ping.
Yes, this is a sickening story but ironically, I think a point went over the collective heads of the NYTimes. They bemoan the fact of bullying but lets take this local story and enlarge it on a global scale. Who are the bullies in the world? Of course, to the media elites, the bully is the United States. But we know who the bullies are. And these parents who keep going to the school admin officials and not getting any help is the same as us continually going to the UN and not getting any satisfaction.