Posted on 04/09/2010 5:52:25 PM PDT by Ptarmigan
My heart aches for the parents of Phoebe Prince, the 15-year-old Massachusetts high school student who committed suicide in January after being relentlessly bullied at school and online.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
My son is not very big, and was late going through puberty....he fought for himself twice in the 7th grade, 1st time he was taking a drink at the water fountain and the kid behind him pushed his face in it, he warned the kid and then proceeded to drink some more, it happened again and it was on! 2nd time in the same school year, a kid with some anger problems was constantly harassing my other son and his friends, my son stuck up for them, warned him to stop and the kid ran up and pushed him from behind...again it was on! On both occasions he did not start it but he finished both....he had many friends in HS and basically got along with everyone but nobody ever tried to tease him.
Thank you! That is what I have ALWAYS taught my sons!
exactly.
My kids were taught the same,stick up for each other and their friends and fight back-hard.
My kids are sometimes horrible to each other, but Lord help anyone else that is mean to any one of them!
My solution is to close public schools, and any other school where the admins don’t protect their charges.
Self-defense training is all well and good. I wouldn’t send a kid to public school without some type of training. However, training isn’t going to work for everyone. For example, my wife is 4’ 9” and 90 lbs. She would not be able to beat up a 6’ 250 lb bully. Just not going to happen. Unless you’re Jackie Chan, you are not going to defend yourself against 4, 5, 6 people. Unless you’re packing. I like concealed carry laws.
I once watched an Aikido expert demonstrate his techniques against 4 assailants with sticks. After he defeated them effortlessly, someone asked him what to do against someone with a knife. The technique he demonstrated was “turn and run”.
But I fear things are far different today than when we able to settle things with other kids. Not long ago, a nine year old (yes, you read that right, NINE) in my area committed suicide due to bullying.
I have given the phenomena of “bullycide” considerable thought and can only come to these conclusions.
Kids are mean. They have become desensitized by the internet and television. They can post incredibly cruel things on various social networks to people and never see the hurt inflicted.(This particular group continued posting cruel, victorious posts after the young lady had killed herself.) They aren't afraid of inflicting physical pain..especially when they are in their “bully group”...being cheered on to get meaner and meaner.
On the other side...we have a generation (maybe 2) of children who, through no fault of their own, are not allowed the freedom we were. The freedom of handling situations without adult supervision. Parents can't let kids have the freedom we had, there are too darn many perverts. So these kids are under constant adult supervision when out of school, and order is maintained by those adults. The unfettered interaction with peers has disappeared. To a lesser degree, kids these days cannot be criticized..it might hurt their self esteem. Can you imagine competing in a sport when we were kids and getting a trophy...just because we participated?
I don't know the answer to these problems.That saddens me. I don't think passing a law is going to do a darn bit of good, aside from first amendment issues.
“That is incredibly naive. Bullies usually travel in a cliche, and attack loners.”
Have you ever been bullied? I have, and I learned that bullies are cowards looking for easy pickings. Bloody the nose of one and the word spreads fast.
Not unless you carry a force multiplier like knowing a martial art or physical implements.
I'm glad giving a bloody nose worked for you. It didn't for me.
You go girl! With bullies in order to get respect from them you have to teach them respect.
A kid was harassing my 10 year old daughter on the school yard. I authorized her without her mother knowing to take care of the problem. Showed her how to smash someone flat in the nose. Also told her she could be nasty and aggressive in kind. Told her she would not be in trouble at home. She solved the problem one way or another. I never got called in. I think knowing I'd back her up was a big help to her.
For serious physical harassment, there's always a short length of 2X4, a head cover, darkness and concealment.
There is as much or more sense in that post than in all the preceding ones on the thread. Kudos.
How about we just do away with government schools? The society of public schools is like that in prisons. Kids are forced to endure treatment at school that no adult would ever tolerate at work. If someone threatened you at work or assaulted you, you would call the police. Kids are expected to just take it.
I don’t get it. No matter what it would take, I would not allow my child to be subject to that kind of terror day in and day out.
I went through a very similar thing in high school and it actually lasted for my entire senior year. I was stalked at school, home, work, threatened to be beaten up, almost ran over with a car, had my tires slashed and even had a knife pulled on me. We didn't have online sites back then...it was the bathroom wall.
We called the telephone company about the phone calls, we spoke with the school authorities about the harassment and even spoke with the sheriff's dept. There are limits to what anyone can do in these situations. It sucks but until a law is broken and you can prove who did it, people will get away with crappy stuff. I remember being really scared at times but mostly angry at the situation--not suicidal. My parents were pretty involved and protective throughout. In my case, it was a spurned loser ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend (and her friends) causing the problems. They knew what they could get away with without getting into trouble. I had to learn some coping techniques and self-defense/evasive skills. Bullies are a-holes, but there's no law about being an a-hole.
Bless you for what you had to endure. What happened to this girl was horrible and more horrible was that she chose to take her own life. I still cannot believe there is not something more to this story.
Are you going to go into the workplace... and do the same? Bullying is an abhorrent aspect of human behavior. Do you really think criminalizing bullying thought, speech etc... is going to eliminate it? All you will do is give the govt more control and policing power over our lives. I’m sorry, I’m not willing to do that.
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