Solving the problem of bullying in our schools and on our school buses etc. is perhaps made more complicated in the way justice is applied. In this morning's paper there is the moving story of a 12 year old girl who is becoming a poster girl in the anti-bullying campaign down in Florida. She has cerebral palsy.
Her symptoms are primarily exhibited in speech and posture. She has been relentlessly bullied on the school bus and in school. Kids have been spitting in her hair, calling her names etc. Same ole, same ole. Her parent's complaints have not stopped it.
She has now come forth and is speaking out and of all things, saying to paraphrase her, she is thanking her bullies for bullying her because it has given her the experience so that she can speak out about it.
And now comes the part that I homed in on.
Her father was arrested back in September for boarding her bus, WHICH HAS VIDEO SECURITY CAMERAS ON IT. He berated the students for their harassment of his daughter. He was arrested for his harassment. He is now out on bail.
My question is, IF THAT BUS HAD VIDEO CAMERAS ON IT, WHY WERE KIDS WHO WERE SPITTING ON THE GIRL WITH CEREBRAL PALSY ALLOWED TO DO THAT without being taken to the woodshed!
The bus driver, and the school administration should have been all over that, especially in light of the parent's complaints about the treatment the girl was having with those kids.
As I said in the beginning, we don't solve the problems of bullying when the victim is further punished by drawing attention to the fact rather than shutting down the person(s) who are doing the bullying. Shutting down doesn't imply harming them, but putting up barriers such as we do in every day life when we correct our youngsters or others in society for not following decent concepts of behavior.
Respectfully,
Kenneth Fenter
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Has bullying in various forms reached a "Perfect Storm?"
Suddenly it seems that bullying has reached the "Perfect Storm" level. Four suicides have occured in the last several weeks by youngsters harassed for being "gay". This comes on the heels of the beginning of the year suicide of a high school girl harassed to suicide for "attracting another girl's boyfriend".
From Ellen to the Tim Gunn from Project Runway celebrities are coming forth to reassure young people that there is a life after years of bearing the taunting and harassment.
The Trevor Project
Glee this week took on the subject of youngsters losing their belief in God over their prayers for relief from either themselves or loved ones being relieved of harassment from physical differences.
People magazine's cover story this week explores the national epidemic.
Bullying is the main focus this week of CNN's Anderson Cooper360.
Bullying in all forms is a national focus in the public schools.
In my book The Ruin the main character talks about losing his faith because he realizes he is praying to the same God that his father and his bully is praying to. How can those who are the caretakers in one breath ignore the pleas of those who are being harassed to death, and then ask them to have faith and believe in a higher power taking care of them?
This blog is one year old next month at this time. I was in the final stretch of finishing the The Ruin for publication. It has been the mission from the beginning of the project to help add a voice to the problem, the destructiveness of bullying in the schoolyard. I survived it after a fashion. I was not driven to suicide. I don't hate the ethnic group that my harasser was a member of. But I am still affected by it in many ways.
As an individual now 70 years old I have the advantage of perspective. I can look back to way points in my life and see what directions it took, what detours there were and examine them. In some ways the experiences may have been good in that they directed me in guiding my own children. In some ways, they may have been harmful as they make me intolerant in many ways.
It regulates my voting habits, my shopping habits and the friends that I keep.
In those years I have seen some interesting things happen. In one case I saw a classmate of my brothers who had a hard time of it because of her weight. She was nicknames "buffalo girl" by members of her class. A few years later my dad worked for an organization in town and he recognized her as the bookkeeper. She had blossomed as one of the more attractive young women in that town. He in the course of the next year overheard some of the young men in the lunch room discussing what a stuck up young woman she was. She had turned down all of them when they had many any overtures toward her. When he mentioned this to my brother, he laughed and told our day, it was no wonder, they were the very ones who had branded her as "buffalo" girl back when they were all in high school. You just never know. I think it was on the TV show "Desperate Housewives" that Susan is arrested by a policewoman that she had bullied in high school.
Respectfully submitted,
Kenneth Fenter
From Ellen to the Tim Gunn from Project Runway celebrities are coming forth to reassure young people that there is a life after years of bearing the taunting and harassment.
The Trevor Project
Glee this week took on the subject of youngsters losing their belief in God over their prayers for relief from either themselves or loved ones being relieved of harassment from physical differences.
People magazine's cover story this week explores the national epidemic.
Bullying is the main focus this week of CNN's Anderson Cooper360.
Bullying in all forms is a national focus in the public schools.
In my book The Ruin the main character talks about losing his faith because he realizes he is praying to the same God that his father and his bully is praying to. How can those who are the caretakers in one breath ignore the pleas of those who are being harassed to death, and then ask them to have faith and believe in a higher power taking care of them?
This blog is one year old next month at this time. I was in the final stretch of finishing the The Ruin for publication. It has been the mission from the beginning of the project to help add a voice to the problem, the destructiveness of bullying in the schoolyard. I survived it after a fashion. I was not driven to suicide. I don't hate the ethnic group that my harasser was a member of. But I am still affected by it in many ways.
As an individual now 70 years old I have the advantage of perspective. I can look back to way points in my life and see what directions it took, what detours there were and examine them. In some ways the experiences may have been good in that they directed me in guiding my own children. In some ways, they may have been harmful as they make me intolerant in many ways.
It regulates my voting habits, my shopping habits and the friends that I keep.
In those years I have seen some interesting things happen. In one case I saw a classmate of my brothers who had a hard time of it because of her weight. She was nicknames "buffalo girl" by members of her class. A few years later my dad worked for an organization in town and he recognized her as the bookkeeper. She had blossomed as one of the more attractive young women in that town. He in the course of the next year overheard some of the young men in the lunch room discussing what a stuck up young woman she was. She had turned down all of them when they had many any overtures toward her. When he mentioned this to my brother, he laughed and told our day, it was no wonder, they were the very ones who had branded her as "buffalo" girl back when they were all in high school. You just never know. I think it was on the TV show "Desperate Housewives" that Susan is arrested by a policewoman that she had bullied in high school.
Respectfully submitted,
Kenneth Fenter
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