Kid gets suspended after standing up to bully

[Nihilianth]

Walking away.

how do you propose walking away from assault, faced with someone who is obviously willing to punch you in the face for no good reason? Face with the possibility of getting jumped by multiple people from behind, rather than face one person face-to-face?

If anything, punishing the victim the same as the bully, only empowers the bully, and makes the victim not trust those in authority to protect him like they should. Therefore, it seems likely that there is a likelier chance for Casey to have to view fighting as his only option in the future, when it is much easier to just "walk away," and find an adult than it was for this particular situation.

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

From personal experience, sometimes giving a little hell back to a bully is all it takes to end future encounters.

This is my take on it.

 

[Darat]

Schools hate that, because when they are asked to actually exercise judgment, they might be wrong, and held accountable.

If they just have to follow a rule that doesn't require judgment, the outcome can still be wrong, but now they can't be held responsible. To me Zero-Tolerance is an excuse by schools to avoid accountability.

Or it can be adopted as a safeguard to help protect the school from lawsuits.

 

[Darat]

We don't just have the video to go on. Articles quoted students at the school that reported both that this harassment has been going on for a long time and this is the first time the boy fought back, and that there is a culture of fear in the school due to all the bullying (not just of this one kid). If true, then I don't see how the principal is handling this well. If they allow a culture of bullying and fear, and then just punish kids for doing what the educators aren't, then in my view they are failing badly. In such an environment, walking away is not (generally speaking, we can always find counterexamples) the best option by far.

I agree it seems that this school is badly failing its pupils (based on the limited reports we have); if kids have been reporting bullying and they see that nothing is done to prevent it or apparently even acknowledge it is a problem it is no wonder such escalation happens. The school and the kids have been lucky that the school's failings have been exposed by the video. Otherwise it might have taken something like a kid attempting suicide or even managing to commit suicide before the school got its act together.

 

[Dancing David]

No, I wouldn't. They need to take a lesson from the Catholic Church and devote more money to legal defense funds than to maintenance. I mean, teaching is just talking at people, they don't really need to sit on chairs to do that. Kids love sitting on the floor. Also, it would cut down on the violence because they can't throw chairs at each other.

Until they pull up floor tiles!

 

[Tailgater]

Ripping the piercing out of his eye would have been a cool followup move to finish him off.

 

[iknownothing]

The school and the kids have been lucky that the school's failings have been exposed by the video. Otherwise it might have taken something like a kid attempting suicide or even managing to commit suicide before the school got its act together.

For that matter, if the smaller kid had been seriously hurt, they would have had some responsibility in that too.

 

[Wildy]

Ripping the piercing out of his eye would have been a cool followup move to finish him off.

Piercing in his eye?

 

[enjoytheview]

Pretty sure tailgater is referring to that filthy eyebrow ring he has.
I like piercings, but not on 12 year olds.

 

[gnome]

Or it can be adopted as a safeguard to help protect the school from lawsuits.

I'm not sure it's always better to make the school lawsuit-immune by removing their discretion.

In some cases, wouldn't it be better to ask that they use good judgment and hold them accountable for it? Not the outcome, but for the judgment call. Reasonable and prudent person standard, and all that.

 

[Darat]

I'm not sure it's always better to make the school lawsuit-immune by removing their discretion.

In some cases, wouldn't it be better to ask that they use good judgment and hold them accountable for it? Not the outcome, but for the judgment call. Reasonable and prudent person standard, and all that.

Oh I don't think it is a good idea but unfortunately it's something that many organisations do, often as a result of being sued over something in the past. Blame the lawyers!

 

[lionking]

I agree it seems that this school is badly failing its pupils (based on the limited reports we have.

This comment ignores the location of the school in question and the disadvantage of the kids who go there. Large indigenous population, large population of children from non-English speaking backgrounds, intergenerational unemployment and poverty. This part of western Sydney is an urban wasteland, and to blame the school for the problems of these kids takes a very narrow view of the situation.

Melbourne has schools like this (my daughter works in one) as does London (where the same daughter got her first teaching job).

 

[Rasmus]

This comment ignores the location of the school in question and the disadvantage of the kids who go there.

No.

It is the responsibility of the school, respectively of the state, to ensure the safety of the children placed in its care.

 

[Darat]

This comment ignores the location of the school in question and the disadvantage of the kids who go there. ...snip....

No my comment does not ignore that, my opinion is based on the information in the reports and that information supports the conclusion that the school has been failing to deal with the issue of bullying. It may be that it is a school that is faced with many issues beyond its control however that does not mean that the school has not failed to deal with the bullying that falls within its responsibilities.

 

[lionking]

Darat, what you said is that the school is badly failing it's students. You have absolutely no basis to make this judgement.

 

[Darat]

Darat, what you said is that the school is badly failing it's students. You have absolutely no basis to make this judgement.

Based on the reports, e.g. that there many prior instances of bullying and that no action was taken I stand by that conclusion.

 

[enjoytheview]

Darat, what you said is that the school is badly failing it's students. You have absolutely no basis to make this judgement.

Casey and his dad claimed that he's filled in somewhere between 60-70 incident reports and that every time he reports being bullied that's all that the school does. He mentioned some students who attack him get suspended for a couple of days then come back and do the same thing, so he's asked to fill out yet another incident report about that same student.

It doesn't matter what percentage of your students are Aboriginal, or poor, or immigrants. Every school has the power to expel students and every teacher has the power to call the police if things are really getting out of hand. If a student is suspended for bullying, then comes back to school and does the same thing, why isn't greater action being taken? This school failed in its duty of care to Casey at the very least, and has probably done the same to many other students as well.

 

[gnome]

What kind of school doesn't have escalating consequences for repeat conduct violations?

Now that's dumb.

 

[Wolrab]

I've avoided this thread and only saw the video just now. The bully got just what was coming to him. The victim restrained himself several times til he pulled an Ender Wiggin on the lil' a'hole. He won't be picked on again if the other kids know what is good for them.
Now to go back and look at the comments and how people will victimize the aggressor.

 

[Wolrab]

Would have been interesting to see what would've happened if that older kid had come a few seconds earlier.

The problem I see is that the victim was much bigger, controlled the situation, and used excessive force against someone who was (seemingly) more of a bother than a threat.

Can this be stundied?

This was a child. He was attacked. He defended himself as a child would. He, being a child, didn't do the (wus) adult thing and weigh every conceivable option before defending himself.

The bully didn't seem to have any reservations during his attack, leading me to believe he has done it before.

The bully is also an idiot. Tough titties.

If you were attacked in this way, what would you do?