Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Fayetteville, What To Do With Bullies

I don’t think the Fayetteville School District should worry all that much about the NY Times article and some of the negative publicity they’ve received. All it has done is brought attention to the fact that schools are dealing with bullies and there is a limit to what they can do. Bulling has been happening from the beginning of time. Everyone can tell a story of how they were bullied or knew a kid that was bullied. The majority of schools have always had to deal with these bullies and those that get bullied. They aren’t always successful.
The Zero Tolerance policy many schools adopt, where both victim and bully are punished don’t work well either. The victims are victimized again and the bullies don’t care. Then many people criticize the Federal Family and Educational Right to Privacy Act which effectively hides the fact that there is some one causing problems from students and parents. One wonders what crimes are being hidden under the Privacy Act.
Of course the news articles are slanted to the victimization of Billy, but some things aren’t adding up. I have a few questions regarding the Wolfe family. The paper says that the bullying occurred through a number of schools.
The abuse began at McNair Middle School, continued through Woodland Junior High School and now at Fayetteville High School.
What is it about Billy that what ever school he is at, he’s a victim? Does Billy have socialization issues that he has difficulty getting along with others? Is Billy really just a poor innocent boy who’s done no wrong?
Then there’s the family trying to say the school didn’t do enough. What is the school to do? Particularly when they admit that most of the bulling didn’t occur in school.
"However, it is important to note that incidents of this nature often take place off the school campus or outside the school day where the school district does not have jurisdiction."

Is the school suppose to provide Billy with 24/7 protection? Then I must ask the parents, why are you continuing to destroy Billy’s life by sending him to school where he is tortured and abused. It should be extremely apparent that Billy is having problems dealing with school and interacting with other students. I think it’s way passed time for the parents to think of making some alternative school changes. There are other schooling options that Billy would be less likely to have trouble with others and be able to learn.

NY Times Story
Local Story

UPDATE
Parents and students are starting to make comments about the bulling. The readers comments has had several parents and students make comments. The best comment from a parent who is obviously in the know was removed (crap!). But they paint a totally different picture of the situation. As I strongly suspected. There is totally different take on this and the school district is frustrated because by law they can't respond. The picture emerging is that the supposed victim may be a bully himself. The fights he experiences is students dealing with a bully in their own way (not the best, though). Hopefully more students and parents will come forth with the story the school cannot tell. Of course, an enterprising reporter could go out and get that story.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

because all children deserves too go too any school in this country with out being being beat the hell out of. this is not the America i know that tolerates this bs there is no excuse what so ever for this add this comment is exacerbating the issue some people need too get there head out there ass and do something now.

Anonymous said...

I actually really agree with your comments, especially the ones about the child's parents. I don't think that anyone "deserves" to be beaten, but I know from experience that many people are masters at making victims out of themselves. They push and push until they drive others to extremes. This kid may or may not be the type, but SOMETHING is causing him to be attacked everywhere he goes. I think it is far too coincidental to be possible that this kid isn't doing anything at all to provoke others. Sounds as though he needs some social coaching, and maybe his parents need some counseling as well. I worry about situations in which we ask our schools to handle every area of every student's life. Schools should teach, and they should protect, but parents must teach and protect as well!