<p>jonri–didn’t see the super. “I don’t recall” is same thing my s’s asst principal said last week after being challenged for making an inflammatory comment to my son referencing killing. I let her know that I know what it means when we don’t recall and told her I did not believe her. I felt it was important I advocate for my kid who was actually harassed by her. in a workplace she would have lost her job. </p>
<p>agree the hotline may help.</p>
<p>I do think all kids need to be empowered to deal with bullies. It’s not enough to try to catch the bullies, train them,etc. Kids need to know what to do. They need to know how to shut a bully down, when possible, and they need to know that they have to report it if they can’t handle the situation themselves. I think dealing with bullies is only dealing with half the problem. Kids need help to avoid being victimized.</p>
<p>mimk6-- agree that kids need to be empowered to deal with harrassment, assualt and stalking issues. However, just as adults sometimes must resort to the court systems and the police in these cases, so the kids need to learn to take these things to the police.</p>
<p>Even the fact that we have a different name for it, “bullying” when it happens with kids, “harrassment, assault, emotional abuse, stalking” when it happens with adults is wrong. I think we need to call it what it is.</p>
<p>The fact is that while some of it is mere sniping, a lot of it is criminal behavior in the adult world, and just like the old schoolyard fistfights which are now called assault, these behaviors need to be called what they are. And criminal behavior is not the victims responsibility. It’s simply a crime.</p>
<p>I think that there should be consequences for the kids. However, more and more kids are being legally pursued as adults, while the adults in charge of them are abdicating their responsibilities. Something is really messed up about this. It defies logic. </p>
<p>In the military and in business, leaders are commonly called out and suffer serious consequences (as they should be). Why are school administrators and teachers immune, particularly when the rank and file are still…children?! </p>
<p>We should get t-shirts for our teenagers which read “The Buck Stops Here”. These days, it apparently does.</p>
<p>
It’s the general school culture for staff to dodge accountability of all kinds.</p>
<p>not just school culture, look around, seems that’s the general accepted reaction these days…distortions, blaming others, manipulation of reality…then only when forced by facts often presented by the media, an admission.</p>
<p>This is why I’m glad I went to a private school where there wasn’t so much bureaucratic ******** preventing proper justice being done to students not fit for the school.</p>
<p>There has to be a major rewrite of how public schools are run.</p>
<p>Also, the school should definitely be held accountable. As should the bullies. All it takes is the wrong person being bullied and suddenly you have a Columbine. So yes, schools should definitely do more and be held accountable for not only the well-being of an individual student but the whole school.</p>