It's not children "these days". I tried to commit suicide at 15 because of school bullying. I was bullied my entire life until I graduated high school, but this particular school's level of bullying drove me to the edge. I'm 39 now, so this has been going on a long time. None of the schools did anything about the bullying, before or after my attempt. Of course, neither did my mother, who once told me that I deserved to be bullied because people were right not to like me.
It's not children "these days". I tried to commit suicide at 15 because of school bullying. I was bullied my entire life until I graduated high school, but this particular school's level of bullying drove me to the edge. I'm 39 now, so this has been going on a long time. None of the schools did anything about the bullying, before or after my attempt. Of course, neither did my mother, who once told me that I deserved to be bullied because people were right not to like me.
It's so sad that so many "grown up" enable this kind of behavior. The school is at fault and the parents are very at fault. They should be ashamed of themselves and their children. What needs to happen, is that we need to begin holding parents accountable for the actions of their minor children. If parents weren't so checked out of their kids lives, this kind of stuff wouldn't happen as often (unfortunately, it will never go away). Problem also is, some of these kids are just emulating their parents behavior. It's a very sad society we've "evolved" to. I do wonder if this is an American thing, or if this problem is as severe in other countries.
It's not children "these days". I tried to commit suicide at 15 because of school bullying. I was bullied my entire life until I graduated high school, but this particular school's level of bullying drove me to the edge. I'm 39 now, so this has been going on a long time. None of the schools did anything about the bullying, before or after my attempt. Of course, neither did my mother, who once told me that I deserved to be bullied because people were right not to like me.
It's not children "these days". I tried to commit suicide at 15 because of school bullying. I was bullied my entire life until I graduated high school, but this particular school's level of bullying drove me to the edge. I'm 39 now, so this has been going on a long time. None of the schools did anything about the bullying, before or after my attempt. Of course, neither did my mother, who once told me that I deserved to be bullied because people were right not to like me.
I am a teacher. Do not accuse ALL of us of neglect to the bullying problem. I was bullied, apparently many of us were. It is not acceptable. We are reqiured to teach a social skills program on top of the content we have to cover. It does not work. I have 27 students under my watch. Kids are very sneaky. I blame the parents for not teaching social skills. Why would we have to teach them in school.......because some parents are not doing it.
I do know that the very well behaved/kind students in my class have parent involvement.
I watch for bullying and am required by the law to report it.
This situation is so terribly unfortunate. Someone wasn't doing their job.
I do feel that teachers have a lot on their plate. It is not our fault. I am tired of being demonized by the public. Walk a day in my shoes.
Janie1234,
I wrote my post after a long day, and no, you were not blaming ALL teachers. IA that the media is saying the school officials knew, and that is not okay. Your point about the cultural difference with the parents is a good one. Thanks for the nice words. How I do my job is important to me, that is why I may have come off a little harsh. The parents and the school should be working together. Bullying must be taken seriously.
But what is going on is not bullying. It's ABUSE. Verbal, physical and sometimes sexual abuse. Until we start calling it what it is, it will continue to be largely ignored. Too many people see "bullying" as some sort of rite of passage when it's really abusive behavior.
I agree with bonvivant. The actions that prompted this thread, and the recent journalism on "bullying", make me feel that to label this conduct as "bullying" minimizes the conduct. It sure looks more like legally actionable harassment, threats (sometimes terroristic threats) and assault to me. If this took place in a working environment or other adult environment, people would be fired or jailed. This is some dark, dark stuff going on.
A-Jock