Schools give very good lip service to ending bullying but that is where it ends. Despite all the training, teachers and administrators still do very little to punish bullies even when confronted with indisputable evidence. The dirty little secret is that often teachers side with the bullies, believing that the “weak” should learn to stick up for themselves. Should the victim however have the courage to speak out often teachers will punish the victim... ask me how I know.
What these two women did was clearly wrong and endangered the safety of many people. It is easy to understand their frustration with a system that refuses to protect their children. Add to that poor education and lack of impulse control among the parents and you have a recipe for disaster.
Much of the time, the bullies are a member of a protected class.
Considering that most teachers I know (it’s quite a few as my husband is one) were the popular, atheletic kids when in school I think you are right about them over looking it or even siding with the bullies.
However, policies that were intended to protect students from teachers have really just encouraged bullying. For example, my husband saw a kid with his arm pulled back, about to punch another kid. He grabbed the kid’s elbow to stop it-kid replied, “You can’t touch me! My mom will sue!” That’s the attitude that kids, parents and administrators have.
Back in the day, teachers used to grab the little jerk kids by the collar and hold up against the lockers to get in their face when they bullied a weaker kid. When in 7th grade my husband tripped a girl and laughed when she fell in front of the class. His teacher pulled him out in the hallway and smacked him on the side of the head, his head hit the locker and he saw stars. The teacher then chewed him out about how you treat people weaker than you and followed with, “Do I need to call your Dad?” Knowing that his dad would follow up with more of the same he answered with, “No sir!” and his budding bullying days were over.
Decent teachers could bully the bullies, so to speak, and keep them in their place. Now, there is no way to stop the really nasty kids, and those kids know it.
I know I will probably hear about how teachers have no right to touch kids, ever. But there are some kids who are jerks and physically hurt other kids over and over-they don’t care about suspension, detention or whatever. Just knowing that there is someone there who is stronger and will not let them get away with it can hold them back.
This is also true in the workplace. It seems to be the dark underbelly of human behavior in groups.