Posted on 03/15/2011 9:44:34 AM PDT by MissTed
Parents across the metro area, in different school districts, have similar stories to tell when it comes to the way their children were treated after reporting they were bullied.
“The other kid jumped in and had the boxcutter up and threatened to stab her over and over again,” Tina Williams said. “And he said, ‘I wouldn't stab a girl, but I'd stab a b**** and I'm looking at one right now,’ when he looked at my daughter.”
“At lunch I am kind of afraid that they are going to threaten me again,” said Williams' daughter, Kayla.
“She's heard jackass, b****, moron, loser and they put the "L" sign on their forehead and call her a loser, pulling her hair, spitting in her hair,” said Naomi Armenta describing how her 7-year-old was bullied.
The Williams and the Armentas are two families with children at two schools on opposite sides of the metro area, but their stories are equally concerning.
They are young girls, one 12 and one just 7 years old, repeatedly bullied.
Parents Say School Tells Daughters To Change Behavior
Their parents are all frustrated it is their daughters who have been told to change their behavior.
"She was told that she needed to keep her distance so basically the school told her that she needed to wait on one side of the hall and let them go through and stay away from them," said Williams.
“My daughter went to the bathroom and one of the bullies was in there and took a pencil, the metal end, and scraped her chin, cut her chin. The administrators were questioning whether or not my daughter had permission, first of all, to even be in the bathroom. Then, second of all, they questioned my daughter as to why she stayed there if a known bully was in the bathroom already,” said Armenta.
Blame the victim, avoid the bully.
It is something author and bullying prevention expert Dr. Ben Leichtling has heard from parents and seen first hand over and over again, in schools across the nation.
“What we need are laws that not only define bullying, that not only require schools to have policies and programs about bullying, but have consequences for principals and administrators who do not take action. That's what’s going to change the problem. We want teeth in a program that will enable us to easily protect the majority by removing the few that need to be removed,” Leichtling said.
Legislators Introduce Bullying Bill
Colorado legislators took a step in that direction last week, introducing a new bill that will broaden the definition of bullying to include written and verbal assaults, require schools to report bulling in greater detail and recommend schools survey their students every two years.
“School should be a safe place where kids can go and excel and learn to do reading, writing and math and not have to worry about fear of intimidation,” said District 30 House Representative Kevin Priola.
“Most importantly, there is research showing that when there is a high level of safety, the CSAP scores go up. Conversely, low safety, CSAP scores go down. This bill is going to raise the awareness of our school boards and our administrators that this has become a serious problem and our bill asks or encourages every school dist to do a climate survey. What's the cost? Who has time to do that? But, it’s critical. If you're going to have a safe environment, you probably want to know if your climate is safe according to your students,” said Wheatridge Rep. Sue Schafer.
The bill is being considered by the Senate.
These families believe their districts already have clear policies to protect their kids.
“Do you feel like the policies are being followed?” asked Call7 Investigator Theresa Marchetta.
“They're not,” Williams said, “They’re not even following their own handbook, let alone the bullying policies.”
“I think we are putting ourselves out on a limb for all the kids out there that are facing this same issue,” said Armenta.
Create vouchers and let parents decide where their kids attend. Schools will have an incentive to get rid of trouble makers since they will chase away prospective customers. As it is now, school administrators are taught to make no decisions that might force them to make a court appearance.
I doubt that the bullying happens when teachers or adults are around. What should the schools do?
If you were a school administrator, would you want to go to court everytime a kid gets bullied?
What the article does NOT mention, is the question “Did the 7 yr old provoke the 12 yr old?”.
I’ve seen young kids(4-8 yrs old), walk up to much older (10-12 yr olds) and kick them in the shins, and hit them - then when they get their ‘reward’ - the little kid runs to the adult and claims to be picked on. They then laugh, that not only did the “bully” get abused by them, he got in trouble from the teacher too.
Wish I could say this is an isolated case - but when you have schools with zero tolerance (and zero brains) - this is the type of behavior you create and reward.
That said - a Bully typically doesn’t change his striped. He learns to hide and wait until he thinks no one is watching. But, a ‘Bully’ is a mentality of superiority, that one can abuse others for entertainment and self-gratification without remorse or retribution - this is not isolated to the older kids. Younger kids are learning to manipulate the system.
Sadly, this is completely believable.
By chance, does Wayne Brady have a child at this school....?
20 years ago, when my son started high school, he was bullied unmercifully from almost day one. His locker was taped shut, his book bag stolen and thrown somewhere near the gym, he was ambushed by the bullies after school and tried to beat him up, but he did a number on them instead. We went to the school principal and were asked if our son was doing something to egg this on! We were dumbfounded. The principal said they would “talk” to the boys, but it did no good. They did suspend them for a few days, but the tormenting resumed when they returned.
Finally, my husband and I had enough, so my husband called the police and the students were pulled out of class and brought to the principal’s office while they awaited their parents arrival. They were arrested and we pulled our son out of this school and put him in another smaller school, where he was quite happy and made friends without the bullying that he experienced at the other school.
Instead of dodging and avoiding the problems, I would find it easier in the long run to solve the problem, even if it meant absorbing a little personal pain initially. Even if it meant I had to suspend some students and lose some state assistance that is sometimes paid based on student attendance.
Next time I saw them, one of them asked me to dance at a school function.
I have two kids in public school and this type of behavior has never happened. It sounds like very extreme cases to me. That being said, people wondered why I enrolled my daughter in Krav. Believe me, I got a lot of slack from some family members who thought “ballet” was a better girl activity. I know that she can protect herself better with what she has learned than without.
Survival of the fittest! /s
They have a right to do it.
Reparations and all.
Box cutter, where are the teachers? Box cutters are not bulling they are gang activity. Home school.
The commies will never allow vouchers. Homeschooling or private schooling is the only solution. Then, all that will be left in the PS system will be bullies.
This is no surprise to me. My son went through h*ll here before he finally managed to finish high school. He was an outsider from the start, and so was I - couldn’t get a phone call returned for anything, including volunteering. We were made the problem instead of getting any kind of help with little exception. I trusted the school to help for too long,because past experiences had been great. He ended up with an injury that required cosmetic surgery, but before we could sue the school (”nothing” was on video that the school had just installed in the halls), he took things into his own hands and was expelled and charged - in effect solving everything for the school and putting our family in a difficult place. He had never even had a parking ticket before this happened. It all worked for the good, or is now -
He is over it - and in college and doing well and has a good job - is building a good life. He is bigger and had a little more “mass” than then, and is most certainly a champion of the underdogs in life, because he has been one. I need to get as far away as possible so I don’t think about it any more - or start some kind of action group to get it out of my system.
We are on the Front Range not so far from Denver, but I don’t think it makes any difference - it’s all over the country. Administrators in the vast majority do not care about it at all unless there is threat of a lawsuit or embarrassment.
There are some really mean people in this world. And some of them start really young.
And so my question is, why are the non-blacks in the public school system?
That's not quite the point of the story. The schoold did do something: They forced the survivors of the bullying to conform to a new behavior, IOW they punished the victim.
My son has only had one brief issue but he took care of it himself.
I enrolled my son in martial arts when he was 5. He’s now a black belt.
I told him I would back him up 110% if he ever had to defend himself in school.
I instructed him to beat the ever loving hell out of anyone bullying him and to not stop even if it resulted in serious harm or worse.
The one time he did have an issue he confronted the kid in the hallway, saying as loud as he could for the kid to come on and start something with him. The kid backed down and that was that.
This year he’ll start high school. Should be interesting.
Their parents think that just because they pay the taxes that make it possible, they have a right to use the public education system.
Silly, I know, but there you have it.
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