[SaveTheChief]

So when you stick up for yourself you are being a pansy, but when you roll over and take it you are being...brave?

Did I say that? How did you reach this conclusion?

Did you even read the quotation I referenced?

The teachers were wrong and their "awards" were inappropriate. But rather than focus on the matter at hand, the PARENTS are MAKING their child into a VICTIM. They could be guiding him through this and deflecting the sting but they would rather contact the local media to make a big deal out of this, and a brief moment of embarrassment is turning into a major event in the child's life.

We do nothing for our children if we cannot teach them which battles are worth fighting, and which are inconsequential to our daily lives.

[pillut48]

Indeed. I can’t understand why some of the people here WANT the boy to be a ‘victim’ and get all he can from that, fiscally or emotionally...

[Durus]

"We have become a society of pansies, raising a generation of super pansies."

You wrote that didn't you? Intimating that this young man is being a pansie for sticking up for himself. The inverse is that if he hadn't stuck up for himself he would have been "not a pansie" ie: brave. Fighting back against being publicly mocked by "authority figures" is a battle worth fighting. I'm not sure where you got the parents contacting the press but if true that is contemptible. Another important lesson to learn is that eventually you have to fight your own battles. Perhaps 6th grade isn't the place to learn that.