[Spartan79]

I watched the video a couple of times, and couldn't help thinking of the big guy as Lennie, from Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men: big, dumb and strong, but gentle, because if he isn't gentle, he hurts things. The little punk earned a smack-down, but could have been seriously injured by Lennie. Thus I agree with the school's decision to give the victim a four-day suspension (the little prick got twenty days).

This whole thing was obviously a set-up, designed to humiliate Lennie, with a videographer at hand to record his humiliation. I suspect that the little prick had backup, too: the big guy who briefly stomps after Lennie after the kid is slammed to the school yard was no doubt there all along to add to the intimidation. My experience with bullies is that they tend to travel in packs.

Lennie needs to be very careful around this pack; in the real world, they are very capable of laying in wait for him and attacking in force.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I watched the video a couple of times, and couldn't help thinking of the big guy as Lennie, from Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men: big, dumb and strong, but gentle, because if he isn't gentle, he hurts things. The little punk earned a smack-down, but could have been seriously injured by Lennie. Thus I agree with the school's decision to give the victim a four-day suspension (the little prick got twenty days).

Just because someone is weighs a lot doesn't make them strong. Clearly he was stronger than the wiry little bully who showed off by harassing someone older and bigger, but even if he had wanted to bully the smaller kid he couldn't because although he was big enough to chase he obviously could never catch him. So once he decided to engage, he wanted to make the one opportunity count rather than just encouraging the punk some more by being ineffectual.

Tiny Tim should have taken that possibility into account. "Lennie" considered following up, and decided to leave well enough alone.

This whole thing was obviously a set-up, designed to humiliate Lennie, with a videographer at hand to record his humiliation. I suspect that the little prick had backup, too: the big guy who briefly stomps after Lennie after the kid is slammed to the school yard was no doubt there all along to add to the intimidation. My experience with bullies is that they tend to travel in packs.

I saw that quite differently. the videographer, I presume, took the video on a cell phone, only picking up the action after Tiny Tim had started in on it. The big guy who threatens "Lennie" is the "referee" who assesses a penalty on the football lineman who punches back. Had he been a bully himself, and in league with Tiny Tim, he wouldn't have been easily dissuaded from intervention by the girl who obviously had seen the whole incident and sided with "Lennie." The girl isn't afraid of him, which makes it seem unlikely that he is a bully himself.

The videographer posted the video on the web, documenting that "Lennie" was in the right. Had the videographer been in league with Tiny Tim, that video never sees the light of day.

Twenty days suspension for being stupid on the playground - after he already had his comeuppance at the hands of "Lennie?" Wildly excessive.

Any suspension at all for defending himself? Totally inappropriate.