Posted on 09/21/2010 10:19:26 AM PDT by Gennie
LAKE MARY, Fla. – A Florida father wept as he apologized at a news conference for storming onto a school bus and threatening children onboard because his 13-year-old disabled daughter had been bullied. James Willie Jones' voice cracked during the appearance Tuesday. He said he himself was acting as a bully and no parent should copy his behavior. He says his daughter suffers from cerebral palsy and he "could not stand by and helplessly watch her suffer." Standing by his wife, who also wept, Jones apologized for how he handled the situation. Jones was charged last week with disorderly conduct and disturbing a school function for the Sept. 3 incident. He posted $2,000 bail and was ordered to stay away from the driver and county school buses.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I’d be damned if I’d apologize.
Did you hear those kids laughing? Basically they were just mocking the father for yelling at them!
For good or bad, I might very well have done the same. A lot of kids these days — probably most of them — need to be scared into next week in order to get through to them that life isn’t just about THEM.
It would be interesting if he is just apologizing because he calmed down, and realized that setting a precedent of entering a school bus without permission could turn out bad.
This whole incident is one tricky moral and legal tightrope.
“Bullies don’t do what they do in defense of the helpless and innocent.”
BINGO.
>> I took on lot of heat on this thread
As you should have. It’s obvious the father had no intention of hurting anyone.
The police and school system made too much of this. It is not a far stretch to think that after this man pays his $2000 fine, the school board will be paying $200,000 for violations of his daughter’s civil rights. It appears she is a member of several protected classes including female, African American and disabled. He appears humble, though, and contrite, and perhaps doesn’t believe in suing for every slight. Nevertheless, police and prosecutors should tread very lightly. Very few people will side against this man, and anyway his violations of law have nothing to do with the rights of his daughter (title 9, ada, etc).
Waiting for the whole story. Wonder if he had discussed the problem with the school’s principal, with the bus driver? Often, these days, you can do all the right things and get no results!
I’m afraid if I were in his shoes, I might have done something similar if official channels hadn’t worked. Then, there is always, drive your daughter to school and pick her up while bullies are being dealt with properly, or keep her home.
There are new rules in place to protect people, especially children from being bullied. Might as well use all the P.C. stuff when you can!
Yes, yes,,, he should have contacted the authorities. The same ones who expressly forbid drivers from stopping such bullying. Silly, he did exactly right. Since when can’t a father threaten a boy who is hitting his handicapped daughter.
He might have saved the little ba$tards life by teaching him to think twice. Not everyone is as nice as her dad.
Kids need a little healthy fear of adults. And telling them what will happen if he hits your daughter,,, thats just the “circle of life”, like in Lion King.
Tough one....my daughter has CP and MR, and bullies are a way of life for her. If I threatened every kid or stranger who bullied my daughter, or made fun of her, etc, I’d get no work done. I wish I had defended her more.
Another comment.....the article says that the dad explained his daughter suffers from CP. My daughter hates that term....she tells people she doesn’t suffer from it, she lives with it.
Incidentally, the worst case of bullying I ever had to deal with came from two adults. Kids can be cruel, but adults can be vicious.
Yes, he took it too far, threatening to kill them.
However, the principle of standing up for your daughter is right.
No one else would, apparently.
Imagine if he had been white...
I saw the video of the bus “storming”, He has nothing to apologize for. The school and bus driver should apologize to him..................
Actually I disagree. Maybe they weren’t as foul-mouthed, but kids (and I mean KIDS - not teens) in my day were mean and cruel. Take it from one who was “bullied”. (Frankly, high school was much better for me than younger.)
it being Seminole Co schools explains an awful lot about why no preventive measures were taken despite numerous pleas for them to stop the bullies before he took matters into his own hands...
dad went overboard, but know what, he does not need to apologize. I know our school’s “zero tolerance” is total and PURE BS. When my daughter was in 6th grade she was getting teased by a bully. We called the school, no response from them. We sent emails and requested a meeting. Nothing happened. My daughter was being bullied by this girl daily... finally we called the cops and all of the sudden they were calling us, apologizing and asking when we could meet. “Too late... we filed a report and are pressing charges...”
The look on their face must have been priceless because the silence over the phone sure was.
That is YOUR child, not the government’s and you have to do what you have to do to protect them.
[He said he himself was acting as a bully and no parent should copy his behavior]
No he wasn’t. Defending your handicapped daughter from heartless tormenters is not bullying!
I always told my sons....
Never start a fight
Defend yourself and finish the fight
Always come to the aid of the weaker....
This Dad was coming to the aid of the weaker, his daughter. IMO he is being a good man and a good father.
>>Adults shouldn’t be able to get away threatening to kill children, period, end of story.<<
Bull. It was a threat, nothing else.
The daughter was genuinely harassed. The father tried everything he could do through the system, they nothing.
If my kid was on that bus, I would have been there the next day to shake the father’s hand. Cause everyone on that bus knows who was doing it.
If my kid had been harassing her, he/she would have had a new crack in the a$$. THEN, would have apologized to the father and been the girl’s servant for a week.
He opened up a bit of “Fear of the Father” that I grew up with and perhaps the little perps never get to experience.
More likely he made it worse. Now he's the laughingstock crying on camera because he put his own ass in a sling. You honestly don't believe that the kids haven't picked up on the fact that this guy accomplished nothing other than being arrested? She's likely greeted by chants of "Daddy's out on bail" now.
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