itsmecindi
Gold Member
bang bang you\'re dead
Listen folks. I'm up on a soapbox, but I think it's important that I share this. Much like someone would spread the word of God or the news of an epidemic.
I think that bullying is what leads to the columbines in this country.
When you isolate a kid and pick, pick, pick, he is going to seek out other kids like him and there is going to be retaliation. Especially when the innocent bystanders laugh and do nothing, and the school does nothing. I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying it's a very real possibility that there will be some major violence if the source, or the bullies, are not brought to justice.
When I first heard about columbine my immediate reaction was it was a 'getting even' event. I still believe it and always will. There's no excuse for doing something like that, but there are reasons.
Kids get picked on all the time, that's nothing new. But if one kid or two kids or four kids get picked on EVERY DAY, there is bound to be a snapping point. I wonder what the statistics are for kids that were bullies in school growing up and being 'inexplicably' murdered one day. Case closed, no motive found. Maybe the motive was years old.
All kids need to be taught that bullying is not funny, even if it's not happening to them but someone else. They may not be getting picked on, but they may be a victim of the retaliation if and when it comes just by being in the vicinity.
I made my kids sit down last night and watch the Showtime movie..'Bang Bang Your Dead'.
One of the things said in this movie was...
"It's not what's in a kid's backpack that makes him dangerous....it's what's in his heart."
Being an advocate of gun ownership, I like to think that I can stand behind my words when I say it's not guns who kill people, it's people who kill people. Once that's established you have to search for the why.
After watching this movie, some little details started to come out from the kids. Jake tells me that there are boys in his school who smear feces on the walls in the bathroom. Then they wait outside as a group for someone to go in and then they push them into it, face first if possible.
Just for a moment try to imagine the emotions you would go through if that happened to you. Then they go out in the hallway and make sure everyone knows about it. There's never any soap in those bathrooms, there's never any paper towels, and in most cases, the boys urinate in the sinks.
Could you imagine how much rage it would inspire to walk around with someone else's excrement on you? How do you get over that? Jake's solution is to not use the school bathrooms. He hasn't admitted to me that it happened to him, but I wonder. He had to learn about it somehow, right?
The schools are turning into ....God....what is there to compare them to? I'm not even sure prison would be as bad. At least in prison you are locked into a cell for a good part of the time and watched by guards, hence protected in a twisted way. Prison might even be a step up.
Until all kids can learn to report any time they see someone being bullied, things will not improve. Telling is a BIG taboo. That's what needs to change. Somehow. Kids used to have some concept of what bullying entailed. Getting pants'd or shoved, or even punched. But it's gone way beyond that now to lengths that are almost unmentionable. And it seems to be mostly between boys. But the girls are just as guilty for laughing at someone who is being bullied. That pretty much encourages it to continue. Girls are just as malicious as boys. They just bully by laughing instead of hitting.
I said it before and I'll say it again. Any time a society of citizens is bullied and beaten down, they will eventually rise up using whatever means necessary to seek justice. Schools are small societies, our kids are the citizens.
I'm sorry to go on like this, but I think I am beginning to get some idea of why Jake is always so angry.
If you have middle school or high school kids I highly recommend you watch this movie with them and encourage them to report any signs of bullying they see. Even if it's done anonymously. I am going to make a form on my computer. An anonymous complaint form, for kids to fill out if they are being bullied or someone they know is. I am going to ask the school to run them off and leave them all over the school along with drop boxes at convenient locations. I will offer to collect them all and read them all and make reports. It's the only thing I can think to do. Any other suggestions?
Listen folks. I'm up on a soapbox, but I think it's important that I share this. Much like someone would spread the word of God or the news of an epidemic.
I think that bullying is what leads to the columbines in this country.
When you isolate a kid and pick, pick, pick, he is going to seek out other kids like him and there is going to be retaliation. Especially when the innocent bystanders laugh and do nothing, and the school does nothing. I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying it's a very real possibility that there will be some major violence if the source, or the bullies, are not brought to justice.
When I first heard about columbine my immediate reaction was it was a 'getting even' event. I still believe it and always will. There's no excuse for doing something like that, but there are reasons.
Kids get picked on all the time, that's nothing new. But if one kid or two kids or four kids get picked on EVERY DAY, there is bound to be a snapping point. I wonder what the statistics are for kids that were bullies in school growing up and being 'inexplicably' murdered one day. Case closed, no motive found. Maybe the motive was years old.
All kids need to be taught that bullying is not funny, even if it's not happening to them but someone else. They may not be getting picked on, but they may be a victim of the retaliation if and when it comes just by being in the vicinity.
I made my kids sit down last night and watch the Showtime movie..'Bang Bang Your Dead'.
One of the things said in this movie was...
"It's not what's in a kid's backpack that makes him dangerous....it's what's in his heart."
Being an advocate of gun ownership, I like to think that I can stand behind my words when I say it's not guns who kill people, it's people who kill people. Once that's established you have to search for the why.
After watching this movie, some little details started to come out from the kids. Jake tells me that there are boys in his school who smear feces on the walls in the bathroom. Then they wait outside as a group for someone to go in and then they push them into it, face first if possible.
Just for a moment try to imagine the emotions you would go through if that happened to you. Then they go out in the hallway and make sure everyone knows about it. There's never any soap in those bathrooms, there's never any paper towels, and in most cases, the boys urinate in the sinks.
Could you imagine how much rage it would inspire to walk around with someone else's excrement on you? How do you get over that? Jake's solution is to not use the school bathrooms. He hasn't admitted to me that it happened to him, but I wonder. He had to learn about it somehow, right?
The schools are turning into ....God....what is there to compare them to? I'm not even sure prison would be as bad. At least in prison you are locked into a cell for a good part of the time and watched by guards, hence protected in a twisted way. Prison might even be a step up.
Until all kids can learn to report any time they see someone being bullied, things will not improve. Telling is a BIG taboo. That's what needs to change. Somehow. Kids used to have some concept of what bullying entailed. Getting pants'd or shoved, or even punched. But it's gone way beyond that now to lengths that are almost unmentionable. And it seems to be mostly between boys. But the girls are just as guilty for laughing at someone who is being bullied. That pretty much encourages it to continue. Girls are just as malicious as boys. They just bully by laughing instead of hitting.
I said it before and I'll say it again. Any time a society of citizens is bullied and beaten down, they will eventually rise up using whatever means necessary to seek justice. Schools are small societies, our kids are the citizens.
I'm sorry to go on like this, but I think I am beginning to get some idea of why Jake is always so angry.
If you have middle school or high school kids I highly recommend you watch this movie with them and encourage them to report any signs of bullying they see. Even if it's done anonymously. I am going to make a form on my computer. An anonymous complaint form, for kids to fill out if they are being bullied or someone they know is. I am going to ask the school to run them off and leave them all over the school along with drop boxes at convenient locations. I will offer to collect them all and read them all and make reports. It's the only thing I can think to do. Any other suggestions?
