Anti-Bullying campaign - Right or Wrong?

Originally posted by FraternitasSaturni
Let the kids be kids... let them bully and be bullied. Just let them grow up naturally without interference. It will all end up fine... just like it happened to you.

Kids have always had some sort of social guidance (aka interference). At some times it's one thing, at other times it's another, in a different country it's another. I imagine every person might think their own childhood-time was normal because it's the only one they know.

so, we don't ever really let kids be kids; if they want to smoke we say no. Right now there's a movement about bullying - just the way it is.

Originally posted by Ookie
I was bullied beyond reason as a kid. I was several times smarter than the other kids and better looking too. I made them feel inferior and ugly. I got all the girls and the guys hated me for it. I was better than they were and they knew it and they did their best to keep me down. It worked. Today I have no idea how to interact with other adults and as a consequence can't make it in the business world. I think about what I could have been if I had been included and allowed to learn how to be a part of a team. I could have been the president. But I do not know how to bs in the backroom. I have no connection with other people and honestly can't understand how to be part of a group. It is foreign to me. All because a bunch of stupid kids loved to beat me every single day.

You have no idea what it is like to be separated from your classmates and singled out for ridicule. From the 3rd grade on I never once got to eat lunch with other people. In the 5th and 6th grade I was put into the teacher's coatroom in the office and forbidden from interacting with anyone. The only attention I got in school was my daily paddling at the beginning of school each morning. Why? They told me I would do something to deserve it so they should go ahead and get it out of the way.

They bullying stopped when I started shooting at my bullies. I was determined to kill the sources of my torment. Then I got big and they did not. I put one bully in the hospital for 6 months after missing him with my .22 magnum twice.

Bullies made me the man I am today. One who shuns people, loves solitude, and can be a stone cold killer if pushed just a little. Then I needed friends and interaction. Now it's best to leave me alone, it could be dangerous to be around me and say the wrong thing.

Bullies should be identified at a young age and separated from others and taught how to be compassionate. if that fails a trip to the gas chamber at the local dog shelter should be in order. Not to watch, to be put in. I have no sympathy for a bully. No compassion and no mercy. they are dogs and deserve a fate worse than the rabid monsters they are.

"They bullying stopped when I started shooting at my bullies" Ha! I know you didn't mean that to be funny, but I enjoyed it just the same. Hey, I totally can relate to your situation, been there. When you take a kid who is very intelligent and sensitive and subject him to years and years of abuse and torture I think it even changes the way the brain develops, While oddly I still consider myself pretty compassionate today and go as far as I can to help others, I have to work hard to be able to feel much of anything but constant depression (with occasional manic swings), it runs in my family, I think it has a chemical/genetic base as well but the years of abuse certainly didn't help it, and I think made it ALOT worse.

If I had to go back in time and relive it over, feeling like I do now today, it would be a radically different story, instead of being the sweet kind helping kid who wouldn't hurt a fly taking the abuse, they would of had to spend a long time cleaning up the blood and body parts of those who instigated me. I'm not kidding. It's not that that is what I want, it is just a protection mechanism that I feel now is so ingrained by all that has happened. A person can only take so much before death seems welcome and one doesn't mind taking out all the trash at the same time one goes away,

I was also diagnosed with PTSD, it stemmed in part (along with the abuse) as result of watching a best friend die by Amtrak train traveling at 70mph, it occurred during the years of abuse, instead of finding any help I also had to suffer the abuse of local cops and townspeople whom I guess really couldn't understand what it's like, it really was JUST ME all alone, not ONE person to help and I really wonder how I ever survived. It takes a part of your soul that seems difficult if not impossible to ever recover, like I said I think the brain itself changes, but I'm hanging in there, working hard to try and take care of myself, I have kids that need my help, not giving up. perhaps before I die I'll be able to experience a little true happiness, I hold out hope.

Peace

reply to post by Biigs


No, I'm saying both self defense for victims and adult intervention should punches be thrown. Sometimes a punch is needed when a kid speaks extremely bad to another. One time at school, after I lost my father when I was 8, some kid started bad mouthing him and I beat him up for it. Shut that kid up.
I don't believe that it should immediately go to violence in verbal cases however, and that then there is a need for adult intervention.
Also, with the throngs of kids in schools today, it is hard for one to not hear a conversations arguments, and especially how it started. You'll just need to find that kid that heard and saw everything, as there usually is one.

Originally posted by Starchild23

Originally posted by DrNotforhire
This is going to cause way more problems than its going to solve.... Kids need thicker skin, such wusses and its all internet based...think about it.... people killing themselves over facebook, sounds a bit foolish in retrospect does it not? (no disrespect at all just trying to lay it out)..

Grrr this makes me angry... Kids should be able to fight in school, NOT get expelled for defending themselves... its just rough for kids these days I tell ya

No disrespect, just calling kids sissies when five football players walk up and shove them in a mud puddle.

I'm sure you'd want to fight those odds. A little compassion, please. You have no idea what these kids go through on a daily basis.

These children have committed frikkin' SUICIDE over these matters. Does that seem like a petty thing to you? And in all honesty, I'm pretty sure it takes some gonads to hang yourself.

Think about it some more.

I wish I had the right of self defense in High School. Would of made dealing with senior/varsity football players much more amusing.*

*(For some Reason the varsity football players got a hard on for knocking books from freshmen hands, + other acts of stupidity. They would run by in single file. Was some what annoying when they tried to target me. Personally if it happened off school grounds I would of just layed them out, but instead I ignored it the first two day's. On the third I merely switched my books over to my right hand, swung my left shoulder back a little at the last moment, and proceeded to watch a bunch of dumb jock's get knocked over like domino's.)

If you are a corporation seeking to improve staff morale,improve productivity,or develop better customar relations skills,you may want to consider trainings to anti-bullying or school violence.If you are a social service agency,mental healthl,or Seminar about conflict resolution organization,you may be more interested in training topics related to school violence,expert witness and self Injurious Behavior or cyberbullying or Interviewing techniques for children and Adolescents.


turnthepagellc.com

How can anyone actually say bullying "isn't really a threat" when we're seeing exactly what the result can be regarding intense bullying (not really even bullying, more like criminal harassment)?

reply to post by Thermo Klein


I want to say that kids should learn to defend themselves.
And they should.

But it seems that now bullying has gotten so much more organized and severe that things have changed from when it was just the big kid punching you and taking your lunch money.. Or the popular clique calling you names or playing cruel pranks.

government is the biggest bully around taking your lunch money anyway they can, even have their little gang members pull you over at the worst possible times.

income tax, gas tax, smart metres, invasion of privacy all over the place, price fixing, fear and intimidation everywhere.

start from the top, they are the example from which we are supposed to learn from.
they bully other countries too...

End bullying by assaulting the bully. Um............not a good idea. Not even close to practical, in fact. Since now the VICTIM of the bullying has an even bigger target on their back. Plus, sympathy goes away when you physically attack someone in such a way. Plus, violence tends to lead more violence and that is a dilemma the victim will LOSE. Because the victim doesn't have the back-up the bully has 9/10 times. And the victim is usually physically weaker. In 2012, the whole "you will gain respect if you beat the bully up" idea simply isn't realistic, since the bullying is brought on by more than one person and brought upon on social media as well as in school.

The reality is that what people can bullying is really ILLEGAL HARASSMENT. So what needs to happen is threats of lawsuits against harassers and threats of lawsuits against the parents of these kids, and the school boards who sit on their hands and do nothing. LAWSUITS will change the game. POLICE contact will change the game. If a kid is being bullied, you as a parent need to call the police and make sure they tell the bullies what they are doing is illegal and what will happen if they continue their behavior. Hit these people where it hurts, because otherwise, they will not care, no matter how much the victim pleas and begs for intervention.

Victims of bullying do need to be given empowerment and be guided to learn not to be affected by it to the point it affects their ability to function happily in society and their own internal view of who they are as an individual, but there is ONLY SO MUCH people can take, especially kids. Bullying is wrong. Bullying is the problem. So we need to do our part as a society to fix that, as best we can, nothing will be perfect but it can be improved dramatically if we do something about it. And it can be fixed, instead of telling people to "man up" and be emotionless, which creates bigger problems. Emotionless behavior is why bullying is the problem it is. Lack of empathy.

What about democratic school courts? The ones who are bullied could take the bully to a jury of their peers and both get to present their case. Punishment can be doled out by the school staff rather than the students themselves. It would cause much shame to the bully and probably change their ways once they realize their peers think they are a d-bag and told him in public that he is a d-bag. Catch my drift? It allows for justice, democratically, and uses the bully's tactic against himself. Bully's often have severe shortcomings emotionally, like due to physical appearance or family life, and must be dealt with on such a level. I know in my school the bullies, what few there were, all were fat and stupid and really poor.
I went to a fairly well off school, so perhaps my judgement is biased, but the kids of parents who were well off weren't bullies. I used to be called fat before my freshman year of high school and I had tons of girl friends, but not a single girlfriend. So, the summer before freshmen year I started eating right and drinking only water, while getting a lot of exercise riding my dirtbike everyday on some nice tight east coast enduro trails. I got back to school and everyone thought I was a new kid. lol It was a great feeling, but I didn't get in shape because of some bullies, I got into shape because I wanted to get laid! I reinvented myself because I wanted to change, not because of some bully making an ass out of me. No way a kid changes because of an external debilitating negative force. What do I know, my hs wasn't bad, I had an awesome time. My class was super friendly and we all got along even with what little cliques we had. The years after us were horrible for bullying, but not us. We were all friends basically. Don't ask me why. Maybe, we were more intelligent? lol I would love to see stats on bullies and their parents income level and the incidences and intensities of bullying in poor schools/neighborhoods compared to well-off schools/neighborhoods.

Originally posted by KillThePoor
What about democratic school courts? The ones who are bullied could take the bully to a jury of their peers and both get to present their case. Punishment can be doled out by the school staff rather than the students themselves. It would cause much shame to the bully and probably change their ways once they realize their peers think they are a d-bag and told him in public that he is a d-bag. Catch my drift? It allows for justice, democratically, and uses the bully's tactic against himself.

Good idea in spirit, but bullies will not respect something like this, they'll take it as a joke, and actually, it will feed their ego. Like, look at how powerful I am, everyone cares about me and is affected by what I say and do. All bullies are sociopaths to a certain degree and therefore lack normal human emotional responses.

It's gonna take police intervention with potential jail time, YOUTUBE and all social media sites BANNING all offensive material, videos, slurs, etc. and not allowing these people an avenue to gain the attention and admiration they desperately seek, and it's going to take lawsuits. It's now time for people to get aggressive and really lay down the hammer. If these people want to ruin the lives of innocents, then they should be met with the same risk.

P.S. Most bullies actually tend to be educated and popular, and very arrogant; they are placed on the top of the social food chain and take advantage of that power by belittling others. But they also tend to be extremely insecure. That's the main thing. Fat people actually tend to be bullied and then some of them react to that by becoming bullies themselves as a defense mechanism. Bullying is 100% insecurity.

Bullying is not good. We need to learn to live and enjoy one and others company, no matter what differences we have.

Why do I have to level with a bully? Why do I have to be provoked into an argument about who is better than the other?

Bullies want to get under your skin. Its completely useless. Constructive criticism is good, coaching, feedback, are all great things.

Bullying is just a waste of time for both individuals. A bully could be doing something more productive than bullying, and the victim would not have been interrupted with their usual routine.

I just think we accomplish much more with out these useless interruptions.

Most importantly as long as the rules do not interfere with our First Amendment Rights, then I'm all for it. Any bullies preventing me from my First Amendment Rights I want them to deal with it, not me.

Take a look at our Civil Rights Act of 1964 Title VII

Title VII of the Act, codified as Subchapter VI of Chapter 21 of title 42 of the United States Code, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e [2] et seq., prohibits discrimination by covered employers on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin (see 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2[34]). Title VII also prohibits discrimination against an individual because of his or her association with another individual of a particular race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. An employer cannot discriminate against a person because of his interracial association with another, such as by an interracial marriage.[35

Race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Honestly there are more components of culture than just those main ones. So a bully can utilize other aspects of human culture, such as hobbies or habits for example. There are lots of very interesting people in the world, especially in the United States, who are bullied into either conforming one way. If they don't conform well, the rest is history.

If you retaliate at bullies you could get in trouble. Cruelty comes in many forms, and if a certain case meets a set of fair guidelines to convict a bully. Then that bully should go on time out.


Culture

Title VII

Workplace Bullying