Yesterday I was walking into dinner when I got a text from a friend asking me if I saw the Channel 4 news. Since I was out all evening, I did not see it. Apparently the top news story was Bullying in PCCS District. I couldn’t wait to get into the restaurant, sit down, and pull out my phone to search for the news story. Click on the link above and you can read the whole story, but here’s a summary:
Basically a 10 year old boy was being bullied by kids at Field elementary in the Plymouth Canton school district. These kids tore his jackets…yes multiple jackets (sound familiar?) and they chanted a horrifying song to him at recess:
I hate you, you hate me. Let’s get together and kill Zachary. With a big shotgun, shoot him in the head, guess what now, Zach is dead.
How horrible is that? Now I’m sure the kids don’t really mean that they are going to take a shotgun to kill him, but I guess you never know in this day and age. But regardless of all of that, those words hurt. If you click on the above link you can watch a video where the little boy talks about what these kids did to him and he was in tears. It’s heartbreaking to watch.
Like what my family is dealing with (see here and here), the administrators really didn’t do much about it. Sure they said in the news story that they handled it, but my guess is there way of handling it is similar to our principal’s way of handling it…talking to the boys and then sending them back to class or setting them on the wall at recess. Real great way of handling the situation.
Now how would I handle it? Well if the kids can’t behave themselves at recess, they would lose that privilege. They don’t have to go outside to play. There is a room in the office that the kids could sit at during recess and eat lunch at. But, the principal has never wanted to be a bad guy. Instead our son’s teacher gave up HER lunch on a number of occasions so that she could “babysit” the boys at lunch. That, to me, is not necessary. If there is one person that deserves a break, it is her. First of all, she has to deal with these kids all day long and second of all, IT’S THE PRINCIPALS JOB TO TAKE CARE OF THESE THINGS. Especially when it has become an issue and a long term one, at that.
Another thing I would do is make those kids that can’t treat others right, sit at an assigned table at lunch. Why should they be given the privilege of sitting with their friends. When they are harassing others, they lose that opportunity. But again, the principal did not want to do that. Instead he told us that our son could choose a different table. But since he buys lunch he is later sitting down than other kids. So when he sees is options as:
Table one with his friends AND the bullies
OR
Table two with all girls
Where the heck do you suppose he would want to sit??? I mean it’s a lose lose situation for him. Sit with the bullies and have to endure whatever they dish out or sit with girls and get further made fun of. When I said that to the principal he shrugged his shoulders and said he had to be fair to all students. In being “fair” he is penalizing my son and forcing him to sit with all girls which you know as well as I do, that would cause more teasing. They are 7 and 8 years old.
What kinds of things do your schools do to take care of bullying issues?
I’m so sorry that your son has to go though the injustice of a bad system and administration. We have tried to get the school to have a seminar with each class or the whole school to teach them what bullying is and how it would be handled (punishment). They have ignored us altogether and when we finally went to the press they say the other students were dealt with. Not one of them was punished. There are so many people out there saying that he should stand up to the bullies and then they would leave him alone. It was mostly girls singing the song. Is he supposed to hit them (he has been told NEVER to hit a female). Is he supposed to say bad things to them. Will being a bully back to them make everything right. The teacher and principle should have jumped in on the situation right away and never let thing get this far.
I am very sorry for your son. It literally broke my heart listening to him on the news. I, for the life of me, cannot understand WHY the administration does not want to stick up for our children. They have the chance to be a hero and they would rather sit back and say “well if I don’t see it”…makes me mad.
I am going to contact you outside of the blog so we can talk more.
Nothing was happening when my daughter was getting bullied until I did a bit of “bullying” of my own. Apparently the Dean had never really been bullied before as a child, so when she got it as an adult – probably close to twice my age mind you – she REALLY didnt like it.
The “no tolerance” rule is bullshit. It doesnt seem to me that the faculty is really doing anything – anywhere.
I heard of this story saturday after my daughter said there was a new kid coming into her class and then the day he came said the new kid was funny seems like his new classmates will welcome him with open arms my daughter is student council president of bentley and i have encouraged her to address further bullying other children this seriously broke my heart i couldnt stop thinking about it and to hear that the schools do nothing to these kids is an outrage this is a serious issue schools need to address and have serious consequences. my daughter and her friends say they have been very kind to him and will make him feel very welcome at bentley
I truly hope he has a better time at Bentley.
Thanks for posting.