Bullying at school, online bullying

[georgebushmoron]

I am grappling with this thing called "bullying" - at school and online, with respect to kids being bullied. First of all, I don't have kids but I want to understand what all the fuss is about anyway.

The BCTF has got to be one of the most liberal whacko organizations out there. From what I understand, they don't really care about teaching academics as much as they care about the "mental and social welfare" of the kids. Fine... but to the extreme where I hear some kids bring home report cards without letter grades for fear that the youngsters are going to get horrible hurt if they see anything less than an "A". This pussification of children is not just happening in BC, but all over North America.

Now it's gotten to the point where "bullying" is this pandemic issue - even the police have taken it hook line and sinker. Apparently its extremely bad for a kid's social and mental health to have some other stupid kid bully them. I don't know about you guys, but when I grew up this "bullying" business was not a big social issue. Of course I was running around much like any other kid, being beat on by the big kids, and beating on kids smaller than me. It's just part of growing up until you figure out that there are more effective ways to getting your way than bullying. I got bullied a lot.... and I don't feel my mental or social health had been impacted much if at all.

This "bullying issue" is apparently so damned frightening that now we have to watch out that kids are being bullied online. Yes, imagine a kid typing away in a chat room or MSN and some unknown virtual person starts telling the kid that they are useless and no good and sucks at baseball! Are we to expect the kid to run away from the keyboard crying and wailing, oh mommy please stop that boy on the internet is hurting me!!!

I listened to a radio talk show a few months ago where this 15 year old kid went to some Human Rights Tribunal in BC as he had sued his school for not adequately protecting him from the bullying. He asserted that he had a right to go to that school unharrassed and it was the school's fault for not protecting him. Apparently he was a gay kid who dressed differently. 99% of the callers congratulated him for standing up for his rights and saying how horrible the school was for not protecting him. I called up and said that this must have cost taxpayers a lot of money when he could have just gone to another school and solved the bullying that way. His reply.... "you jerk its my right to attend the school I want". Sure, at everyone's expense you little freak manipulator.

The other day I took my S.O.'s little dog to the Burnaby library lawns so he could run around. Being such a cute little thing, I figured the kids who usually play there would enjoy his company. All was fine for awhile when suddenly this distraught mother and her chubby little nine year old boy come toward me with the bitch screaming. "LOOK AT WHAT YOUR DOG DID TO MY SON!!!". The kid holds out his finger, apparently my little 5 lb. dog scratched it with his claw. The kid was sobbing away with his lower lip sticking way out, his finger extended like it was completely maimed. The bitch says, your dog could be infecting my son! I said, "oh yeah lady, and they'll have to cut off his whole arm". Immediately the kid starts wailing even louder. "How dare you say that in front of my son! You're scaring him!". I turn to the kid and say, "Hey kid, life is really tough. To survive, you're gonna have to get tough and be a man one day." She asks for my cell number and ID so she can call the cops. I give both to her and I walk away. Of course, the cops didn't bother me. Yet another instance of the pussification of children.

So somebody please explain to me what all this bullying crap is all about, and why no one in authority has stood up and become the voice of reason. Why is there an agenda to make children weak willed little pussies?

 

[westwoody]

Another thread immediately comes to mind.
You are right about the wimpiness of society today.
Our local kids soccer league has decided to give ALL kids who participate identical trophies at the end of the season, so the most inept, unathletic player gets an award identical to the junior Georgie Best. It gives the poorer players an inflated idea of their skill and devalues the skill of the gifted player.
This same everyone-is-equal crap is now polluting our school systems, so no student is failed because it might hurt their feelings. Now they get streamed along with everyone else and we end up with high school grads who can't read or write, but know how to complain about not getting everything they want.
Now you hire one of these social cripples and find out they are completely useless. Try firing them-after they go crying to the press, human rights, the union, the CIRB, because they can't deal with the idea they are less worthy than other employees who can and do work.

 

[Sexy BBW]

I think its just sad when we have to hate on each other like that

 

[kehoe]

Another thread immediately comes to mind.
You are right about the wimpiness of society today.
Our local kids soccer league has decided to give ALL kids who participate identical trophies at the end of the season, so the most inept, unathletic player gets an award identical to the junior Georgie Best. It gives the poorer players an inflated idea of their skill and devalues the skill of the gifted player.
This same everyone-is-equal crap is now polluting our school systems, so no student is failed because it might hurt their feelings. Now they get streamed along with everyone else and we end up with high school grads who can't read or write, but know how to complain about not getting everything they want.
Now you hire one of these social cripples and find out they are completely useless. Try firing them-after they go crying to the press, human rights, the union, the CIRB, because they can't deal with the idea they are less worthy than other employees who can and do work.

I couldn't agree more westwoody. We are breeding mediocrity and it will bite us in the ass before long. Individual acheivement isn't celebrated nearly as much as it used to be. The biggest problem is that parents have too much control nowadays. If their kid doesn't get an A in Math or doesn't get to play shortstop on the ball team, they stir up a shitstorm and demand satisfaction. No wonder teachers want a ton more money. No wonder most municipalities are having a hell of a time finding coaches for teams; no one wants the hassles that are associated with teaching our youth nowadays. I'm glad Wayne Gretzky grew up when he did. Nowadays he'd be stuck back on defence because the other parents and coaches would be whining because he's too good and doesn't involve the other players as much as he should. Fawwwwwwwk. Next step: communism, socialism...

 

[georgebushmoron]

I think its just sad when we have to hate on each other like that

What is this "hate" you are talking about? A failing grade to a kid who deserves it is hate? The normal banter of children, which they call "bullying" is hate? A a 5 lb. little dog scratching a wimpy kid's finger is hate? An anonymous online person spewing insults to a kid is hate?

 

[Maury Beniowski]

In my old school days the rule was, bully or be bullied.

So what's a kid with half a brain to do? Stand around and make peace?

The smart ones like me, organized gangs. Pretty simple logic...

Organized gangs ironically, brought order to the chaos that would have ruled supreme otherwise.

There were good gangs, and bad gangs. I headed a good gang, and enlisted big enforcers.

The end result was, we didn't have much trouble at our school!

The philosophy nowadays is to suppress gangs, which then brings chaos right back, and bullying becomes the norm...

So, there is definitely a rationale in there somewhere, but the literati just don't get it!

Therefore, I told my son, "It's every man for himself, boy..."

 

[gravitas]

sweet merciful christ do I have comments on this thread......unfortunately in the next 20 minutes, I need to shave, shit, shower and get dressed so my input will have to wait

as a preamble GBM, WW, K & MB all have some very good points and I'll enjoy sharing my thoughts......sbbw on the other hand is IMO indicative of the "oh woe is me, the world is too hard, why doesn't everyone like me, my ice cream cone is smaller then yours, blah blah blah....."

 

[hitrack]

Why are we all so quick to shit on each other. Us humans are all we have. We can't go off and have a conversation with martions, or the toaster, or our dog, etc....No, all we have is each other, but we're so quick to shit on our fellow man and cause him grief. So be it!!! Now that I know how the game is played and you learn qick, it's shit on or be shit on.

With that said I think weeding out the weak and acknowledging the strong is good. The world has no time for cry babies. I have always said that skool yard rules don't apply in real life, you see someone doing wrong you squeal on them like a stuck pig. If I was the kid with the scrape I would sue for having to get rabie shots and get that fukkin dog put down.....sorry GBM, just an example.

Why should the kid who sucked at hockey or only got 5 outta 10 math problems right be given the same award as the kid who got all the math problems correct and be advanced to the next grade.

Skool yard bullying is good. It gives kids their first taste at life. How well would any child be prepared for the real world if he was always sucking on his moms teet and tied to her apron string till he was 20?!?!?!?

 

[ScottyTwoHotty]

Here's a link to something some Perbies might want to check out.
http://www.freewebs.com/scottytwohotty/special.htm
Make sure your volume is on, and wait.

 

[BigBlue]

On bullying at school:

Kids ARE taught strategies to deal with bullies in school rather than immediately bring the bullying to the attention of a responsible adult.

HOWEVER, no person should have to deal with being spit upon, beat up, sworn at, or being ganged up on. If an adult had to deal with this at his place of employment, sure as shit a human rights commission would be called, a lawsuit launched, and the RCMP involved, with good reason.

The equivalent to a place of employment for a child is his school. The "good old days" (when kids had to deal with this shit all by themselves, living in fear of telling their parents lest they be labeled a whiny wimp, or living in fear of telling the school administration lest the bullies catch wind of his "snitching" and the problem actually escalating) are (thank God) over.

The way things are dealt with now, generally, is that if a kid faces this kind of abuse, the perpetrators are suspended or otherwise disciplined, including a change of schools, rather than the other way around, with the victim running to another school.

This is the way it should have always been, and it's about bloody time.

 

[sirlickheralot]

I agree that removing letter grades from school and real competition from sports is stupid. All you end up doing is ensure that these children grow up to be useless unmotivated adults.

As for cracking down on bullies, these are different times we are living in from when many of us were children, the victims of bullying have new role models, can anyone say Columbine. This incident, as well as several copy cat incidents have made educators more aware of what can happen when children are subjected to mental and physical abuse at the hands of bullies. Also the bullies seem to have changed in recent years, nowadays you hear about incidents of 5,10, 20 bullies swarming and beating the shit out of 1 victim. The bullies I dealt with a child at least had the guts to fight me one on one.

Verbal abuse can easily escalate to physical abuse over time. Nipping the problem in the bud by cracking down on verbal abuse isn't necessarily a bad thing.

 

[ScottyTwoHotty]

Fuckin kids don't fight anymore. They are too scared to fight. They use weapons. Pathetic! As a teen I remember at least once a week maybe twice there was a spot, just off of school property that kids beat each others ass's one on one.
Now days the kids are too scare to take a hit. Not to mention getting within arms reach. A lot of old school was respect. These kids want the respect, but need to use weapons.
My first ass whoopin was from the high school bully. He was a brick shithouse. He beat my ass badly. A week later, he and I became the best of friends, because I had the balls to face him. From that point on, I was respected within the school. How do these kids expect to earn respect now days? Guns, knives, bats and so on are a cowards tool.

 

[n2supersymmetry]

I find the most effective way to deal with bullies is simply to fight back and don't take any shit. My younger brother was a pretty small guy and he got picked on but he was one quick-tempered kamikaze. He wasn't afraid to take on groups of kids a year or two older than him and dished out plenty of pain.
I was a pretty big guy but I never had to help him fight any of his battles.
He is particularly good at using whatever items lying around as a weapon.
Sure he came home couple of times in the beginning with bruises and stuff but soon those are gone because he was too much of a hassle to pick on and there were easier fish to fry in the school.
Funny part is most of those guys that picked on my brother eventually became friends with him couple of years down the road.

 

[rollerboy]

Awww, I can feel the love. The strong beating on the weak, what could be better?

Mmmmm mmmm, psycho-jiz fest!

When kids bully other kids it can be a bad sign. Kids who face abuse at home will take it out on other kids. Violent criminals start because somewhere in their life, they reacted to stress with violence, and found that it worked. Positive reinforcement in their formative environment can put them on a path which leads to a lifetime of inability to solve problems rationally.

Third World societies are uniformly ruled by fear and violence. The same may be said for our urban ghettos, hopeless desperate places. The notion that violence in schools confers a salutary, Darwinian benefit is feeble and pathological.

 

[hawaiian shirt]

Why is beating on someone who is smaller, weaker, smarter than you a good thing???? Give me a reason, I dare you. I dont think you can, unless you are a bully yourself.

My son who gets picked on quite alot at school does not play with kids his own age because he does not like them. Yup, my kid is a bit of a whiner and he will cry at the drop of a hat if you know how to push his buttons. So tell me, how will picking on him and antagonising him more make him a better person???? Will this make him stronger or just more likely to keep his emotions bottled up inside him. And then exploding at some point. And then you will say "THat kid went Postal for no reason" Instead he gets a bit upset, and then figures out how to control his emotions. Sometimes it works and he calms himself down, other times it does not, and he ends up hitting someone.
Yes, you are going to argue that he will not make it in the "REAL WORLD". So what? What is the real world, anyway? He is comfortable with himself. And he will live in the Real World as well as anyone else.

As far as school grades go, the lettering system makes it too easy for kids to compete against each other. There are kids out there who try as hard as they possibly can and cannot get A's. So getting marked in a more apporpriate way is good for them. You say it makes kids better. I say not getting the A, makes kids nervous to tell their parents what they got. Personally, I don't care what the kids get for grades as long as they try their best, do their homework to the best of their ability. People all learn differently, why do we force kids into a system that marks them only in one particular way???

So, lets go onto Sports. This same son plays lacrosse, tried out for the Rep team in his division and did not make it. Big deal, he plays goalie, lets see some of you stop 100km/hr lax balls coming at your head. Would making the Tier 1 team make him a better person, or would it make him depressed when they eventually lose a few games. The Tier 2 team he plays on is a pretty good team, they have fun, and win or lose they all congratulate their own players, and begrudgingly the other team as well.

Why shouldn't the slowest runner on the track get the same trophy as the kid who finished first if they both tried as hard as they possibly could??? And yes I mean an honest try. Give it your true 100% and you will get all my congratulations.

How many of you were complaining about the Canucks at the end of the season this year? They are all arguably superstar athletes who did not give it 100%. They were all the superstars on their local Rep teams in Pee Wee.
Seeing that, I am glad my kids are in Tier 2 lacrosse

 

[wilde]

I went to a boarding school where bullying is much more prevalent. Kids get bullied for a number of reasons, the difference between getting bullied a few times and getting bullied constantly is whether you stand up for yourself. Bullying is also passed on from the older students. You get bullied as a kid, chances are you will grow up a bully.

There was a Spanish Jew kid in my school, he was a couple of years below me. He got bullied everyday because he looked different, he was very smart but kept to himself. One evening, he decided that he has had enough. He hung himself in the school chapel. Shockwaves were sent throughout the school, parents demanding the school to take action, etc. One year later, nothing changed.

In my first week at that school, I was also being bullied because I was one of a handful of Asian students there. I chose to stand up for myself a little differently. By the end of the second week, I had been in 4 fights with some of the kids that were bullying me. I had a black eye, scrapes and bruises all over my body, 2 broken pair of glasses, a dislocated shoulder and a very worried family. But in some sick twisted way, I earned the respect of my bullies. Then they stopped bothering me. By the end of my first term there, some of them even became my friends.

All I am trying to say is that boys will be boys. You may not like the rules but you must play the game. There are different ways to stand up for yourself, just choose the one that you are comfortable with and accept the consequences.

To hawiian shirt: With all due respect, but if you teach what you wrote in your post to your son the bullying is not going to get any better. Towards the end of your post, it almost seems as if you were promoting mediocracy. That my friend, is a double edged sword that you don't want to play with too often. You start to apply that shit in real life, you will be climbing a very slipppery slope. A built-in excuse for every failure - "I tried my best."

 

[westwoody]

Hawaiian Shirt, you want to protect your children from any kind of competitive pressure, but there is no avoiding it. Do you think the foxy cheerleader is going to spread her legs on an equal-opportunity basis? Do you think I am going to hire your kid because he tries just as hard as the guy who can do the task twice as well? Would you take your car to be repaired by a mechanic who can't quite do the job but tries real hard, or would you take it to a guy who can fix it properly with little effort?

 

[nyx]

My daughter was having issues at school with bullies. Usual shit... they need some whipping boy to humiliate so they pick on whoever is in sight... maybe a bit different looking... and persist from there to the guffaws and grunts of the lackey circle jerk crew that can be found around any bully. She told me about it, wanting advise. For better or worse, I told her... look kid, this shit has gone on since they invented these little pre-prisons called schools and will go on till the end of time. When she picks a fight with you, and she will, hit her as hard as you fucking can and dont stop until someone is down for good. If you lose, you went down fighting. Better that than being bitch slapped and then owned for the rest of your school days. If you win, they will think twice about targeting you next time. As predicted, the fat bully bitch picked a fight with my daughter and unleashed a lion. The bully went down. The bully was reprimanded by the pussy principal and my daughter was suspended from school for striking another student (notice the double standard). I took her out for lunch in celebration and told her not to worry about the suspension as it means nothing. The bullies have left her alone since then. There are upstarts, but they regard her as unpredictable and do not pursue it too far.

I had a similar incident. Grade eight, standing at my locker. A large kid in grade 11 comes by and decides to pick a fight with me. Why? I have no idea... maybe because I was big for my age. He stood a good two feet higher than me but I still stood my ground and told him to fuck off. I ended up getting my nose seriously broken (steel rods and all needed to fix it) but I still managed to kick him in the balls and I didnt pussy out of the fight or run to the authorities or some fucking radio show. In the true fashion of my family, my father hired two ex cons after the fight to track down the older kid and deliver a warning. They pinned him to the hood of their car and stuck a knife up his nose with a warning that if he ever so much as looked sideways at me again they were going to cut it off. And so, the bully met two far more experienced bullies and ended up pissing his pants out of fear on the hood of a car with a switchblade up one nostril. He never did look at me again after that... and there was balance once again in the schoolyard... at least for a little while

End thoughts: I would much rather raise a child who is aware that there are shitheads out there who will bully you, and who has the guts to fight back and stand her ground than some simpering little pissant who cries lawsuit and goes on the radio to bitch about it when the bullies inevitably rear their shaggy heads.

Not too PC I know... but I really don't give a fuck. I hate bullies and will hurt them back should they choose to engage me. Turning the other cheek is for Christians who like to sing while being eaten by lions.

 

[ScottyTwoHotty]

Human beings are some of the most fucked up creatures on this planet.

Nothing will change. Life is competitive. Life will always be competitive.

Life is life!

 

[gravitas]

The BCTF has got to be one of the most liberal whacko organizations out there

Look at their leader.....jinny sims is a fucking mouth piece who if you looked at her behavior outside the context of organized labour she'd be classified as a bully supreme

This pussification of children is not just happening in BC, but all over North America

Its not just kids....adults are becoming just as bad and starting to deny the fact that there are winners and there are losers in life....fucking deal with it

I don't know about you guys, but when I grew up this "bullying" business was not a big social issue. Of course I was running around much like any other kid, being beat on by the big kids, and beating on kids smaller than me. It's just part of growing up until you figure out that there are more effective ways to getting your way than bullying.

EXACTLY.....its the circle of life simba

I got bullied a lot

There was a period when I stuck out like a sore thumb and was always getting picked on....fights, name calling, the works.....Like you previously mentioned kids figure out a way to deal with it and GROW from the experience. With this molly coddling going on now we're raising generations of soft skinned, weak hearted pansies.

Are we to expect the kid to run away from the keyboard crying and wailing, oh mommy please stop that boy on the internet is hurting me!!!

Here's a way to deal with online/sms bullying.....take the fucking phones/computers away from the kids. No 12 year old needs to have a phone they can sms on, end of story! PC's and the internet are great (god knows I would have rather been able to look at the sears catalog lingerie section online vs. sneaking it from the family room) but for christ sakes supervise you children when they're surfing. I have all sorts of people I work with who have junior in their room or basement with the PC.....don't these mental midgets remember what they were like when they were young??? Kids go looking for trouble and its their parents who are supposed step in the way.

listened to a radio talk show.....gay kid who dressed differently......99% of the callers.....freak manipulator.

stop listening to cbc........here's a fucking hint, if you're a gay 15 year old who dresses differently what in the hell are you expecting from your classmates......99% of the population are idiots.......here's the complaint I have about flamboyant gays and other people who purposely draw attention to themselves, if you go out of your way to be different the the rest of the herd don't be surprised if the herd doesn't want you in the pack

"LOOK AT WHAT YOUR DOG DID TO MY SON!!!"

If the 9 year old fat body or his whinny brood mare can't deal with a scratch from a 5lb dog they should both take a dive off the Lions Gate

We are breeding mediocrity and it will bite us in the ass before long

It started with business post wwii when america and their big swinging dicks got lazy, soon enough japan, china and now korea have become economic superpowers. Now its happening to our (well, your's since I'm never going to have them) kids.



thats enough for now......need to take another dump and then the dog needs walking.....be back for more comments later