First, I want to say here that my previous blogs on bullying sum up a lot of what I dealt with and how I feel this issue should be dealt with now… I dealt with being bullied in a different way since I endured the crap all the way up to my senior year…I cut off a lot of my classmates. I don’t attend reunions. There is no point. I never got an invitation to any of the reunions anyway. I was told that they didn’t have my address, which was a lie. They knew my mom’s address which is where anything I get from them goes. With the advent of FB, a few of them could have notified me there, too.
Several of us in that class didn’t get invited to any reunions. It is true. Three of my classmates have since died–one was a friend who died from cancer. I found out about all of them well after the funerals. One of them I didn’t know about for over 2 years because NOBODY bothered to email me or call–and my family didn’t want to “upset” me. My best friend was one of the three, and I had talked to her just prior to her death. That is what did it for me. At least NOW my family lets me know stuff.
Do you remember the Walt Disney movie “Sleeping Beauty“? I often wonder if Malefacent did the things she did because she was treated like crap, but then again, I always think outside of the box–and we only have ONE side of that story…All the bullying I endured–not to mention the abuse at home led to that little thought. I know a few of my classmates went through some hell that changed their lives, but we are so fragmented and diverse that very few of us communicate. The only two reasons I keep going back to my hometown are my sister and my mother.
My sister has great memories of the place–but her experience was different from mine. After Mom is gone, all that will be left are the memories that one clings to, and because of my own memories, I don’t ever plan to live there again. I MIGHT move to Weatherford or Ft. Worth, but I refuse to move back to the mausoleum, which is what that entire town is slowly becoming. I love my sister, but other than that, I would be totally miserable in that place. I left it for good at the age of 23 and have no desire to return there.
The only saving graces in that town were the teachers I had in school, and a few of the police officers and a few administrators and counselors that knew what was going on. I’d break curfew and hang out in front of the station. There were pastors, doctors and a few other people I looked up to as well. They all knew why I left town too. All I can say is that when my book comes out, I will change the names of the town, but when a lot of my classmates figure out who was who, they will be the ones who get very angry. I told them all (especially the bullies) that I can do more with a pen than they ever dreamed possible…When it comes out, they will know it for a fact. No, I’m not seeking revenge on them because the fact that my life is good does that already. I just think things need to be shared as they really were and that they need to quit trying to sell this bullshit fantasy of theirs that all was just hunky dory in that place. It was far from it from my point of view.
Writing was my refuge from all the crap that went on and I spent many days talking to counselors about what I wrote. They finally figured out that it was therapeutic to write a lot of what I voiced about the students who made my childhood a miserable living hell in that place. They also figured out that my fictional characters were the students bullying me. The bullies were very fortunate that I chose the pen deal with them being that some of the bullying was severe…The kids of today have no qualms about harming the bullies because all they want to know at young ages is that they simply want their pain to stop. To them jail or prison is a haven compared to what they are enduring–and unfortunately many feel that violence or suicide are the only options that they have to make that pain go away.
When I was young, there were consequences–real ones for the actions one takes. Now the schools seem to think that what they call “lunch detention” actually works…NEWSFLASH: IT IS A BADGE OF HONOR TO A BULLY TO BE IN THAT! Why? There is an ever-growing population of students who have close family members who are incarcerated. Many of them come from gang families and are groomed to be in a gang position. This carries over into their lives at schools as well and it must not be tolerated. Uniforms are a start. If they can afford to get designer colors and shoes, their parents can afford simple pairs of pants or slacks and a solid colored top. I really don’t want to hear about a student’s individuality because most of the time they are always being led by someone else anyway, and if it is not the parents, then it’s probably someone else in the neighborhood–and it most likely isn’t a decent role model either…
One of the topics that will set a school administrator off is facial hair on a male student. They will waste 30-40 minutes of learning time each day each time he doesn’t shave to try to make him shave and/or call his parents. Offenders in a Texas prison 99% of the time are NOT allowed to have facial hair. Instead of trying to make our schools reminiscent of penal institutions, I say let the kids dress as their parents would allow them to–within reason, and only make them wear the uniform or jumpsuit when they do stupid things–like fighting, cursing at teachers, etc…Their lunch period should not be in the same lunchroom with other students either if doing lunch detention. They should have to be in a classroom with nobody sitting next to them, or in the ISS section in their own booth. I get sick and tired of pscyho-babble that says that they must have that time to socialize. They socialize almost everywhere on campus because nobody will stop them.
I think that in America schools have become not places of refuge and of learning, but of controlling and containing–two tasks at which schools fail miserably. They are in some ways just like penal institutions and students with families in jail (or prison) will not be phased by the discipline methods being used now. They will readily tell you that they see the same stuff going on when they go to a prison visitation. If they don’t tell you that, parents and other relatives can.
IF anyone wants to challenge my opinion on this, they should look at any offender disciplinary plan/procedure in the state they are in the state that they live in and compare it to any school’s disciplinary plans/procedures. It will shock them as to the contents of it being like that of a school disciplinary plan with some differences. In prison there is solitary confinement, loss of commissary, loss of contact visitation (or all of it depending on what happened) and sometimes food loaf for 3 days (if severe infractions warrant it). So now the question just begs to be asked: Why is the United States training its school children to be offenders? No wonder the bullying continues! Watching students fight day after day in the halls on the playground is like watching offenders go at it on the recreation yard or in the wings!
To stop a lot of this, educators need to be taught (evidently) that bullying is no game. It is not just “kids being kids” and it is causing violence and death. Bullying should no longer be used in today’s vocabulary because it has, in recent years, gone beyond taunts and teasing. It is now deep psychological abuse and physical assault. It is not just students engaging in it, but there are times educators engage in this as well by saying things like “Well don’t say anything to Johnny (or Jenny) because she might run home to tell her mommy and we’ll all be in trouble.” Yes, I know a teacher who did this. She should lose her bloody license because what she did by doing that is set the stage for that student to be “pressured into silence” by her peers. The result for this child is that there is a high chance that she would have been bullied also because this teacher is well-liked by the students. Her mother withdrew her when the teacher humiliated her in class a few days after this was reported.
Note: This is also the type of game offenders play in the wings to turn other offenders against each other–and sometimes officers do this too. IF an educator lowers himself/herself to this level, they don’t need to be drawing a paycheck on the taxpayer dime. They are committing psychological and emotional abuse–which is a CRIME people! If the districts do not wish to handle it and take care of it, then they should be reported to the state licensing agency and to the police–period. Get it documented if this is happening to your child.
Educators who know of this type of behavior are required by law to report this also. If you are an educator and you see this happen, and your district is doing nothing–abuse of a child can be anonymously reported. If they end up going to jail and such, and your testimony is needed in this country–then the district cannot retaliate against you without being subject to the “Whistle Blower’s Act”. While this act was originally filed to give the power to the courts to deal with government officials who are committing various crimes, it can also be used to address people who abuse authority and/or become a danger to public health and safety. Educators work for the state, therefore, if they engage in behavior that needs to be addressed, then this law also protects officials who actually report them. Officials in the educational field are not exempt from RICO laws or anything else so I do not know how they could be exempt from this…Read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistleblower_Protection_Act
This teacher had gotten into a spot because another parent reported her. The district failed to act so this parent is now home-schooling her children, who were also severely bullied. Prior to this, the teacher I spoke of humiliated one of the children in class (openly) and this is why the other student went to her mother. The other parent withdrew her child also (as I mentioned earlier) when the teacher started focusing her anger onto that child.
I think it is funny that the school district tried to threaten both sets of parents with calling CPS until their lawyers got court orders to knock off the harassment and filed a formal complaint with the state board for educator certification against the district since it is not against the law to home-school a child. I think the real reason the district decided to have a cow is that they lost $1500 per head per term for each child taken out of school. Between the two families involved, that is a total of 7 children. That translates into a $21,000 dollar a year loss to the district.
This also tells me the district is less interested in stopping the bullying than it is in losing the almighty buck. If they cannot stop the bullying, parents should be able to move their children to ANY other district without question and/or home school them–especially if it is a special needs child that is the victim.
I have seen one movie recently that deals with the bullying issue from the victim’s perspective. It is a movie called “Mad World” with Gary Cairns II. When I watched it, it took me back to my experiences. I could relate to two of the characters in it, but my parents were NOT like Jevon’s parents…However I was the bookworm type. I was the quiet one. I stayed in my room for my safety and to hide from the world. I made good grades and such while half the bullies screwed up. I think I could relate more to both Cory and Jevon–but I did have a classmate that reminded me a lot of Will…That quacking thing really cracked me up and we had one kid in class who cracked me up like that when he opened his mouth. Once in a while he teased me, but he didn’t really get whacked out like the bullies did. I am thinking that he should be a comedian. He would be great at it.
Anyway, here is the trailer for “Mad World”. I strongly recommend it because Cory Cataldo is the only writer I have seen that takes this issue from the point of view of the bullied and from the abused in a film–and these guys went through abuse at school and at home.
Here is the link and it is NOT edited for language and such: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v97q-QeQG0w
As a writer myself, I feel this film deserved a lot more attention for Cataldo’s way of bringing this issue to light. The only issue I had with it is I would have totally left the political slant out of it to reach a wider audience, but that is just the way I would have written it–and how I am writing my book. I loved the movie though. Because it is told through the eyes of the victims, that could be why the political slant is there…The “F” word didn’t bother me either. I’ve heard worse–but I’ve worked in a prison as a sergeant of correctional officers…THAT is one line of work I will never return to either. The reason for that will come out in my 2nd book.
This movie is available on Netflix now.
A good reason I like independent filmmakers is that they are really in touch with the audiences they want to reach. This film did reach me. Gary Cairns is also in another movie right now entitled “Lost in a Crowd”. The cast and crew are also making a difference in the lives of homeless students in L.A. You can see the trailer and info on that stuff here: http://www.indiegogo.com/LIAC?a=103015&i=addr and please share the link!
Anyone who would like to friend me on Facebook is welcome to do so. School bullying is a topic that I speak out against regularly. Here is the link to my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002130892797
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