When Bully Free Zone doesn’t apply to even the teacher…

Bully Free Zone. What public schools are supposed to be in today’s society. Gone are the days of our youth with mild mannered teasing, which still wasn’t right. Today they stalk on the internet, harass by phone, text, camera, and on Facebook walls and sites like Topix. But what do you do as a parent when it is not just they bullies that are the same age as your child? What do you do when you learn that your child was assaulted at school, and a teacher participated in the abuse? This is the case in Washington state. A young 14 year old boy came home suicidal after an intense day at school. When his parents tried to learn why he was so upset the school informed them that he had been beaten up in a class. They later learned that other students had recorded the attack on their cell phones, when the parents sought to see the videos they were told it was impossible due to the privacy rights of the individuals involved, mainly minors. The parents continued to ask for some kind of information about the whole situation before finally obtaining copies of the video and learning that the TEACHER of the class participated in the bullying. 13 minutes of video showed the child being swung by his hands and legs while bucking and attempting to break free, students stacking chairs on the childs chest and holding them on him with their body weight. At some point his shoes and socks were removed and his feet written on while someone else shoved his own sock in his mouth to quiet his screams. At some point the TEACHER joins in and threatens to sit on the child and fart in his face. At the end, when the child is allowed up he goes after the teacher who takes him down , although it looks as if they are playing.

One would think with all that is videotaped students would be punished and the teacher would have been out of a job. But that is not the case. A young boy was relentlessly bullied by friends and a teacher. The punishment for the teacher, 10 days suspension without pay and being transferred to another school in the district. Their stance, ” it was an isolated incident in an 18 year career of teaching. It was a poor judgement in the thought it was horseplay”. I am livid for this child and his parents. Who had to fight to find out the truth about what happened to their son. I am livid because his behavior was pushed to the side and so was the child that was bullied. Their take is because the child looks as if he was playing when he went at the teacher it was horseplay that went to far. Did it ever occur to them the child had endured enough?? That he hoped if he laughed it off they would get tired since apparently the screams for help were not stopping his tormentors. Other children videoed the abuse and laughed. We are raising a generation of children who have no compassion or empathy. They have no desire to do better or be better and the ones that do are bullied for it. We as a society are failing our children, we are handing them game controllers and games that depict violence and abuse. They have become numbed by our lack of concern. They have become jaded by our ease at choosing anything but parenting. We are raising a generation of children who expect it to come to them and if it doesn’t they will beat someone up for it. What is even worse is even a teacher was so jaded he participated in no less than a hazing ritual on a much smaller child. An ADULT who we trust to care for our kids was part of the problem. Other adults who were supposed to do the right thing for that child have failed him as well. By minimizing what happened to him, they have told him he is not worthy of respect or freedom to learn without fear. Regardless of anything else they do now, they have told him he is not worthy and for an education system that is wrong. Any way you look at it.

 wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather