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The Don’t Ask,
Don’t Tell of Bullying
One of the most disturbing news articles I have
read in a while appeared this week in
The Tucson Weekly, an
“alternative” newspaper. What I found disturbing was not in the printed
words, but in the so-called “words between the lines.” While the
article was a straightforward restatement of a Tucson Police Report on a
violent incident among school children, it also described the kind of
negligence by school officials that is far too common and occasionally
gets people killed.
The police report resulted from an altercation
among school children in which the victim was attacked by other kids,
placed in a chokehold, tied up, and taunted. When he freed himself, he
was attacked again, placed in a headlock, and kicked in the shin. The
police report also stated that at least two bystanders “were just
standing there laughing.”
I don’t know which school the victim attends (the
Police Report indicated a location near Irvington and Mission) but, if I
did, I’d have a long, hard talk with the school’s counselor. Here is
why:
The victim was reportedly quite upset and got a pass from a
teacher to go visit the school counselor, who was not available at the
time. He reportedly tried to visit the counselor again during sixth
period; the counselor "deemed it as being a scuffle or just goofing
around, horse playing, with the kids," the report said.
If that was the extent of the counselor’s response
then he or she ought to be fired immediately, because that kind of
negligent response from school officials has made bullying on campuses a
national scandal, placed lives in danger, and gotten a few people
killed. And the ones who do the killing are frequently not the bullies,
but bullying victims who have been pushed too far.
Last fall in Las Vegas, Nevada, an 11-year-old
middle school student who was small for his size and constantly picked
on, finally had enough. He hid a knife in some bushes near his school.
When he was confronted by two of his tormentors on the way home from
school, he retrieved the knife and stabbed them both. They were
injured, but survived.
Just a week or so ago at a middle school in
California, a student who had been the victim of bullying also reached
his breaking point. When the bully began to once again harass him, he
pulled out a pair of scissors and ripped open the bully’s forehead. He
had been carrying the scissors out of fear for his personal safety.
There are worse incidents. In Paducah, Kentucky
and
Cazenovia, Wisconsin, students who had suffered at the hands of bullies
fought back with weapons and people were killed. And we certainly
remember Columbine High School in Colorado where Dylan Klebold and Eric
Harris, both victims of bullying, slaughtered numerous victims in a
mindless, tragic killing spree. Both Klebold and Harris died as well,
taking their own lives. Dylan Klebold and his father had just visited
Arizona State University, where he had been admitted for the coming
school year. His future died in the chaos of smoke and bloodshed.
The student in California who slashed his tormentor
in the forehead had never told school authorities about the bullying.
Upon learning that, school officials breathed a sigh of relief,
believing that they had no responsibility for the attack. Since the
student never reported the bullying, how could the school have done
anything about it? Schools are not responsible for incidents they could
not reasonably foresee.
That, however, is a legal analysis, not an
educational one. It is a good defense to a lawsuit for negligence –
including negligent supervision – when the defense is that nobody could
see the attack coming.
But when you look more closely at schools and the
way they respond to bullying, another picture frequently emerges: a
picture of a school climate that encourages bullying, rather than
discouraging it. A school in which a counselor can say of a serious
attack that it’s only “horseplay” is a fertile ground for bullying
behavior. So is a school where bystanders, rather than intervening, are
“just standing there laughing.”
Arizona has passed
a law against bullying in public schools. The principal and
counselor of the school near Mission and Irvington need to read it,
understand it, and implement it.
American public schools historically have
demonstrated a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to bullying in schools.
The teachers and administrators don’t ask about bullying incidents. The
consequence is that victims don’t tell them about the bullying. Why
should they, when adults don’t seem to understand the problem and don’t
want to deal with it? Instead, the victims of bullying in schools
suffer silently…until they have had enough.
© March 1, 2007 by
Mike Tully |
