Wednesday, January 16 2008: Enforcement

[Bocaj Claw]

Meanwhile, I didn't get bullied because I look like a nearly unhinged psychopath! See kids, judging books by their covers is sometimes advantageous!

[Kazapsky]

I don't think bullying is the norm, and that alot of people may be exagerating their experiences with it.

That's exactly the sort of head-in-the-sand attitude that allows bullying to thrive. You can't follow a newspaper (a real one, not one that begins and ends where a small town does) for more than a day or two without running across at least one story about a kid reduced to the emotional state Millie was in the other day ("Breaking Point" panel 3) by their peers' actions - if not worse. More often than not, the school administration blows it off as a "minor incident", if they acknowledge it at all.

That many instances of the same story makes the exaggeration argument undefendable. Only the extreme variety of this behavior makes it into the news.

[caffeinefox]

I actually spent time in both private and public schools in my youth. Neither one is fair :p in private school I was blamed for something I didn't do and they couldn't prove and yet I was pulled from private school and more then a few times I was in trouble for stuff I didn't or couldn't possibly do in public school. The difference? in private school the principal had a paddle that he showed me and told me if I kept acting up it would be the thing tanning my hide In Public school I was just sent home or given detention..=P

[Hanging Tree]

I don't think bullying is the norm, and that alot of people may be exagerating their experiences with it.

That's exactly the sort of head-in-the-sand attitude that allows bullying to thrive. You can't follow a newspaper (a real one, not one that begins and ends where a small town does) for more than a day or two without running across at least one story about a kid reduced to the emotional state Millie was in the other day ("Breaking Point" panel 3) by their peers' actions - if not worse. More often than not, the school administration blows it off as a "minor incident", if they acknowledge it at all.

That many instances of the same story makes the exaggeration argument undefendable. Only the extreme variety of this behavior makes it into the news.

Well I'm sorry if I don't believe that nearly every single person here got bullied every single day and all the school employees turned a blind eye except to get them in trouble. I don't believe people didn't get bullied, I just think it gets blown out of proportion. Getting picked on alot for a few weeks stand out alot more in a person's memory then the months or years they were ignored so they latch onto that, exagerate it, and then post the story.

[Tobe]

Is it bad I registered just for this thread?

Anyway, if bullying is so bad that it affects kids as badly as Tree says it does, whether it's a common occurrence or not, isn't it in the best interest of kids to stop it?

The devil's advocate would say no. Because just like if kids were to be exposed to people on alcohol/drugs, they don't want to act stupid like the person they saw (personal experience). The same would be true for bullies, if a kid is bullied they don't want to be one simply because they know the effect of such acts.

It, this thread I mean, is going to boil down to the people that were picked on saying it's something to be stopped as soon as possible, and the people that weren't picked on will say it isn't a major problem. This is simply because in the eyes of a majority of people something doesn't become a problem until it affects them.


On a personal note, I think Millie's "paw ache" could easily be remedied via a large helping of rabbit stew.


~Tobe

[Tom Flapwell]

I actually spent time in both private and public schools in my youth. Neither one is fair :p in private school I was blamed for something I didn't do and they couldn't prove and yet I was pulled from private school

That's what happened to a friend of mine who had switched from my public school to a private one. From the things he said, his new school was not better from a social perspective.

[Kazapsky]

Well I'm sorry if I don't believe that nearly every single person here got bullied every single day and all the school employees turned a blind eye except to get them in trouble.

I never said that. But it most certainly goes underreported, as do most types of violence.

And I stand by my story. If you went back and relived my school years from primary to grade 12, you could count on your hands the number of days per year I didn't get singled out for harassment at least once.

[Foxchild]

I've never gone to a school where they did things like that. If the teacher could tell what was going on, then thats how it was handled.

[Trexxen]

It was recess and I was out running around, and of course I'm not the most athletic of people...and, as younger children usually are, I was also not the most reasonable of people. One kid in particular, though, just wanted to make my life miserable. He was about a head taller than me, and taunted me by insulting me and holding the ball above my head. I eventually became so frustrated I began to cry, but I still didn't do anything. I then threatened to tell the teacher, and this snapped him back to reality. He shoved the ball in my face hard enough to bust my lip wide open.

I didn't even throw a punch.

Who wants to guess who got suspended and who didn't?

WTF did the authorities believe happened?!

That's what makes it so bad. They know what happened. But, in their eyes, somehow threatening to tell became "provoking", and I got reprimanded and told to watch my mouth. It was the last 2 days before graduation, too, so my dad had to go in there and set things right just for me to get my graduation stuff. *sigh* Oh well...

[Amber]

It was recess and I was out running around, and of course I'm not the most athletic of people...and, as younger children usually are, I was also not the most reasonable of people. One kid in particular, though, just wanted to make my life miserable. He was about a head taller than me, and taunted me by insulting me and holding the ball above my head. I eventually became so frustrated I began to cry, but I still didn't do anything. I then threatened to tell the teacher, and this snapped him back to reality. He shoved the ball in my face hard enough to bust my lip wide open.

I didn't even throw a punch.

Who wants to guess who got suspended and who didn't?

WTF did the authorities believe happened?!

That's what makes it so bad. They know what happened. But, in their eyes, somehow threatening to tell became "provoking", and I got reprimanded and told to watch my mouth. It was the last 2 days before graduation, too, so my dad had to go in there and set things right just for me to get my graduation stuff. *sigh* Oh well...

That is the craziest things I've ever heard of. In my public school, they always had a yearly unit in English on bullying and what to do about it, and the first thing they said was to tell the teacher.

I've never had a teacher defend the bully, but one time I had told on them to a "Peer Mediator" Older students who annoyed people who looked lonely in recess until they found some people to force to play with the "Lonely" person, who usually was having a great time with their imagination until they were interrupted. Anyway, when I got to the lunch line, one of the girls in the group of bullies would go to me at a time and ask me why I told on them. I was in tears, but no one noticed.

[teozo]

I was reading the strip and came over this
http://www.ozyandmillie.org/d/20001209.html
That was an act of hostilaty technicly sawn, but still Sorkowitz didn't saw it and Milli still got sent to the principl
http://www.ozyandmillie.org/d/20001211.html

[Tom Flapwell]

It was the last 2 days before graduation, too, so my dad had to go in there and set things right just for me to get my graduation stuff.

Well, at least you didn't have to stay at that crap school any longer.

[osprey]

It was recess and I was out running around, and of course I'm not the most athletic of people...and, as younger children usually are, I was also not the most reasonable of people. One kid in particular, though, just wanted to make my life miserable. He was about a head taller than me, and taunted me by insulting me and holding the ball above my head. I eventually became so frustrated I began to cry, but I still didn't do anything. I then threatened to tell the teacher, and this snapped him back to reality. He shoved the ball in my face hard enough to bust my lip wide open.

I didn't even throw a punch.

Who wants to guess who got suspended and who didn't?

WTF did the authorities believe happened?!

That's what makes it so bad. They know what happened. But, in their eyes, somehow threatening to tell became "provoking", and I got reprimanded and told to watch my mouth. It was the last 2 days before graduation, too, so my dad had to go in there and set things right just for me to get my graduation stuff. *sigh* Oh well...

And they question why bullying is becoming such a problem in schools. If anything, he provoked you by holding the damn ball over your head!

[Baconsticks]

My school is a prime example of what bullying can do, I think.

[Hanging Tree]

The shooters just wanted to be the biggest rebels in school.