Nine-year old apparently commits suicide at school

There has always been bullying. When I was in 4th grade a 6th grader picked on me and was making my life miserable. This went on for a long time until my teacher(now that I look back I suspect she was a lesbian...not that it matters)told me to deal with it and "kick his ass". I was lucky that I was able to do just that and that was the end of my being bullied. My point, other then to let everyone know that I was one bad ass 4th grader, is that kids have always been bullied, why are they now killing themselves or shooting up the school?

One difference I see is that today kids feel as if they have "rights"...the right to "be happy", the right to be heard, the right to being treated fairly etc. Now I agree that this is all well and good. I also suspect that I am a terribly grumpy old man. But when I was 9 years old (1971) I had the right to STFU and go to school and do as I was told and grow up to be a man. I am not saying that those were "the good old days" just that there are often times unintended consequences to very good ideas and philosophies. Am I totally off base here? If so why have kid's reactions to stress changed so much?

 

I'm going to guess that this poor kid had other mental health issues beyond bullying, although those issues might have been what drew the bully to him in the first place.

I'd like to think I'm as tough as anyone on schools when it comes to handling bullying, but they can only do so much if the parents aren't in their corner.

Early this fall my son's junior high hosted an event on cyberbullying, featuring a guy whose son had killed himself, with Dad talking about how after the fact he dug into his son's computer (he's an IBM guy) and discovered all the cyberbullying going on.

The gym was set up with 150 chairs. Seven parents, including myself, showed up.

A lot of parents just want to keep their head in the sand about this, and as long as their kid isn't getting picked on, then fuck 'em.

 

Parents. This is another reason to always tell your kids you love them before you let them out of sight.

 

I'm not ripping the person who posted this thread, but why would anyone want to know about this?

I feel sick.

 

Have they changed?

 

You would. However your average school administrator is a gutless fucking asshole and isn't going to do anything that causes his/her ADM, and therefore, level of federal funding to drop.

Kids are bullying other kids? Big deal, we need our gubmint money.

 

What's also changed is that we now know there are long-term effects to bullying -- on both sides. Even schools that really don't do anything about bullying at least pay lip service to the idea that it's not good, which is a change from 20 or 30 years ago, when it still was written off as kids being kids.

Where schools vary widely is how they handle, and if they can. As I mentioned earlier, if the parents are indifferent, or are bullies themselves, the school can only do so much. But a lot of schools still haven't figured out how to handle it without making things worse. Plus, once it's off school grounds (including the bus), then the school has no control whatsoever.

 

If the bus is owned by the school district and driven by a school district employee they sure as fuck have control.

 

Sorry I was unclear -- I meant the bus is included in school grounds.

 

The parents, school officials and cops really can't do much. It's up to the kids and their peers to put a stop to it.

 

The school district can kick the bullying shits out of school. But that costs money.

 

You have to catch them first -- and on school property. And most bullying by far is verbal.

Most kids don't want to run to the principal and say that Johnny just called him a fag.