The stories I hear from these kids are always very candid. I guess they feel safe with me. I dunno. I always ask them about their week, and I never know what I will get as a response.
The crap these kids deal with on an everyday basis hurts me. They are bullied, taunted, ridiculed and (occassionally) assaulted on an almost daily basis in school. When I ask if they have told an adult, the answer is usually
- "Yes, but nothing happened."
- "Yes, but it got worse when [the offender] found out, so I stopped saying anything."
- "Yes, but there is nothing the teacher/Mom/Dad/etc. can do."
People, I know from experience that it practically takes an Act of Congress to get a kid removed from school for bullying, etc. In the interim, most of the measures taken (if any) seem like they are punishing the victim, not the offender.
Take this for example: A parent went to a school to complain about her son being physically assaulted by another student. The action taken? The victim was removed from the classroom, not the offender. So, in the eyes of the offender, nothing happened. Yeah. Way to show the offender that his behavior was not acceptable.
Why not remove the offender? Why not isolate the offender? Instead, the victim is basically taken into protective custody.
So back to the kids in my class.
These kids know how The System works. it's sad. They know that they will not be protected, that The System is geared to protect the offender. (We can't trample on Little Johnny's rights, now can we? Just because he terrorizes other kids, well, that's not the issue, now is it?)
Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong.
The System needs to change. Until it does, my kids are staying away from public schools.
1 comment:
Very sad :(
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