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[CT]
Kid Bullied to Leave School Because He Wasn’t ‘Black Enough’
Connecticut Post
/Jan, 31, 2012
The student stabbed Ryan in the back with a mechanical pencil and walked away. There was no explanation, no words exchanged at all. But Ryan knew why it happened. Scared to tell the teacher, all Ryan could do was to go to the bathroom to wash off the blood. Read full article.
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on February 2nd, 2012 at 1:04 pm
As a victim, myself, the subject of hazing, bullying or just plain disrespectful behavior I actually feel sorry for those who engage in such actions. Over the years, I have found what makes a bully are their own feeling of inferiority. They must lash out against that they feel they are not.
on February 9th, 2012 at 3:42 am
“walterius”
I completely respect your opinion, and there may be some truth to what you are saying, but I personally feel that opinions like this gives the “bullies” a way out…”I can’t control my actions, because I have a self esteem issue. I am not happy with myself, so how can I be happy with others.
I read this news article and what I hear the administrators saying….all too clear…I am not going to do anything about your child being bullied, because if I do I will have other, more important, parents breathing down my back.
The other thing I didn’t see in this article is how much Native Americans are bullied. My wife and kids are Alaskan Native and we live in a majority white community/majority white school. When I walked into the school with my kids, I was greeted with smiles and polite talk, but when my wife walked into the school with the kids, she would be treated like she was scum. One of my kids had to have meds mid-day, every day. I did an audit on her meds one day and found out that some of her meds were missing. The excuse I was given, “We don’t know what happen to them. We may have dropped them on the floor.” When I asked about why no notation was in her file, I was given the excuse, “We can’t do everything for you!” This was at a small school of about 100 students or less…grade school. To solve this problem we spent more money on a medication that she had to take only once a day. As far as my wife’s problem…she tried to take care of it herself, but the administrator did nothing. I finally had to show up…on my way to work…in uniform…to show them that we were serious. Can you tell me how stupid that is. Why would anybody have to go to that extent to get fairness for their family?
I have another child (just for the record all of my kids are adults now), that when he was in high school, he was being bullied by 5 varsity football players. He was acussed of bringing a knife (pocket knife) to an after hours school function. Now, let me say that I don’t condone what he did, nor did I expect nothing to be done. He was sent to a formal hearing for his actions, and that I expected and was glad to see them do.
Before the hearing, I met with the Assistant VP and the VP. I asked both of them for specific policies, but both of them refused to produce them for me. I was told by both that they didn’t have a policy manual at the school. The sad part is that when the Assistant VP left the room, I was looking at his bookshelf and saw the manual ont he top shelf.
My son was told that he didn’t need to have me at the hearing, and that I couldn’t attend unless he (my son) “invited” me to the hearing. At first my son didn’t want me to go, but after explaining to him that he was being set up and was going to be railroaded, he asked me to attend.
At the hearing, both the Assistant VP and the School Resource Officer (SRO) explained that my son’s actions were so bad and that he violated not only school policy, but State and Federal laws. They painted this picture of a bad seed…that had just gotten worse. I was humiliated and horrified.
It was finally my turn to talk. I brought to the attention of the Hearings Officer the investigation that the Assistant VP and SRO had done and that in the comments section of this investigation form, they had written a quote from my son that said, “I was carrying the knife for protection.” I asked both the Asst VP and SRO if that quote raised any red flags for them. They told me that it didn’t. I then asked the Asst VP why the school fails to enforce the Federal Mandate on bullying. He told me that they do enforce the mandate and that they do have a policy about bullying. I then asked him why he refused to enforce the policy.
The Hearings Officer stepped in and told me that I was out of line with my questions. I asked her to give me a little concideration with these questions, that I was getting to a point. She did and I asked the Asst VP why he hadn’t stopped the bullying that was happening to my son….this is where the rubber met the road.
The Asst VP danced around the question. He was trying to tell me that my son hadn’t told him about any bullying, but then he changed his answer and told me that my son likes to stretch the truth…”well, which is it? Did my son talk to you, or if he didn’t talk to you, how do you know that he stretches the truth?”
The Hearings Officer finally asked my son if he had talked to either of these two. My son, out of fear of retaliation, said that he hadn’t talked to anybody about the bullying.
Both the Asst VP and the SRO stated in this formal hearing that neither of them had talked to my son about other students bullying him. That was truly a sad day, but it gets worse.
After the hearing was over, the SRO (a fellow law enforcement person…both of us in uniform at this hearing) came over to me and told me that they were sorry. They told me that my son had come to them with a complaint about bullying. They told me that there were five varsity football players that had been bullying my son, but that they just had had the time to call the boys in to talk to them. I asked the SRO how long they had been sitting on this complaint. Their answer floored me. They told me that my son had filed the complaint three months before the hearing.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Both the Asst VP and the SRO had the complaint for three months and did nothing. The SRO told me that I didn’t understand, that they couldn’t do an investigation, that they were told to let it go and do nothing. I told the SRO that their actions were unacceptable, that I am never allowed to blow off my duties to protect people, and that I have stuck my neck on the line several times, and had been threatened with, “Drop it or be fired” a few times, but I still followed through with the investigation…just to protect those that can’t protect themself.
The issue of bullying doesn’t fall on just the person that is the bully, as many people try to get others to believe. The biggest part of the problem is that the teachers, aides, administrators, and anybody that works at the schools, don’t want to get involved, or they don’t want to have a losing season in sports, or they don’t want to have donors pull their money, or, in my son’s case, all of the above…plus…he is not white.
It was really sad that one of the kids that was bullying him, drove a big truck that always flew a “Rebel” flag on the back. This was not a small sticker in the window. This was a 5×7 (foot) flag on a flag pole that was attached to his rollbar. He was well known for making racist remarks (in school and out of school). If that doesn’t scream racist/bully, I don’t know what would.