| The irony that it's "Arsenal" high school and he brought a stun gun...
I've had to pull two of my children out of school because of bullying and get counseling and depression meds for my son because of it. My oldest daughter was beaten up at school while waiting for a bus because she's gay (no action taken by the superintendent, school board or principal or police). My youngest has been on home school for a year and half because I noticed signs of her becoming a bully/mean girl. When you are the parent of someone being bullied you want to keep them close and build their self-esteem. When you are the parent of a bully you want to do the same because it rises from the same lack of confidence. The worst bully in the school wasn't actually other students but the teachers and administrators who condone and contribute to the environment. Publicly humiliating children as a teaching "method" doesn't work, and I do realize our education professionals need more tools and better training to deal with the school violence, but we also contribute to their stress by not funding education enough, by overcrowding schools, by electing officials who don't make education a priority, the list goes on and on. I'm kind of at the point where I'd just rather educate my children myself rather than deal with the bullshit that comes from public education, and I'm sure many more parents are at that point too. |