Apparently some parents in Denver think that kids getting beat up is A-OK!
Wes Ashley was stunned by the reaction of parents when he abolished the practice of older students punching and kicking freshmen while they lay on the ground outside East High School. "The parents defended (the beat-down game) as a tradition," said Ashley, East's dean of students. "They said it's finally their kids' chance at doing it."
Well, all-righty, then! That's a great reason to continue the tradition, isn't it? I was beaten, my kid was beaten when he was young and now that he's older, he should have the chance to beat up on some other kid whose only sin is being younger and smaller!
To be sure, the article isn't about that; that's simply the McGuffin. The article is actually about the efforts that some schools are making to end, or at least reduce, bullying behavior. (Some of the efforts sound rather bizarrely like Alcholics Anonymous.) You do wonder about some of the efforts, though. "You bully, therefore, we make you lead," seems to be the theme. And I'm not sure how making bullies into leaders keeps them from setting the tone, or how it deflects attention to their victims. Or how effective it is to teach bullies how they've done wrong, and make them teach against it; they're highly unlikely to actually believe what they're saying, after all.
The Denver Post also has a bulletin board feature at the end of their articles. One person equates bin Laden with bullying. I suppose I can see where you get the analogy, sort of, but I'm not sure about the conclusion: We had to quit talking and take hard physical and military action! Some like Mr. bin Laden just need to be slapped around to get their attention! I guess this means that we should slap the bullies around enough for them to absorb the lesson that slapping people around is wrong ... right?
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
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12/19/2001: vive la france
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12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
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12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!