Originally Posted by temper11 (Post 11346801)

This is going to be a really unpopular post here, but my brother is an administrator at a middle school and talks all the time about the fact that there really isn't anything they can do unless they actually catch the accused bully in the act. A letter from parents isn't enough for them to take action or they get sued by the accused bully's parents. Many people want to blame the school administration, but it's really the lawyers that are calling the shots on what can and can't be done. Administrators have their hands tied until they actually catch the act in progress. I've got 4 kids ranging in ages 6 to 17 so elementary school, middle school and high school. I've got at least one kid in each of them right now. I teach my kids to stand up for other kids who are being bullied. Get their friends to stand up with them. Make bullying unpopular for the bully. I didn't get bullied but I wish I'd have stood up more for kids that did. I was in position to do so on occasion (just teasing stuff) and didn't do enough to put a stop to it.

Originally Posted by Dicky McElephant (Post 11346812)

Guess what they can do? Keep an eye on the kid.

Originally Posted by temper11 (Post 11346822)

Not being argumentative... but they get many letters or calls about many kids bullying. They can't put tails on all of them. So in football terms they "play zone" not "man to man". Again - I'm not being argumentative. I just know my brother and I know he would do anything he could to protect his students. He gets a ton of crap from parents who's kids have been bullied trying to blame him personally for what happened to their kid.

Originally Posted by Dicky McElephant (Post 11346827)

I'm not claiming that it's the schools fault entirely, but if you get multiple letters about a certain kid.....then you start watching him more intently. There are teachers in the lunch room. I realize they have to pay attention to an entire room of kids....but at that point....they need to keep an eye on the kid that has been brought to their attention.

Originally Posted by Boise_Chief (Post 11346842)

I had similar thing with my youngest son. He was being picked on by a older bigger boy daily. We contacted the teacher, bus driver, and recess duties. Nothing was done. I went to the school and spoke with the principal.

I told her that my older son was going to beat this boy up at recess. In the event that he was unable then his older sister would damn sure get it done.

She was shocked and kept repeating you can't do that. I told her that he and we have repeatedly asked for help. That they werent protecting my son. So they had a choice take care of it in the nexy hour or I would and if my older son was reprimanded in anyway I would sue the district and win.

Never the less it was taken care of and I had aphone call from the district superintendent about 20 mins later.

I teally feel for this kid and his family. Im not a sue happy guy but I think they should consider filing a suit.

They

Originally Posted by Boise_Chief (Post 11346842)

I had similar thing with my youngest son. He was being picked on by a older bigger boy daily. We contacted the teacher, bus driver, and recess duties. Nothing was done. I went to the school and spoke with the principal.

I told her that my older son was going to beat this boy up at recess. In the event that he was unable then his older sister would damn sure get it done.

She was shocked and kept repeating you can't do that. I told her that he and we have repeatedly asked for help. That they werent protecting my son. So they had a choice take care of it in the nexy hour or I would and if my older son was reprimanded in anyway I would sue the district and win.

Never the less it was taken care of and I had aphone call from the district superintendent about 20 mins later.

I teally feel for this kid and his family. Im not a sue happy guy but I think they should consider filing a suit.

They

Originally Posted by Iowanian (Post 11346855)

Pretty terrible and unnecessary that this happened. If this 200lb 8th grader is so tough, he should be fighting sophomores, or playing football, or wrestling for his school.

Pretty extreme and there needs to be some serious consequences because it happened.

From my observations, kids are pretty terrible to each other today. I think there are 2 key factors. 1. Social media makes it easy. YikYak is Aweful. 2. Kids have been trained that fighting is wrong and they don't typically have to worry about a beating for the things they say and do.

Boise, your solution is exactly how bullying was handled 20 years ago.
I remember getting a call and coming home from college because a big senior was beating on the 7th grade boys, including my youngest brother. A minute of "conversation" with him, and monday morning he apologized to an entire table of the boys he had been beating on and said it would never happen again.