The bully-pulpit.

[half_double]

I heard a story on the news this morning about the Fargo School District paying a former student a $300,00 settlement in a case alleging that the student was bullied for several yearsI am opposed to bullying. I hope for the day when our schools and culture foster a climate that makes it clear that no form of bullying will be tolerated. Better yet--

Comments

[cloudscudding]

This was more than just minor bullying--it was severe physical and emotional abuse that the school system ignored.

"The lawsuit said the school district didn't properly respond to repeated complaints about the bullying and didn't do enough to punish the perpetrators."
- http://www.bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/article_2955d12e-1422-11e0-b1f5-001cc4c002e0.html

Bing, bang, culpability! And note that the student only gets $190,000--the rest goes to pay his lawyer.

Aaaand, from this article with more detail, I'd say he deserves every penny.

"Court documents paint the picture of a boy tormented because he had vision and speech impairments.

The suit claimed the boy was beaten, suffered bruised ribs, and was sent to a psychiatric hospital six times because he wanted to kill himself.

Court documents say the bullying started when the boy was in fourth grade, continued for years, until his parents transferred him to a private school.

Most of these incidents were reported to teachers and staff. Allegedly, nothing was ever investigated. At one point, the family was told it was just "kids being kids.""
- http://www.valleynewslive.com/Global/story.asp?S=13681290

[half_double]

Thank you. That's a level of detail I hadn't been able to find at the time. At this point we are looking at someone who may lack the internal resources to deal with this, which spins the picture to a whole new angle.

I do still worry, though, when we start talking about damages awarded for "pain and suffering"; it reinforces a mindset that we can do whatever we want, as long as we have "Oops" money to "make it right".

I also remain strongly opposed to lawsuits in which the losing party has to pay the winners attorney fees. That's just tacky. I may be alone in this.

[cloudscudding]

It's all about context, and as somebody else pointed out in the comments, the original article had precious little of it.