Fearless Friday - Bullying
In response to all the suicides of LGBTQ students who were bullied (and I'm sure some suicides of students who were bullied not because of their gender or sexual preference, but because they were different in other ways that doesn't have an advocacy group), Al Franken is proposing legislation that prohibit bullying and harassment of LGBTQ students on the federal level. He's also supporting the safe schools improvement act. Here's the link to the announcement and one to the newspaper piece.
It's a good thing that Al Franken is doing, because it brings attention to the problem in a way that such attention has not been paid before. Those who violate the law will be subject to federal penalties.
However, legislation does not create safe schools. Implementing that legislation may not even be enough to make schools safe. Neither one gets to the root of the problem. Bullies happens when one person doesn't recognize that another as a human being: That recognition is key to leading people to follow the Golden Rule. It's possible to flip this on it's head, too, and say that in and follow the Golden Rule, you don't bully, because you don't want to be bullied. Or, if you don't buy the Golden Rule, there's always Horton's philosophy (that would be Dr. Seuss's creature, not Tim the Canadian's): "A person's a person, no matter how small."
The only way to stop bullying is to create understanding, respect, and compassion for all people, including those who are different from you, and that can't be done through legislation. It's not even enough to say that the legislation will mandate education in anti-bullying behavior for all students, because unfortunately we all know that students don't necessarily connect specific training with their own behavior. Nor do schools necessarily buy in. Their "anti-bullying education" could become a token effort that would diminish the seriousness with which this issue should be treated.
I'm also afraid that this legislation will drive bullying behavior underground, further into cyberspace, or student bathrooms, where it's more difficult for anyone to intervene. It could even lead to deeper despair on the part of the victims, who might in some cases feel that they are even more alone and isolated because their tormentors should know that what they are doing is wrong--after all, they took the anti-bullying class.
What can we do to stop bullying? It's up to each of us, individually, to stand up to bullying and tell them to stop their behavior, even at the risk of becoming their targets ourselves. It's also up to each of us, individually, to let the targets, the victims, know that we are there for them in whatever way they want us to be--a shoulder to cry on, an ally to stand beside them, a witness if they need one.
One of the first Holocaust scholars, the late Raul Hilberg, called one of his works Perpetrators, Victims, and Bystanders. The first and last of these three groups are responsible for the loss of millions of lives, solely for who those people were--Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, Communists. So, so few stepped in to intervene. Those who did, whose work can be documented and verified, are recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. It is up to us, now, to follow their example and be righteous in standing up for the rights of anyone who is bullied, whether it is because they love someone of the same sex, wish they had the body of the opposite sex, or are short/tall/fat/skinny/have an odd gait/can't afford the right clothes.
It's up to us. Are you with me?