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

[hilabeans]

I see some other problems with this, too

[jenett]

There's also the part I bring up - which is that even the most aware teacher isn't going to see everything. There are lots of spaces in schools - hallways, lockers, gym changing rooms, the library - where there are adults around, but where those adults may not overhear every conversation (and, in fact *can't* without both being superhuman and invasive of every student's privacy

[half_double]

even the most aware teacher isn't going to see everything

Yup. Like I said, I'd need to know a lot more about the case to know what the student tried as a first recourse--did he tell someone who chose to ignore it or brush it off? Were there letters? Conferences? But for me, it's almost like he sued them for not being omniscient.

Re: Devil's Advocate

[half_double]

Sorry if this comes across as overly pissy/oversharing

Not at all. Your points are very well taken.

Bullying will never go away in our schools unless blunt legal instruments are available for people who deal with it for years on end.

Sorry, but I absolutely disagree with this. Bullying will never go away in our schools until will fix the "bullying principles" you talk about in your very next sentence. "Blunt legal instruments" don't convince anyone of anything.

Ultimately, my question is: what good does this settlement actually do? How does it help this former student now, 5-6 years after what happened to him? How does it help him for the school to say, "Yes, your childhood was ruined; if we throw some money at you and force our teachers to sit through a seminar, will you go away?" How does it help students enduring bullying today? If the only benefit is the enforcement of "blunt legal instruments", then the bullied becomes the bullyer, and not only have we gained nothing, we've actually lost ground.

Re: Devil's Advocate

[hilabeans]

And this is where my legal strategy point comes in.

If the focus of these suits is making the school districts cough up money as a form of apology, you're right, we've actually lost ground and it's just one side bullying another.

However, it's things like forcing teachers to sit through that seminar and putting students through the training that will start to send the message that this kind of harassment isn't okay. The greater social change has to start somewhere.

Is it going to change overnight? No. But it will start.

Today, we don't think twice about black kids and white kids going to the same school. Not much more than fifty years ago, a handful of black high school students needed a military escort to walk through the doors of their newly integrated school, because the law had recently told the school districts that it wasn't acceptable to exclude them.

No, this isn't exactly the same thing. And maybe behaviors will never change. But we can be sure they won't change if we keep turning a blind eye to them.

Re: Devil's Advocate

[hilabeans]

You make a lot of good points.

For the record, I want to clarify my earlier response. I absolutely believe there should be legal remedies for this. As I said in my earlier post, "I see the point of taking this to court". One of the things the law is there for is to make those "blunt legal instruments" available so they can be used to bludgeon the blind or uncaring into compliance. Sometimes the only way to make people give a damn is legal action. And I think it is going to take a lot of legal action against a lot of schools to start to fix this problem on a nationwide level.

My point was simply that I think there are better legal strategies and remedies that will be more useful in the long run. I think this type of lawsuit is going to become more common with all the media attention bullying (or student harassment in schools, if you prefer) has been getting, and I don't want it to be trivialized by becoming focused on the victim getting money, because the big issue is too important for that. It's not a question of whether these

[cloudscudding]

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

[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.

[sinister_dr_x]

My problem is the money. Negligence shouldn't compel a financial reward unless they were selling something. Should the negligent folks be fired, or possibly brought up on public charges of abetting, sure. Should we whip the bullies, sure. But how does that turn into money? I think that's where the distaste from commenters comes from.

[sinister_dr_x]

My profound answer was lost in livejournal can't post hell