I'm SO sick of bullies! Are you?!

[Royd]

Are you going to send your sister to freezer camp?

 

[Godsgrl]

My ds was bullied to the point of becoming suicidal in middle school. Fortunately, we caught it before he did anything serious, but the incident has really messed him up, and it's been a long road of recovery. It is so heartbreaking how cruel kids can be to one another. How no one saw what was going on at the school is beyond me, I would think the staff would be more in tune to what the students are doing between classes and such.

 

[KCchickens]

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Sometimes I'd really like to! It's what happens when your a jerk.... You go to freezer camp !

 

[EweSheep]

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I thought so too until one teacher was expressing her concern that confirms my suspections all along. From now on, I'm going to let each teacher knows what my dd is capable of and keep an eye out on her and the kids she plays with just in case it gets out of hand. So far so good since the meeting last week and the teachers said that she is playing well with other kids.

Teachers should have been more aware of but it's a big responsibility when the classes are oversized that they can not see everything going on. Some bullies are very good at being secretive.

 

[newfoundland]

Sadly bullying seems to be endemic in our societies. Scratch the surface of any school, no matter how good, and you will find bullying even in the staff room. Older colleagues bullying younger ones. We all know about bullying in the workplace as well. I think it creeps up on institutions gradually, and before long pushing and shoving, both physically and metaphorically, becomes the norm. I think teachers have such a hard time of it just getting through the day without anarchy breaking out, that there is little time to spare for ferreting out potential bullying situations. I have worked in some of the best, highest achieving schools in London and you would not believe the bullying I have seen! Fiercely challenged by the staff, I'll admit, but even confronting parents with the unacceptable behaviour of their children, is frequently met with indifference. Back in the day this would never have happened. I have to say that some newer citizens and their families, have very different values from the indigenous population.

 

[FarmerJamie]

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Is there more bullying or just more visibility to it? Or is it the parent's indifference?

 

[charmedbychickens]

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If I just dropped a kid off at a street corner, I would be fired. We have to go through a lot to get a kid kicked off the bus. There was only one that I tried to get kicked off. Wrote him up at least 10 times. He must have had an IEP because I never did get him off.

Yes, there is never a dull moment on the bus. Kids love to see what they can get away with.

 

[KCchickens]

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Is there more bullying or just more visibility to it? Or is it the parent's indifference?

I think there's more visibility to it along with more outlets for people to get at each other. And Im sure parents indiference plays a big part of it.

 

[EweSheep]

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If I just dropped a kid off at a street corner, I would be fired. We have to go through a lot to get a kid kicked off the bus. There was only one that I tried to get kicked off. Wrote him up at least 10 times. He must have had an IEP because I never did get him off.

Yes, there is never a dull moment on the bus. Kids love to see what they can get away with.

What she would do is to call the parents to see if the parents will come and pick him up. If not, she will call the supervisor and the supervisor will come for him, take him home and visit the parents to let them know their little Johnny or Johnettes was misbehaving. It happened just once in her 12 years of driving a bus. The kids know her by now, passed down the information to other kids that my sister is nothing to jerk around on the bus. She told them they better behave so they can have their "eating on the bus as long they pick up their trash". If ONE trash is found, the eating on the bus would be suspended for an indefinate time. One kid mouthed her one day, she pulled over, stopped the bus and turned around and faced the kid and gave him a real talk down.

From that day forward that kid didn't talk back at her and "yes, maam, no maam" all polite as you can be.

The stories of sex and all the stuff would make her laugh silently not to let them know what idiots they were....one was if they sat on a seat right after the boy left, the girl who sat on that chair would get pregnant! Or when one starts menstrating, the girls would tell the first timer that she is now "pregnant" LOLOLOL!

Anyway, bullying on her bus is not tolerated. She has cameras in her bus. And does not have a bus monitor person with her for a long time.

 

[newfoundland]

I think it is a generally more aggressive world. Maybe parents don't have the same time to teach their children about kindness and thoughtfulness. In my experience, children aren't born as bullies. If they are treated with gentleness and respect, it's what they learn at their mother's knee. We do tend to pattern our behaviour on the behaviour we see around us. I'm not a fan of encouraging children to be too pushy. It is often the pushy child who tips over into bullying when he/she can't get their own way. I have to say that i always told my children to get the help of an adult in bullying situations, and for us, it worked. We have taught them to stand their ground, and not be pushed around, but never to use force other than to push someone off them. We see aggression everywhere, particularly on television, just in the way people talk to each other. I think it is urban sprawl. People aren't meant to live that close to each other. We see it in animals that are too tightly housed together, aggression sets in!