Schools Create This Situation in The First Place

The bullying story is heart-wrenching and tragic. The blame part is where things get messy. While I certainly believe in personal responsibility and that the kids who tormented the girl were horrible, what absolutely no one is considering is the environment. The only other place where you see this kind of behavior take place is in prison and that is because in both situations you have a captive population who are powerless and bullied by warden/principal and correction officers/administrators-teachers (and to a large degree parents as well). The power dynamics that unfolds among the student population is due to their powerless nature and their need to create some kind of environment where they can have power. While I have no love for bullies, the school created the monsters it now seeks to punish and thereby deny culpability. While people are also upset with people at the school for turning a blind eye, they miss the point since schools create this situation in the first place.

A 'watershed' case in school bullying?
By Rick Hampson, USA TODAY
SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. — At first, it seemed like a morality play: school officials stand by as an innocent high school freshman, new in town, is harassed into suicide by a pack of older teens.
A week after criminal charges were filed, the case of Phoebe Prince seems more cloudy and complicated, much like the insidious national problem that may have helped kill her: school bullying.

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Schools Create a Culture Where Bullies Can Thrive

I applaud this article even though it does not address the root cause of bully behavior. The problem is that school is essentially a prison-like environment where students have no power. We see this kind of power dynamic in very similar manifestations in prison as well. Schools, by their nature, create this culture that breeds this kind of behavior. The criticism here rightly sees the response by the community as yet another power grab to control students to even more disturbing degrees.

Should we be criminalizing bullies?

By Ruth Marcus

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

My heart aches for the parents of Phoebe Prince, the 15-year-old Massachusetts high school student who committed suicide in January after being relentlessly bullied at school and online.

My heart aches for her younger sister, who found Phoebe hanging in the stairwell of the family's home. A scarf the sister had bought her as a Christmas gift was knotted around Phoebe's neck.

My heart aches for Phoebe, who arrived from Ireland last fall only to endure months of abuse from classmates at South Hadley High School, the apparent result of Phoebe's brief fling with a popular football player.

My heart aches, but I also question the wisdom of filing criminal charges against nine of Phoebe's former classmates, as happened last week. Bullying should be taken seriously -- by teachers, administrators, parents and, yes, fellow students. I'm doubtful, though, that criminal prosecution is the best way to punish or prevent it.

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Funny and true

Increasing Number Of Parents Opting To Have Children School-Homed

WASHINGTON—According to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Education, an increasing number of American parents are choosing to have their children raised at school rather than at home.

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Bullied to Death

The attention “bullying” is getting due to the recent suicide of Phoebe Prince has created a long overdue discussion on the issue, but one that completely misses its mark. No one wants to know the real root causes because the solution isn’t one anyone is prepared to respond to. The behavior witnessed occurs in arenas where people are powerless and have to carve out some situation where they can exert some degree of control. The most dramatic displays of that kind of abusive behavior are in prison followed by schools. These oppressive environments are wholly responsible for creating breeding grounds for aggressive behavior. The article below is very well written and presents some heartbreaking cases, but is endemic of the misguided response. In this instance the proposal, unsurprisingly, is therapy. The underlying theory is that schools will function the way we desire when every student has been psychologically conditioned to accept the nature of their incarceration. Obviously, the biggest bullies in school are the administrators and teachers who exert virtual absolute power over students and use that power capriciously.

Bullied to Death

As a group of teens in Massachusetts face landmark charges for harassing 15-year-old Phoebe Prince so brutally she committed suicide, Lucinda Franks speaks to teen bullies and a pioneering teacher about why kids torment peers.

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Budget, Quality, Population Issues Lead Cities to Close Schools: Is Yours Next?

Kansas City, Mo., to Cut Nearly Half of Its Public Schools, Officials Cite Drop in Enrollment, Funding

The statement below is one of the dumbest things I have read in a while. Leave it to an economist to treat people like objects and neglect psychological factors associated with being an outsider in a foreign neighborhood and the inevitable dramatic increase in class size, both of which profoundly diminish the quality of education for all concerned.

Edward L. Glaeser, an economist at Harvard University, wrote in the New York Times Tuesday. "If a district closes particularly poorly performing schools, children may end up getting a better education as a result, albeit at the cost of a longer bus trip."

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Kansas City school cuts signal nationwide trend

History Revised, Teachers Sacked: The Book Wars in Texas and Beyond

History Revised, Teachers Sacked: The Book Wars in Texas and Beyond

“All in all, it has been a turbulent few weeks for public education in America.”

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Jeffersonville middle school student suspended for touching pill

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these stories. While I think it is an inappropriate use of energy to try and reform public schools rather than developing more effective socially conscious means of educating, there are ways to combat zero tolerance. If petitioning the school board to end this practice does not work (which it typically will not), parents and students should petition the school board such that the zero tolerance policies cover everyone who works at the school or is on school property. Presented in a reasonable and persuasive way that appeals to the need to keep children safe, this could potentially be adopted. Once administrators and teachers are subjected to the same capricious punishments as students, zero tolerance would inevitably be repealed in that district.

Jefferson middle school student suspended for touching pill

JEFFERSONVILLE, IN (WAVE) - The parents of a Kentuckiana seventh grade student say their young daughter was suspended from school for doing exactly what she's been taught to do for years - to just say no to drugs.

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