6th Grade Boy Hideously Tormented Aboard School Bus
By Beth Kassab
The Orlando Sentinel Staff
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-vol-fire-042701.story?col l=orl%2Dnews%2Dheadlines%2Dlocal
4-28-01
The taunting was particularly grotesque: A group of students tortured a sixth-grader on a school bus by smearing dog feces on his face and calling him names.
No one, including the bus driver, came to his aid, according to Volusia County school records.
But psychologists say this was a classic instance of bullying, and the impact on the sixth-grader who was their target won,t be diminished by the bus driver,s firing this week, nor by the charges facing the tormenters.
"It goes on, and a lot of people right it off as normal," said Dr. Mark Rapport, a clinical psychologist at the University of Central Florida. "Victims are usually ignored by schools, and parents are usually unaware of the problem. They are in a chronic state of fear and anxiety wondering if they,re going to be picked on and if it,s going to be another terrible day."
The sixth-grader at Deltona Middle School had a reason to be scared. According to police reports, a group of two 11-year-olds and one 12-year-old, whose names are being withheld because they are minors, had teased the child for months, threatening him with sticks and beating him up.
The last straw for the child,s mother, who would not comment for this story, was the Feb. 26 incident.
According to reports, the sixth-grader accidentally stepped in dog feces and tracked some of it inside the bus.
The other students started complaining about the stench, and the bus driver used expletives to ask who was responsible for the odor, according to school reports.
The bus driver handed out some paper towels for the students to clean up. But that didn,t happen. While other students laughed and egged them on, three students used paper towels and a pen to wipe the feces on the sixth-grader, getting some of it inside his mouth.
"This one kid was doing most of all the teasing, and one kid got a paper towel and smudged it all over his clothes and face and everything," said Jamie Black, 12, who was sitting behind the sixth-grader. "I didn,t think it was right, and [the sixth-grader] just started telling him to stop and started crying because he felt so embarrassed."
Even the students who are thought to be responsible gave disturbing accounts of the incident. In a written statement one said: "I took a paper towel and put dog poop on his lap then punched him again then [another student] put it on his face."
One witness said the driver, Harry Diaz, even "high-fived" the boys who were leading the teasing.
Diaz, a former Navy intelligence specialist who, according to school system records, left the service last year after a 21-year stint, said in an interview with school officials that he didn,t see the boys smear the feces on the sixth-grader or notice him crying. Diaz couldn,t be reached for comment Thursday.
Diaz, 47, told the students to "cut it out" when he saw them out of their seats but did not know what they were doing, according to a School Board report.
That same report said a videotape from the school bus shows Diaz smiling and shaking hands with one of the students.
Diaz said he was smiling because of the jokes students were making about the smell and that the handshake was "just a reaction," according to the report. The School Board voted Wednesday to fire Diaz, who had been a driver since December.
The sixth-grader,s mother reported the incident to police, and three students were charged with simple battery and stalking because the teasing had been ongoing. They were recommended for expulsion from school, reports show. A school system spokeswoman would not comment on the outcome of that recommendation.
Dr. Thomas Oakland, a school psychologist, said bullies learn to get personal gratification out of targeting someone weaker than they are.
"They were being highly entertained here," Oakland said. "Anyone with dung on their shoe is perceived as being pretty weak socially."
Oakland, also a professor at the University of Florida, said bullying is especially common in middle school among boys and the effects on the victims can be devastating. "This is a time when how their peers treat them can have a decided effect on how they view themselves and the world," he said. "If we wink our eye, then the bullies say, Hey, I,m getting indirect support, I,m enjoying this., "
Beth Kassab can be reached at [email protected] or 386-851-7925
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"We have to get drunk immediately."----Gattaca
[This message has been edited by MIB (edited April 28, 2001).]
I won't go into what was done to me in my school years.
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"Goverment exists to serve, not to lead. We do not exist by its volition, it exists by ours. Bear that in mind when you insult your neighbors for refusing to bow before it." J. Richmond
If somebody did THAT to my kid, I would be filing criminal assault charges so fast, their heads would spin right off their bodies.
Bullying is not a "Right of passage". It is an assault against another human being, pure and simple.
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In this crazy world of lemons, baby...you're lemonade!
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"One's ethics are determined by what we do when no one is looking" Nugget
Star Trek: Gamma Quadrant
Star Trek: Legacy
Read them, rate them, got money, film them
"...and I remain on the far side of crazy, I remain the mortal enemy of man, no hundred dollar cure will save me..." WoV
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�
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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 8.32 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux (with seven eps posted)
***
"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Omega 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
***
"I think this reason why girls don't do well on multiple choice tests goes all the way back to the Bible, all the way back to Genesis, Adam and Eve. God said, 'All right, Eve, multiple choice or multiple orgasms, what's it going to be?' We all know what was chosen" - Rush Limbaugh, Feb. 23, 1994.
[This message has been edited by JeffKardde (edited April 29, 2001).]
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"Well if it's gonna be that kind of a party, I'm putting my dick in the mashed potatoes!"
-Nimrod 16/4/2001
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"There comes a time when the mind takes on a higher plane of knowledge but can never prove how it got there. All great discoveries have involved such a leap."
--Albert Einstein, on intuition.
Also, could people possibly turn down the "outraged rightiousness" bit? Yes, we know it's wrong. But, like, chill dude. It makes reading threads like this really annoying when you have to wade through post upon post of
"Bullying of any sort is wrong! People like that should be shot! And Killed! And then made dead! They are scum. They are worse than Hitler, and Satan. Bathe me in your holy light, for I am one of the morally outraged!"
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You know, when Comedy Central asked us to do a Thanksgiving episode, the first thought that went through my mind was, "Boy, I'd like to have sex with Jennifer Aniston."
-Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park
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Don't kill me, I'm charming!
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"Well if it's gonna be that kind of a party, I'm putting my dick in the mashed potatoes!"
-Nimrod 16/4/2001
Of course when you have a place where people have such easy access to weapons...it changes things.
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Re: Russia in WWII
"Hey, we butchered Poles! Thats OK."
- DT.
But getting together a gang and slashing/maiming/killing the bully will never get your self-respect back. You must take it back yourself, by deciding that the bully is a weak and scared person that wants to look cool in other people's eyes. And that's hard as hell, because you only think "vengeance"...
That's why many victims make formidable bullies themselves, by adopting the aggressor's moves.
History agrees. "Slaves don't make good masters" is an old proverb.
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Don't kill me, I'm charming!
There's no self respect issue in a long term sense to what I was talking about. The bully (or in this case, idiotic twat) just needs to know not to fuck with you.
In the instance I was describing the person was not a bully as such, he was basically trying to be clever, to a couple of his mates. Who did nothing to stop me going after him. If there's one thing you learn about these tools that hang around and harass people its that they have no loyalty to each other. They tend to be the misfits of the class who band together out of no reason other than that they are not particularily well liked.
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Re: Russia in WWII
"Hey, we butchered Poles! Thats OK."
- DT.
[This message has been edited by Daryus Aden (edited April 30, 2001).]
In the case of the bus incident, though, the boy could've stood up and fought back, but he wouldn't have. He was too scared.
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Don't kill me, I'm charming!
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The Worlds Ten Greatest 'Fucks' #9
Who let that fucking woman drive? - Captain of Space Shuttle
I used to get a lot of hassle, mostly verbal abuse, from other students. It was my respect for the rules that crippled my ability to defend myself. Although physically I was capable of knocking these bullies out, I didn't want to fight back because I was afraid I'd get suspended. If I'd had a little less respect for the rules and a little more respect for myself, I'd have fought back, and maybe 5 years of my life wouldn't have been such hell.
This is something that parents should realize. Children can be led to believe that they are powerless to stop this, and that they should leave everything to the "authorities" and everything will be alright. This is not the case. If I ever have children they will know that self-respect is something you don't sell out on.
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"If you can't beat your computer at chess, try kickboxing."
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Don't kill me, I'm charming!
I think that was when I learned not to take shit. But I have to wonder if that decision to show me how to hurt someone could have backfired if I'd taken to going after people. I dunno is his choice was good or bad, but it helped to set my track for later life.
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Re: Russia in WWII
"Hey, we butchered Poles! Thats OK."
- DT.
Tae Kwon Do -- I can't speak for the other martial arts, as this is the only one I took -- is very big on self-discipline, when to (and when not to) use the skills, and I plan on enrolling my children in a TKD program (once I have them, of course. Children, not a TKD program).
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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 8.32 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux (with seven eps posted)
***
"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Omega 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
***
"I think this reason why girls don't do well on multiple choice tests goes all the way back to the Bible, all the way back to Genesis, Adam and Eve. God said, 'All right, Eve, multiple choice or multiple orgasms, what's it going to be?' We all know what was chosen" - Rush Limbaugh, Feb. 23, 1994.
) bigger than everyone that gave me shite. Although people still mumble out the occasional insult, I just crack my knuckles and ask them what they said, so far the one and only anwser has been: oh, nothing, I was just talking to myself like the loser I am.------------------
"Well if it's gonna be that kind of a party, I'm putting my dick in the mashed potatoes!"
-Nimrod 16/4/2001
Infinity: Good for you. (sarcasm-free)
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Don't kill me, I'm charming!
http://www.kimura-shukokai.com
That's a link to another division within the world shukokai union. I'm currently developing our divisions site...but these things take time .
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Re: Russia in WWII
"Hey, we butchered Poles! Thats OK."
- DT.
[This message has been edited by Daryus Aden (edited May 01, 2001).]
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"Well if it's gonna be that kind of a party, I'm putting my dick in the mashed potatoes!"
-Nimrod 16/4/2001
[This message has been edited by infinity11 (edited May 01, 2001).]
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You know, when Comedy Central asked us to do a Thanksgiving episode, the first thought that went through my mind was, "Boy, I'd like to have sex with Jennifer Aniston."
-Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park
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Re: Russia in WWII
"Hey, we butchered Poles! Thats OK."
- DT.
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�
That's all I'm going to say on the martial arts issue. I won't get into any slanging matches about which is best. Some value fleet-footedness, some grounding. Some take the fight to the enemy, some use his energy against him. But what I will say is that any 'art' that teaches its practicioners to go 100% regardless of how they are attacked will land its memebers in jail. Sure, you've got to be 100% committed to winning, but you've got to vary the force you use, or else it's like using a nuke to kill an ant.
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Re: Russia in WWII
"Hey, we butchered Poles! Thats OK."
- DT.
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"Well if it's gonna be that kind of a party, I'm putting my dick in the mashed potatoes!"
-Nimrod 16/4/2001
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Re: Russia in WWII
"Hey, we butchered Poles! Thats OK."
- DT.
) I'm still at a orange belt level, but I'm progressing well, and I trained before, when I was a kid.------------------
It never stops, when my mama ask me will I change
I tell her yeah, but it's clear I'll always be the same
Until the end of time
- Tupac Shakur, Untill the End of Time
I know one case which illustrates the action principle. One kid in my class (bookworm type of course), got kidded all the time - but just let it run off. He literally didn't care unless the language got abusive. If it did, he had a variety of witty retorts memorized, such as "Someday, when I'm driving my sportcar, and you're pumping gas into it, I'll try to remember to tip big". These worked - as he realized that all he had to do to win a particular engagement was to perfect his delivery - so the girls woulfd laugh at the bully.
The day came when one of his would-be tormentors finally crossed the line and hit him. He did not turn the other cheek, he did not run away and cry, he did not go and tell the teacher. He dropped his books and charged the bully - who was so starled that he rabbitted. Chased the bully half-way around the grounds before he finally tackled him, sat on his chest (witnesses) and then burst out laughing. When the bully asked why, the pursuer admitted that now that he had him - he wasn't exactly sure what he should do with him. They both started to laugh.
Did it 'cure' the bully? I wouldn't know - I don't gass up in that town anymore. But it did show a potential sociopath and his crew that the victim was indeed another human being, got the erstwhile victim a modicum of respect (he was greeted warmly at our last high school reunion), and made sure that it would not happen again.
A victim has to stand up for himself. No one can do it for him. And no, deadly force is obviously not called for - but a person's rights belong to him only if he will stand up for himself.
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Faster than light - no left or right.
I was bullied, but durring that time I grew 7 inches and gained 50lbs. The next time I was bullied, I threw a guy into a river (it was a slow-moving one). No one messed with me ever again.
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Wes Button � [email protected]
TechFX Studios � The United Federation Uplink �
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I don't like Wesley Crusher.
And this is a perfect example of why I think a vast segmenent of this nation's population are inherintly too fucking stupid to own guns. Oh, but it's their "God-given right", so oh well.
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Star Trek Gamma Quadrant
Average Rated 8.32 out of 10 Smileys by Fabrux (with seven eps posted)
***
"Oh, yes, screw logic, let's go for a theory with no evidence!"
-Omega 11:48am, Jan. 19th, 2001
***
Card-Carrying Member of the Flare APAO
***
"I think this reason why girls don't do well on multiple choice tests goes all the way back to the Bible, all the way back to Genesis, Adam and Eve. God said, 'All right, Eve, multiple choice or multiple orgasms, what's it going to be?' We all know what was chosen" - Rush Limbaugh, Feb. 23, 1994.
[This message has been edited by JeffKardde (edited May 25, 2001).]
Me, I'd like gun-licensing to depend on a combination IQ/Psych Stability Test.
...'course, I'd be called an elitist...:
"What, stupid people can't own guns?"
(on the other hand - who would be brave enough to admit they'd flunked?)
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Faster than light - no left or right.
Today, if I was being held down by someone and tortured, I would still pull a gun or knife on them in self defense.
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Wes Button � [email protected]
TechFX Studios � The United Federation Uplink �
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I don't like Wesley Crusher.
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The government that seems the most unwise, oft goodness to the people best supplies. That which is meddling, touching everything, will work but ill, and disappointment bring. - The Tao Te Ching
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It never stops, when my mama ask me will I change
I tell her yeah, but it's clear I'll always be the same
Until the end of time
- Tupac Shakur, Untill the End of Time
- Spider Robinson
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Faster than light - no left or right.
I can honestly say that I have never managed to knock a guy out with my nose. I must lack disaplin!!!
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"Babies haven't any hair;
old men's heads are just as bare;
between the cradle and the grave
lies a haircut and a shave."
Samuel Hoffenstein
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It never stops, when my mama ask me will I change
I tell her yeah, but it's clear I'll always be the same
Until the end of time
- Tupac Shakur, Untill the End of Time
Still, Treknophyle's example was actuallly nice. And does point out that making witty retorts isn't enough. You have to actually be funny enough to make other people laugh.
It was slightly ruined by Wes' follow-up "kill all scum until they are dead! Kill! Burn! Sausages!"
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You know, when Comedy Central asked us to do a Thanksgiving episode, the first thought that went through my mind was, "Boy, I'd like to have sex with Jennifer Aniston."
-Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park
Wow, these "gremlins" (is that what they're called nowadays? I'm too old for this shit)
sure convey the message!
Interesting.
It's all good. And I don't search for double meanings in every message, life's too short. Although I like to deal out double meanings if the timing is right, I like british psychology.