posted
I couldn't help but think about how I would turn VERY violent in my school so damn fast if this was going on with me. Could this be part of the reason why kids are showing up in schools armed to the teeth? What are your comments?
6th Grade Boy Hideously Tormented Aboard School Bus
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., "
posted
As issue of the year, the media is focusing on Bullying. This kind of stuff happens ALL the time. The only difference? it gets front page news.
I won't go into what was done to me in my school years.
------------------ "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
posted
If someone sis that to my kid I'd be facing criminal charges for attacking the stupid bus driver, and the kids parents for not raising their kids right...
------------------ "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
posted
This is one of those cases I could easily understand (but certainly wouldn't condone) the kid shooting them for it. People want to blame movies, video games and other media but overlook this kind of shit.
posted
You know, it's not like they can make a front-page story every time some kid gets picked on, JeffR.
------------------ 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).]
posted
They need to be branded for life and severely punished because there is no justification for their actions, that child's life is permanently ruined, his ego crushed and will probably think that he doesn't deserve to live and rot away as a bum on the street with no education or hope for the future. Some people will think that I am exaggerating, but this is nowhere near exaggeration, that poor kid's life is over, and those assholes need to pay for it.
------------------ "Well if it's gonna be that kind of a party, I'm putting my dick in the mashed potatoes!"
posted
Why do some kids need to be bullies to feel better about themselves while others don't? The parents obviously have something to do with it.
------------------ "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!"
------------------ 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
posted
As weird as this is gonna sound I think a very simple solution is to beat the crap out of the bully. I had no problems (as such) at highschool, but one funny guy who tried to pour coke over me got a few fairly good punches, followed by being smacked into the ground. Then my mates arrived. Point being, if they know what it feels like to get the shite beaten out of them, they grow out of it. I suppose you can only do that if you are the type of person who will fight and have people to back you up. Still
Of course when you have a place where people have such easy access to weapons...it changes things.
posted
As we all know, bullying is more psychological than physical. When a person has shown that he wants to hurt you and that he think he knows that you're worthless, then you lose ground. And then you can't fight back.
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.
posted
No no, you're missing the point. You don't hunt bullies. But when one comes after you, (for god knows what reason) stand up for yourself. I dunno, you seem to be coming from an intimidation point of view. Its not really part of my psychology to take shit from anyone.
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.
------------------ Re: Russia in WWII
"Hey, we butchered Poles! Thats OK." - DT.
[This message has been edited by Daryus Aden (edited April 30, 2001).]
posted
Yes, there's also the brawling kids who needs to find out that you won't take any shit. Like animals, they always test how far they can go, yes. No intricate criticizing or retorical backstabs, just plain testosterone.
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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