In the last week or so I have had various conversations about bullying. I continue to be appalled that we can't do something to put an end to bullying. A few years ago I was visiting the LA Museum of Tolerance. At that time they had an interactive exhibit about bullying. There were about 25 people in the room, all ages, sex and nationalities. At one time we took a little survey. At the end we were told that of the people in the room at that time over 70% reported having been bullied at some time in their life. Can you imagine?
Schools write policies about bullying but when it comes right down to it they do not follow through. They say they can't prove there was really bullying etc. It seems to me that at times they do not want to upset the bully. This is like ignoring the child molester and not wanting to proceed because only a child can verify what the adult has done. It really doesn't matter if we are talking about public schools, private schools or "Christian" schools. (I sort of think that Christian schools should be above all of this but it is not so.)
So as parents what can we do? I feel that every adult should push the schools to address bullying aggressively. Not just follow their plans but look at the plans and see how they address bullying. The PTAs and PTOs should get into this. Push your schools to take a hard line on bullying. When I look at what happened with Komen and Planned Parenthood, so many people protested that they changed their plan. If parents would pull together and push schools to take a no exceptions, hard line about bulling we could get this in control. You don't have to have children in school to be a part of this idea. Sherri
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