Nothing like a bill in our state legislature to make one realize that our society has killed common sense.
The bully bill addresses the problem of bullying in our public schools. The very fact that there is such a bill indicates part of the problem. Since the authority of being a teacher or principal is no longer enough, having a school handbook is not sufficient, we now resort to state law to make our children "behave."
But here's my beef with such bills: they destroy equality. When a middle school girl follows a classmate she doesn't like into the bathroom, sticks her cell phone under the stall door and snaps photos, then sends them to the entire school, that's bullying. But wait...under the bully bill, it's not as severe because the girls share the same gender, the same religion, the same race, etc. Now, if the girl in the stall happens to be a different race, then the photographer gets a worse punishment because of the bully bill. And that makes no sense whatsoever. Do you think the humiliated eleven year old cares what the reasoning behind the meanness is? Does the reasoning behind why someone is mean to another person really matter? If someone walks up and punches me in the face because I have freckles, I'm going to think they're a mean person. If someone walks up and punches me in the face because I'm a Christian, I'm going to think they're a mean person. If someone walks up and punches me in the face because they don't like me and they think they can get away with it, I'm STILL going to think they're a mean person. What happened to the Biblical concept that we treat others the way we would want to be treated? I think bullying is bullying, and the "reasoning" behind it is nothing else than a justification or excuse. Creating protected classes of people destroys equality.
Any middle school group of kids sitting in opening assembly and hearing someone read a rule "...blah, blah, blah against people of different religions, sexual orientation, gender, race...blah, blah, blah..." draws attention to the fact that the kids are different. As if the kids don't know that already. Is pointing a specific group of kids out in front of anyone going to make them any less of a target? If anything, it seems to make them MORE of a target.
So why can't we just say bullying is wrong and get on with it?
The bully bill addresses the problem of bullying in our public schools. The very fact that there is such a bill indicates part of the problem. Since the authority of being a teacher or principal is no longer enough, having a school handbook is not sufficient, we now resort to state law to make our children "behave."
But here's my beef with such bills: they destroy equality. When a middle school girl follows a classmate she doesn't like into the bathroom, sticks her cell phone under the stall door and snaps photos, then sends them to the entire school, that's bullying. But wait...under the bully bill, it's not as severe because the girls share the same gender, the same religion, the same race, etc. Now, if the girl in the stall happens to be a different race, then the photographer gets a worse punishment because of the bully bill. And that makes no sense whatsoever. Do you think the humiliated eleven year old cares what the reasoning behind the meanness is? Does the reasoning behind why someone is mean to another person really matter? If someone walks up and punches me in the face because I have freckles, I'm going to think they're a mean person. If someone walks up and punches me in the face because I'm a Christian, I'm going to think they're a mean person. If someone walks up and punches me in the face because they don't like me and they think they can get away with it, I'm STILL going to think they're a mean person. What happened to the Biblical concept that we treat others the way we would want to be treated? I think bullying is bullying, and the "reasoning" behind it is nothing else than a justification or excuse. Creating protected classes of people destroys equality.
Any middle school group of kids sitting in opening assembly and hearing someone read a rule "...blah, blah, blah against people of different religions, sexual orientation, gender, race...blah, blah, blah..." draws attention to the fact that the kids are different. As if the kids don't know that already. Is pointing a specific group of kids out in front of anyone going to make them any less of a target? If anything, it seems to make them MORE of a target.
So why can't we just say bullying is wrong and get on with it?
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