Bullying

[there is no hope]

Hah, no teacher and no organized bully is going to be arrested or punished for anything. You do realize those laws are intended as an excuse to target people deemed mentally ill? I've seen these laws blatantly applied to punish VICTIMS of bullies, if the victims retaliate or even if someone with any say-so decides the victim MIGHT retaliate.

The point of most bullying is not so much to hurt someone or affect changes. It is instead an act which justifies itself, and controls a zone. Almost all bullying is carried out by groups, with the tacit or sometimes explicit support of general society - usually based on a notion that bullying is a part of nature, God's plan, or some such nonsense. It is more the fact that someone can bully with impunity, than any real affect the bully may have on their target, though torturing someone is a free benefit. For me, ignoring it didn't stop others from doing what they've been doing, and telling a victim to just ignore the process is in fact part of the process of controlling the zone. The only way to stop it is to remove oneself from potential harm, which is the intended end result - strict regimentation.

Those who lash out to protect themselves are the primary targets of anti-bullying laws, but it's clear to anyone with an ounce of sense that they aren't bullying at all.

 

[Nicolelt]

Hah, no teacher and no organized bully is going to be arrested or punished for anything. You do realize those laws are intended as an excuse to target people deemed mentally ill? I've seen these laws blatantly applied to punish VICTIMS of bullies, if the victims retaliate or even if someone with any say-so decides the victim MIGHT retaliate.

I don't think the laws were meant to target the mentally ill. A bully was arrested because of me once. It's different state to state, so our experiences are different, but here, we have to go through students' social media, and record what they say to other students. If it is repetitive, hurtful, and an imbalance of power, we have to intervene and call the police. And it happens, and gets taken care of.

That is just my experiences in my own life and profession though.

 

[ardour]

Hah, no teacher and no organized bully is going to be arrested or punished for anything. You do realize those laws are intended as an excuse to target people deemed mentally ill? I've seen these laws blatantly applied to punish VICTIMS of bullies, if the victims retaliate or even if someone with any say-so decides the victim MIGHT retaliate.

The point of most bullying is not so much to hurt someone or affect changes. It is instead an act which justifies itself, and controls a zone. Almost all bullying is carried out by groups, with the tacit or sometimes explicit support of general society - usually based on a notion that bullying is a part of nature, God's plan, or some such nonsense. It is more the fact that someone can bully with impunity, than any real affect the bully may have on their target, though torturing someone is a free benefit. For me, ignoring it didn't stop others from doing what they've been doing, and telling a victim to just ignore the process is in fact part of the process of controlling the zone. The only way to stop it is to remove oneself from potential harm, which is the intended end result - strict regimentation.

Those who lash out to protect themselves are the primary targets of anti-bullying laws, but it's clear to anyone with an ounce of sense that they aren't bullying at all.

I disagree about the intent to hurt - bullies tend to be popular; teachers approve of their behaviour because they often share the same contempt for victims. I’ve never seen a bully get punished, but I’ve witnessed teachers join in humiliating and calling students the same names they were being hounded with outside of class.

That's why school anti-bullying policies always have ‘retaliation as never justifiable’ as an overriding theme, putting on the onus on students to swallow their pride and seek help from staff (who do nothing). I think also that, if there is a physical altercation, staff don't want to be bothered ascertaining who the aggressor was, so it's simply easier to tell victims they shouldn't hit back.

 

[there is no hope]

Oh the intent is to hurt for sure - but the point isn't just about eliciting a response or getting inside someone's head. Rather, the act justifies itself, and is a simple matter of someone(s) establishing their turf, and re-affirming their impunity to continue doing the same act in the future.

Now, if someone is really going after a target in order to mindfuck them, that really goes beyond mere bullying and into psychological warfare - and that does happen a lot. The difference is that the bully is typically lazy and more interested in protecting their property and status, and loathe to sacrifice too much of either. The best way to deal with them then is to recognize their MO and make it too expensive for them. Unfortunately, being in any institutional setting makes everyone a captive audience.

It's not surprising that teachers join in the campaign. Some are worse than others.
I'm a believer that students should be able to test out of many school classes, if they can demonstrate knowledge of the material - or at least, their time spent in class would be reduced. For instance, I learned almost everything for math on my own initiative, but was denied placement because bigoted teachers didn't want me in their class. I could have saved everyone a great deal of trouble, the state would have saved money, and I'd have received a little ******* credit for once. Of course, something that reasonable is entirely contrary to what the education system is designed to do.
At some point though, something like that will need to happen. Children shouldn't be locked in school for 8 hours a day to be captive audiences like this, when there is really no reason for it; and if they have to be locked in school, there are better ways to allocate resources. (Better, that is, if you were someone interested in actually teaching, which is not what the school system is designed for.)

 

[Nicolelt]

I guess I am just a weirdo, that doesn't know anything.

 

[Aisha]

I guess I am just a weirdo, that doesn't know anything.

Pretty sure you're the expert here, since this concerns your profession..

And well done for standing up and protecting your students, even if that meant the arrest of another student. Teachers and educators in general are at the top of the list of people we ought to be grateful for, and your profession is, in my mind, the most important. Both my parents are educators. Thank you for doing the work you do and thank you again for doing it well.

 

[there is no hope]

I'm convinced this "bully" was in fact a solitary creature.
You can't stop bullying by picking at individual targets, which is all this "justice" system can do. Until someone is willing to implement collective punishment in a meaningful way the practice will continue.