The question is not what the man did on the bus but why wasn't this handled way before it got to this point. Before we answer this question we need to ask "What causes bullying?"
I feel television is partially to blame. Bullying stems from a lack of respect. Respecting others, respecting yourself and respecting your school are forgotten by the bullies. All the 'character counts' programs fall on deaf ears. I have, since my retirement watched more TV than I used to when I was working. I have been studying commercials on the tube and many them show disrespect between men and women, between children and authority figures and for our elected officials. This is wrong. Then you just have to turn on the 'sport' channels where men and women are placed in cages and a prehistoric battle to the finish ensues and is revered by the audience. Does that lead to a celebration of violence? Is bullying not violence?
Parents also need to be held accountable in the bullying problem. It has been proven that most bullies at school have for the first years of their life had models at home who bully, either their wives or husbands or their friends and neighbors. They need to be educated as well as their kids and they definitely to be held accountable by fines from the courts and restrictions by the schools.
However, bullying has gone on for a long time now, it is not a new concept. In this tract I am only addressing physical bullying, but there are other types. When I was a student in elementery school I was the youngest in my class. I often found myself being picked on because I was smarter than other students and my big mouth and sharp wit got me into trouble with some of the older and perhaps not so smart boys in my class. I was physically attacked being kicked continuously after being thrown to the ground on the playground. I had to walk home by walking on the top of fences to hide from these bullies. I survived and got stronger because of it, but for a few years I feared for my life at school. These kids made my life miserable and emotionally I was injured. It wasn't until high school that I was able to get retribution on some of those who bullied me. A sport called 'football' allowed that to happen for me.
Not all kids have the chance to intellectually or physically defend themselves. Some end up in therapy, some do not want to go to school anymore and unfortunately some take their own life. What can we do to stop this?
I think the summits they have been having in Washington are going to help. I feel that the national news stories about this Florida man's tirade will raise awareness of the problem. But if I ran the schools I would have a no tolerance-ZERO- policy towards those who bully one quarter of America's students. Get them off the busses. Have their parents required to pick them up at school and transport them. Require the parents and the students attend classes. Administrators should be expelling them and having the police arrest publicly the worst cases. Taking a student out in cuffs, parading him or her around the cafeteria before going to the police car and publicly denouncing the perpetrators of the 'violence' will go a long way to prevent bullying in the schools. Posters on the walls are not going to cut it, folks. Asking a kid who has been persecuted by one of these bullies is not going to work. He already lives in fear. If the school is not going to do anything about it then parents will see the need to act themselves. The parents of 'my school' would not have to stoop to that kind of remedy. Let's stop the bullies. Man up schools!
