to protect its citizens, so it is senseless for students to cooperate with educators who permit theirvictimization by bullies. Most kids know that and act accordingly.Lamentably there is a melancholy similarity between schools where bullies operate with impunity andout-of-control prisons. Savage victimization goes on in jails when warden and guards look the other way;and victimization also takes over in schools when educators fail to exercise due diligence. And wheninmates are victimized at least there is the modest consolation that most of them did nasty things to getthemselves into this predicament. In the case of school children, however, innocents are sentenced to dailymisery just because they have the misfortune of living in a neighborhood served by a bully dominatedschool.This prison analogy might seem a bit much; but actually, at least when it comes to bullying, someschools are more like concentration camps than out-of-control prisons. In the November 1988
Readers Digest
, for instance, former Secretary of Education William Bennett praises a principal who took over atroubled inner-city Washington, D. C. school. The first day of school this "educational leader" assembledthe student body and, in Bennett's words, "... with practiced eye chose 20 potential troublemakers to helpenforce her tough new standard of discipline." Can you imagine? The school is out of control and theprincipal's solution is to put the bullies in charge! How is that like a concentration camp? Hitler's SS usedbully boy inmates, called
Kapos,
to maintain order there. Frankly,even a former Secretary of Educationshould be able to see how extraordinarily cruel and stupid such a policy is. Perhaps Bennett was too busyworking on his
The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories
to think the right and wrong of thisone through.Is putting the bullies in charge the very bottom of the wicked school practices septic tank? Unhappily,no. The most unscrupulous practice of all is when school authorities first abandon kids to bullying; then, if they happen to muster enough courage to defend themselves, suspend them for "fighting." This diablolicalsystem spares administrators the burden of finding out why a "fight" took place. And it even pays publicobeisance to popular simple-minded mewing against school "violence." But it puts the victims of bullying inan impossible position. The school is a jungle; but protect yourself rather than meekly submit to dominationor a beating and both you and the bully are suspended. Imagine a criminal justice system first failing tomaintain law and order, then punishing self-defense. This is the worst possible combination -- a witchesstew of immorality seasoned with stupidity. Yet this is exactly what school officials are doing when theyadminister blanket suspensions for "fighting". And to make matters worse, bullies often celebrate thesuspension. It's just time off from school for them. But missing school usually is very real punishment fortheir victims. So, in the end, decent kids with guts end up being punished more severely than the indecentgutless bullies who make their school lives miserable.Kids in bully dominated schools sometimes feel forced to use deperate measures. I know of a situationin a Philadelphia public school where a frail and studious Vietnamese-American lad was subjected torelentless bullying by a gang of African-American toughs. Many teachers knew about the bullying, but didnothing. After all, it wasn't happening in their class. Administrators must have known too, though theymight have been too busy filling out central office paperwork to notice what was going on under theirnoses. Anyway, the youngster finally couldn't take the bullying any longer and brought a knife to school.Then when a young thug started to give him the usual treatment, he stabbed him. The bully was onlysuperficially damaged, but his victim ended up in very serious trouble with the law. Was the Vietnamese-American kid the only person responsible for the stabbing? You decide.Sure, bullying sometimes is tough to spot; and even the most diligent educators aren't able to stop itcompletely. But that is all the more reason for them to develop policies and procedures that aid earlydetection and insure swift and certain punishment. That at least discourages bullying while it simultaneouslyencourages victims and witnesses to break the silence that fosters it. Were Jonesboro school officials
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