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These zero tolerance policies public schools have adopted to combat bullying have mostly proven themselves useless for accomplishing their goals. We still see higher rates of violence and bullying in our schools than ever before despite all of these new rules and regulations against bullying penalizing students with expulsion, detention, or other disciplinary action if they violate them. The issue with this is the bad kids don’t care if they break rules and to them getting suspended is just like an extended vacation. And the “good” kids trying to comply with the rules may not retaliate or fight back when they need to for fear of breaking these rules and getting punished and if they take any action they tell a teacher or other person in authority who may or may not enforce these anti bullying policies and even if they do bullies don’t care and if anything this may cause the situation to get even worse for the victim due to retaliation. What I feel is a much better solution is to teach bullied kids and in fact all kids how to defend themselves using physical violence if necessary and allow them to do so without fear of being punished or reprimanded.
Back in the days when kids stood up for themselves and were allowed to fight if need be without severe consequences bullying wasn’t nearly as rampant and serious of a problem as it is today. My father told me about an incident where he and the rest of his 5th grade classmates were bullied and harassed by this kid who had failed a couple of grades and was older and bigger than most of the other boys so he used this to his advantage to be a bully, push his weight around, demand things and get what he wanted from the others. Of course the teacher would sometimes intervene and give penalties like detention, a paddling, note home to parents, extra assignments, etc. This did nothing to deter him and as the case with most bullies his parents probably didn’t give a shit what he did as long as they didn’t have to be involved. Finally, when he was giving my dad a hard time on the playground my dad reached his breaking point with this kid and punched him in the gut and then kneed him in the face leaving him in a crying heap on the ground. The kid got up and ran to the teacher told her what happened but she didn’t punish either boy because my dad was just protecting himself and she thought the other kid was broken and humiliated enough already. And guess what, after that the bully kid was on his best behavior not just to my dad but to everybody else and didn’t really give the teachers or principal any more problems either.
The point is sometimes a good old ass kicking can be the best thing for somebody, in other words some infliction of immediate physical pain and consequence like a broken nose, black eye, or sore balls can do much more good in teaching an asshole a lesson than anything else that is not directly related and a direct result of the undesired behavior like suspension, detention, or even at home a grounding. Sometimes natural consequences are the best consequences and teachers, school administrators, and parents would do well to allow them to take their course within reason. This would even be better for the bully child as well because after the initial ass kicking they get to teach them to stop being a jerk off they could stay in school and not disrupt the crucial time needed for learning that might otherwise occur with suspensions or expulsions. A quote from epic dad Red Fordman from That 70’s show “There are very few things that a swift kick in the ass won’t fix.” I know this may not always work in all bullying cases such as social media bullying or the much more verbal/emotional oriented bullying that occurs between females, but it is at least a step in the right direction by teaching victims to always stand up for and defend themselves from all forms of abuse emotional, verbal, and physical by trying non-violent means and approaches first but training and allowing them to be able to use a reasonable amount of physical force to end an immediate threat to their welfare or safety when needed. It is much better for bullying situations to be resolved and stop at the level of fists and feet than to escalate to a point where a child reaches their boiling point and snaps and does something very horrific such as a school shooting or anything else involving a weapon that can take countless innocent lives and ruin that individual’s future forever.
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The problem with current anti bullying and zero tolerance rules and regulations schools have is that bad kids don’t care if they break rules and to them the consequences of violating these rules such as a suspension to them is just like an extra vacation or a detention is just a chance to stay after school and goof off with other problem kids. It is no different than the endless amount of weapon laws and regulations that government is attempting to pass and enforce in an effort to end violence. Criminals couldn’t give two shits about the law and will not obey it anyway and no matter how hard they make attaining desired weapons for them, they will always find ways and loopholes around these laws to do what they want leaving law abiding citizens even more defenseless than otherwise. And notifying most of these kids’ parents helps very little also because most of their parents could care less what their child is doing as long as they don’t have to be involved. And the good kids the ones trying to comply with the rules may not retaliate or defend themselves when needed for fear of breaking the rules and the resulting consequences. If these bullied kids take any action they may tell a teacher, principal, or other administrator what is going on who may or may not enforce existing policies and even if they do this does very little to actually end the bullying and ends up many times making things worse for the victim due to retaliation from the bully for “ratting” them out.
A much better response to bullying is to teach and enable victims to defend themselves from harm using physical violence if all other peaceable means fail and there is an immediate threat to their safety or well being. All our current system is doing is creating more victims and more bully fodder rather than doing what should be the goal of our education system which should be to enable and empower kids to look after themselves as capable individuals. Back in the days when kids could actively defend themselves and fight back in schools when confronted or bullied without fear of serious reprimand from school administration, bullying was much less frequent and serious a problem as it is now. One time my father told me about an incident when he was in the 5th grade about this kid who had failed a couple of years and was older and bigger than my father and most of his other classmates. He used this to his advantage to bully, intimidate, throw his weight around, and get what he wanted from the other boys and was constantly in and out of trouble with teachers and the principal who would even notify his parents of what he was doing but this did nothing to change his behavior. One day he was giving my dad a hard time on the playground and got physical with him and tried to put him in a headlock. My dad finally had enough and punched him in the gut and when he doubled over kneed him in the face leaving him in a crying heap on the ground. Of course he ran off and told the teacher what happened but they didn’t do anything to discipline my dad because he was defending himself nor the bully because they thought he’d been humiliated and broken down enough. And guess what, after this he was on his best behavior to not only my dad and the rest of the class but didn’t even really give the teachers any more problems either.
Sometimes an ass kicking can be the best thing that can happen to an asshole. An immediate natural consequence such as the infliction of physical pain or injury is a much stronger deterrent to antisocial or violent behavior than other more conservative approaches that aren’t immediately following and directly connected to the unwanted behavior such as suspension, detention, extra assignments, or even at home grounding by parents. For example even in parenting sometimes it is best in benign situations to let natural consequences take their course and allowing a child to learn from it, like allowing a stubborn young child to fall and skin their knee and cry it out if you tell them to stop running on concrete and they won’t listen. Once a bully gets their ass handed to them and finds out that potential victims aren’t worth messing with then they will either find another target or in many cases like my father’s bully may even stop bullying and change their behavior altogether. I would like to quote the epic dad Red Forman from that 70’s show “There are very few things a swift kick in the ass won’t fix.” Doing away with this zero tolerance policy for fighting in schools can not only benefit victims but even the bully himself because after the initial scrape that results in a broken nose or black eye or busted nutsack and most of all broken pride that teaches him his lesson he can stay in school and not loose time that is crucial and valuable for learning that might otherwise result from expulsion or suspension. I know this approach may not work in all cases of bullying such as the ever rampant social media bullying or more verbal/emotional oriented bullying that occurs between females but it is at least a step in the right direction to train and allow children to stand up for and defend themselves from all forms of abuse emotional, verbal, and physical and not ever becoming a victim in the first place and giving them the confidence and pride in at least being able to use physical force to defend themselves from immediate physical danger from any source, peer or adult, if needed.
It is much better for bullying incidents to be resolved and stop at the level of fists and feet before they escalate to a point where the victim can’t take it anymore and snap and do something very horrific like a school shooting or something else involving a weapon that takes many innocent lives and ruins that individual’s future forever.
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I see public schools as government indoctrination facilities. It’s getting harder and harder to home school in this country and even private schools are seen as racist institutions because there aren’t enough minorities and are propagators of hate speech. A kid doesn’t need to be held by the hand to get an education, any kid with the right mindset of dedication, discipline, and drive could easily learn much more on his own with all the resources available on the internet in this day and age. I would want my kids home schooled in Ron Paul’s online home schooling curriculum and socialize with other kids at a local judo or BJJ club.
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“The problem with current anti bullying and zero tolerance rules and regulations schools have is that bad kids don’t care if they break rules and to them the consequences of violating these rules…”
Dallas,
You make an excellent point. I would also add that it is much the same argument that is behind gun control. Not that I’m looking to go back to the “wild west” days, but the problem with gun control is that the only people affected by it are the law abiding citizens in the first place. The bad guys don’t give a rat’s behind what the law says because, well, they’re bad guys. That also why I find it absurd that a business or public area such as a mall would place the “no guns allowed” sticker on the door. Do they really think that a scumbag is going to see it and go, “Ok” and return his weapon to his car? It’s this kind of thinking that gets good people hurt.
Just my .02 cents.
J
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“I see public schools as government indoctrination facilities.” I don’t wanna get us too far off topic but you’re right there Young Wang. For what you actually learn while you’re in school it actually does very little to prepare you for the real world after graduation whether you choose college, immediately joining the workforce, or the military. You basically learn a lot of liberal arts nonsense, what “the man” wants you to know and how to follow orders and believe what you’re told without question.However, I would be a little hesitant of leaving children to their own devices when it comes to education. Children at young ages still need some guidance and direction from parents or other adult sources and there is a lot of good stuff on the internet but a lot of bullshit to filter through also. I think there should be more of a focus on trade schools once they get the basic foundation of science, arithmetic, and literacy out of the way and help children find out early on what job or career they are interested in and suited for and get them in classes or schools specifically designed for that trade that way when they “graduate” or conclude training at whatever point that may be they would be much better set up and ready to enter the workforce and have the specific education and training and certification they would need to get into the career they want. This would save a lot of tax dollars, wasted idle years spent learning irrelevant and useless information and loafing around and bored children causing behavior problems, and even more possible wasted directionless years and more importantly finances spent in college trying to “decide” on a major or wasting time earning a non-functional degree whilst racking up monster student loan dept, and get people a fully applicable complete work-force education in much less time and with much less expense to both tax payers as well as students and their families.
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Ok I get the thing about give the kid a ass kicking what to say that the bully doesn’t s gun to the school and shoot the kid-that handed him his head. There are no easy answers
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