Printed From Acorn-Online.com
Editorial
May 1, 2008
Make bullies pay the price
Every child who attends school is affected by bullying in some manner. Whether it’s acting as the bully, being bullied or observing someone bullying another, there is no student who has not dealt with this problem. As any adult remembers, bullying is not a new phenomenon — it has been going on for years. Yet high-profile actions of terrifying and deadly retaliation to bullying have made people pay more attention to the matter in recent years — and has caused school districts to take a more active role in addressing the issue. And for good reason. While bullying has been a mainstay of childhood for generations, the consequences are becoming more severe now — and, in Katonah-Lewisboro at least, it seems to be happening more often and with alarming regularity.
Lewisboro’s police youth officer, Sgt. Frank Secret, said “bullying is out of control” here and “the amount of time I’m spending on it is unbelievable.” Bullying is undoubtedly prevalent in school districts, but it extends beyond the classroom and hallways. In schools, bullies can be punished by teachers and school officials if caught in the act. But once children leave school grounds, there is little police can do to stop them, if the bully is not 16. This needs to be changed.
The district is doing its part to combat bullying. Every year, John Jay Middle School has No Name-Calling Week and Mix It Up Day, when students are asked to sit at lunch with groups based on their birthday month, rather than their usual social groups. There are regular activities during homebase aimed at reducing bullying, and a recent talk at the schools by Dr. Joel Haber, an author on bullying, was attended by about 80 parents. The police are doing what they can, too. This past year, the DARE program, developed by a national nonprofit organization and run by Sgt. Secret at John Jay Middle School, added a section on bullying to its curriculum. Last Friday, Sgt. Secret attended a gathering of youth officers from around the area to talk about the problem of bullying.
But those efforts go only so far in curbing the problem. Dr. Haber said parents of a bullied child normally should not confront the bully’s parents because that often backfires, and the child will get picked on more. So it may seem there is little parents can do to help protect their children from bullies.
One thing they can do, though, is write their state legislators demanding that they alter state enforcement laws to allow children younger than 16 years old to be charged with a harassment violation if they are repeatedly caught beating up another child. The punishment for the violation would be hours of community service on the weekend or after school, when the child would rather be playing with friends, watching television or playing video games. This would make more of an impression than a fine, which would likely be paid by a parent and not elicit a perceived consequence for bullying in the child’s mind.
Teaching children empathy is the ultimate way to wipe out bullying. But that requires parents of bullies to understand that their child has a problem that needs to be addressed, something some parents are unwilling to accept. If bullies cannot understand why terrifying smaller and weaker kids is wrong, bullies at least have to learn that bullying comes with a price. The state needs tougher laws in place to protect against bullying. Then, bullies would be forced to realize that beating on others is not worth spending a sunny Saturday afternoon in the local food pantry stocking shelves while their buddies are playing baseball or at a birthday party. Without the possibility of punishment, bullying will continue at school bus stops, in
town parks and in neighborhood lots, just as it has for decades.
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