It was definitely not strictly on social media. The girls were using social media to extend their actions at the school:
That article reads pretty familiar. The girls doing the bullying would not let her sit at their lunch table - so she’d find a new one. And then they’d all sit there and tell her she needed to move…until she just stopped going to the lunchroom.
And the administration was dismissive. She had one teacher who really got her and what was going on. She was supposed to be in her room all year - the last trimester, they moved her out due to a scheduling conflict with someone else. I complained, and got absolutely no where…but we did get meetings about her grades suddenly suffering - and when we said “its the bullying” were told “there are two sides to every story and she needs to figure out a way around this.” (She was having lunch in that teachers room with that teacher - and kept doing that).
It didn’t help that the alpha bully was the superintendents daughter - so the administration REALLY didn’t want to take action. I talked to her as well and got “I’ve tried, I can’t do anything with her, she’s a bitch.”
There is precedent for schools disciplining students for actions outside of school hours. I recently posted where a student was suspended for posting a picture of himself at a gun range (legal) after school. Bong hits 4 Jesus might be stretched to apply as well.
This doesn’t work, for two reasons.
First of all, as others pointed out, it’s a blaming-the-victim approach.
Secondly, it’s human nature to want to be informed of events. You want to be aware of developments, even if they are hurtful, so as to know where things stand. It’s akin to the reason nations have intelligence agencies, why people want to know if there are death threats issued against them.
I saw an article about this case, and really could not believe it. It seems the administration suggested that the victim try to sort this out by trying to give a hug to one of the bullies, and by eating her lunch in the guidance counselors office. Really? Tell me they did more to try to protect that child. The two suggestions would most likely make things even worse for her. I know at one time my daughter had to eat in the library, not because of bullying, but she was just cleared from a concussion and was still sensitive to the loud noises, etc in the cafeteria. She was never bullied for it, but, of course, it called attention to her. Can you imagine the field day a group of bullies would have with that?
COMPLETELY believable.
Uh…totally believable. School administrators have amazingly warped logic at times.
This sounds like a kids’ variation of telling an abused wife to cook him a nice dinner and wear a pretty negligee to bed.
(dons flameproof suit) Dangerosa, why did your daughter stay in an activity where she was so obviously unwelcome?
I can’t speak for Dangerosa’s kid, but I know the following things can come up:
[ul]
[li]Just because some people are shits to you in an activity doesn’t mean everyone is. If you also have friends and it’s important to you, you don’t want to leave.[/li]
[li]You can feel an obligation to stay in an activity: you spent all this money, you’re a part of the team/cast, you made a committment[/li]
[li]You can think it’s going to get better. Usually these things come in waves, and each time it ebbs, you think you’ve turned a corner.[/li]
[li]You can feel pretty sure that leaving the activity won’t make things better, it will just chum the waters and leave you feeling ashamed and bereift[/li]
[li]You can be a stubborn cuss that won’t let a bunch of assholes take away something that matters to you.[/li]
[li]You can have career/college plans that require you to stay in the activity.[/li]
[/ul]
Yes, I should have said, it’s believable, but boggles my mind.
Pretty much all of the above. Most importantly, it was something that she enjoyed…she likes acting and singing and is pretty good at it…and colleges like to see something you’ve stuck with…theatre was hers.
Doesn’t Snapchat have an age limit? Google says they have “Snapkidz” for children under 13, and I can’t imagine that they would allow that kind of language. He also sounds like the kids of kid who sets fires and tortures animals - and it wouldn’t surprise me if his mother coached him to bully the transgendered child, and your son too.
And whose parents were concerned about their child’s mental health? The bully’s (unlikely) or the transgendered youngster (probably)?