If you mean the OP, that joy ride and the kid’s story is the starting point. If you mean others, there have been a few right here in this thread, not just mine. Just read the posts. They were written by robertliguori, iampunha, spooje. Chimpy, Kricket, and Jenaroph, all from personal experience. I guess they were filtered out because people are so worried about the bullies’ rights. It’s attitudes like that which perpetuate the situation and let it escalate out of control. Then people get all confused when the shrimp, nerd or the patsy completely loses it. It isn’t his fault, it’s “your” fault because “you” refuse to look outside your own perfect little world and take any action. There were no rights, just one big pecking order. I was forced to make my own way, the way of violence and revenge by any means necessary, and I learned to not give a damn what the “grownups” or anyone else said or thought about it. I almost killed one, another is blind in one eye thanks to me. It worked. Sure, I still got plenty of punishment, but I knew the bully would just pay more for it later. Not everyone was able to do it, but if you could, it was far more effective than any “theoretical bullshit”. We all create our own monsters.
So you completely missed my point then…
I want to know what school he was going to, as this happened in the town where I grew up.
CarnalK, why not plainly say what your point is, other than “let the school slide”? I can not, and will not believe that everyone in the entire school is completely clueless, unless they choose to be. Since the law requires children to attend school, doesn’t that also mean that the school is required to see to their well being and safety? If the principal, superintendant or whatever can just say he/she doesn’t know what is happening in their own school, for which they are responsible, then maybe it’s time to start asking some hard questions about responsibility and competency.
“Not knowing in advance” - How about what already happened? That is a lame excuse and a pathetic evasion.
“But we’re taking the concern very seriously,” Associate Superintendent Patty Schumacher said. “We don’t want a student to ever feel pushed into a corner or want to just take off.” - Sorry but that sounds so much like a pre-prepared, canned sound bite. Apparently, ONE already was at or past that point. Just maybe, somebody should ask why and get details/names.
BTW, if it alters the view of evidence in your guys mind, he actually “only” drove ~135 miles and the route doesn’t seem that complicated.
Clueless about what? I thought my point is clearly stated. There is no information whatsoever on how this kid’s school is run so we shouldn’t be getting pissed off at the school admin quite yet. Read beagledave’s post, maybe he says it clearer than me.
OK, Polycarp hasn’t answered my question, so maybe you’d like to take a crack at it - what do you think Ms. Schumacher should have said?
I just re-read it all over again. Benefit of the doubt. Presumed innocense. But couple that with some of the stories here (not even mine, if you want to you can ignore mine), and you get back to what Polycarp said - Ask the questions and get the answers. Whether “Speed Racer” drove 200 miles, 135 miles, or even just 20 miles is irrelevant. I want to know why some people seem to be hinting his story is just an alibi to cover up a joy ride (assumed guilt) while championing the rights of everyone else (asumed innocense for everyone BUT him). If he is telling the truth I want to know why his rights are any less important than those of the “alleged unnamed” bullies. Finally, if he is telling the truth, I want to know why the school didn’t know anything. That’s my point.
Here’s a quick swipe at it:
“We’re going to investigate this and question the student. We’re going to have our teachers supervise more closely during breaks and recess. If there is a real problem we’re going to institute and enforce a policy of not tolerating aggressive and abusive behavior. We’re going to notify parents about children who exhibit this behavior. In extreme cases we’re going to notify the appropriate authorities.”
Well noone is saying that, it’s merely another possibility that should be considered. Who implied his rights were less important? Are your rights degraded by my rights?
Now make it quick enough to fit the sound bite they’ll actually print.
What I’m getting is that a lot of people who’ve posted in this thread are wondering why the OP was so quick to jump all over Ms. Schumacher. The presumption seemed to be that the boy was telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and that this heartless, incompetent school official was covering up something.
Yes, children are sometimes bullied. Yes, it’s a terrible thing. Yes, the schools should do something about it whenever it happens. Yes, the personal stories related in this thread are distressing.
None of this tells us anything about what actually happened in this case. All we have is a kid who went for a ride, and says he did so because he was being bullied. We have absolutely no indication of whether it’s true or not. Nor does any of it tell us whether Ms. Schumacher is a heartless, incompetent school official, or one who cares very much about what has happened, and wants to get to the bottom of it. In short, the fundamental basis for the pitting is completely bogus.
What happened to you or anyone else as a kid doesn’t give us any information that has any bearing on our assessment of Ms. Schumacher.
Sorry. I’ve been thinking this over for a couple of days, and I can’t quite share Polycarp’s outrage.
I was bullied throughout my elementary school life. Through one two-year period, the teacher actually participated in the abuse, favoring the bullies when an episode was brought to her attention and creating an atmosphere that encouraged the popular kids to show disdain for the unpopular kids the rest of the time.
Even with that particular teacher, however, the bullies were always careful to never act out directly in front of her. Through the other six years, the teachers generally took action against kids who were bullying other kids when they discovered it and there were simply not enough adults on the property to see all the taunts and hits that were launched.
It is nice to claim that the adults “should” know something, but unless we have evidence that the school owns and fails to use surveillance cameras throughout the grounds or has teachers’ aides in every classroom to ensure nothing improper occurs when the teacher is compelled to leave the room, I am reluctant to condemn the administration for not being aware of every incident of abuse on the property.
If evidence turns up that the kid had reported abuse earlier and been ignored or if evidence is presented that the teachers were aware of a problem and turned a blind eye to it, I will join the outraged. Until then, I will note that kids are quite as sneaky and crafty as adults and that I have not yet seen the evidence that the adminstration was negligent.
If your “rights” were being used to cover up the “fact” that you beat the crap out of me every day or hounded me to the point of trying to leave town, then the answer is “hell yes”. If your “rights” were being used to cover up the fact that you were not watching the studens you were responsible for, you get another “hell yes”. What I’ve been TRYING to explain is, these things have always happened, and always will happen simply because nobody bothered to investigate and get the truth. It’s useless to debate theories of “rights” with the many of us who experienced the “other side of the coin” personally, who effectively had no “rights” at all until we took them by force. School isn’t always a happy wonderland. In my time, all I wanted was the “right” to be left the hell alone. I didn’t and still don’t give a damn about the “rights” of some overgrown gorilla trying to push me around. He has the “right” to stay away from me and look elsewhere for his “entertainment”.
One more time, I refer back to Polycarp who said Ask The Questions. If the answer is nothing happened, drop it. If however something was happening, Take Action and Fix It.
And to follow up…in case it isn’t clear.
IF there is evidence of negligence on the part of the school, the teachers or administrators…THEN I can work up a bit of outrage.
I DO note the following, which seems to have been missed…
If MY child was in immediate peril from bullies at the school AND I felt that the administration was negligent in insuring my sons safety…the LAST thing I would do is to send the kid back to the school “the next day”.
Again… based on the scant info from the CNN bit (and I was not able to find any more details from local sources) the associate supt was unfairly maligned in the OP. Nothing like a handy scape goat though, I suppose.
I’d still like to know what the final outcome will be. Being back in school the next day does not indicate or prove anything. Let’s see if something new happens.
So what you’re saying is we really don’t have enough information to draw much in the way of conclusions, here.
Interesting notion, that. 
Dear SteveG1,
I’m sorry for the abuse you suffered at the hands of bullies. I’m sorry that the authority responsible for protecting you didn’t. I’m sorry that the claims from a boy running away from home (in a dramatic fashion) brought up horrible memories.
Mostly, I’m sorry that the bullying you endured has made you a mental moron.
You experience of being bullied has no bearing, no relevance to the veracity of this boy’s claim that he was bullied. This boy made a claim of being bullied. And you assume he was because of how horrible it was for you to be bullied. Can you not see that there are no causal connections between your experience and the truthfulness of the boy’s claim?
Here’s a scenario to explain his actions: What if the boy’s parents are the real abusers? In this case, the boy was then running from home, and not school. He told the authorities who picked him up a lie for he was afraid that if he ratted on his parents, he would be abused even more. Would the testimony of people here on the board saying how they were abused by their parents then be a convincing argument for this scenario? No. Because that’s stupid thinking, like what you’re doing.
Consider this scenario: The boy took the car on a dare. When he was picked up, he lied so as to get sympathy. People don’t punish victims trying to flee. You do know that children make up “I was victimized” stories quite often in order to cover their own wrongdoings?
In the end, we have a charge of bullying with no corroborating evidence. Your experience of bullying in this situation is about as useful as your cognitive abilities.
Ah, there we have it. I did not fold to your “superior intelect”, so you start the insults. Fuck you too.
What I mean is, I’m still not comvinced until it ALL comes out. Simply going right back to school doesn’t validate or prove anything whatsoever.