Bullying is Timeless
Ben Vitale
I remember that bullying was rampant in the 50’s just as it
is now in the 2000’s. There should have been a zero tolerance for bullying in
the 50’s but there wasn’t. Bullying is another ingredient that affects the
education process.
Students are not the only victim of bullies; teachers are
also victims! As I recall, Jujitsu, Boxing, and Karate were and still are not
part of the requirements to become a teacher; although, in today's environment,
they should be! I was witness to the same bullying scenario in Junior High
School, and senior High school. Bullies took control of the students, teachers,
and the entire school system! Bullies did just what they wanted to do, and
academia had no functional mandates, that offered direction to teachers that
had to deal with these Bullies.
Teachers and principals have their careers to protect. Any
action taken on the part of the teacher to remedy a bullying situation will
ultimately wind up with the teacher being a victim, as well as his students.
Then and now the same feeble response to bullying still exists! Send the bully
and his victim to the principal’s office, suspend the victim for defending
himself, and give a free pass to the bully! If a teacher did anything to a
bully, the teacher would also become a victim.
When I was a young boy in Brooklyn, I was trained at Boxing
and Jujitsu, at the local Italian American Social club. That training was part
of me but I never really used any of my training, because I was taught to
handle conflicts like a gentleman. When two young boys had a problem, both were
put into a boxing ring at the social club to settle their problems! The end
product of dealing with conflict in this fashion was respect, by all of the
individuals that were involved.
I graduated into Junior High School and discovered that
there was no Boxing Ring to settle conflicts with Bullies! Please “read my
lips;” bullying was a major component in ruining my ability to learn,
throughout grammar school, and in the first two years of high school.
Bullying is indeed violent behavior! The traditional scenario of penalizing the
victim and giving a free pass to the Bully, just does not work! Bullying should
be treated as an assault. A youth that bullies others, does indeed have an emotional
problem and can benefit from the services of a social worker. A Community
Oriented Division of the Police Department should also be involved with cases
of bullying. The police department has done some wonderful work with youths, by
providing interactive tours of the local prisons. Many youths who are on the wrong side of the
road, are often convinced by the inmates that prison is no picnic!
Teachers should not be involved with Bullying; all incidents
of Bullying should be directed to the Community Oriented Police and social
worker team. Here we have a team who is trained to deal with the problems that
are associated with assault.
We need a law that forever relieves teachers from the task
of dealing with Bullies. Assault is a social and police matter, not an academic
matter! In instances of Bullying, teachers must be directed by law, to
re-direct all and every case of Bullying, to the Social worker Community Police
team.
Please read the following link!
http://www.al.com/news/mobile/index.ssf/2014/11/scared_straight_mobile_police.html
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