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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