The same thing happened this week following the preliminary hearing Monday of Memorial Middle School shooter Thomas Gregory White. I read with interest the comments on the Joplin Globe internet article about the hearing. One reader, Jane, made the following comment:
Why did his teachers not notice anything was wrong with the kid?
Please do not put this off on the teachers. In the first place, teachers have 25 to 30 students in six classes or between 150 and 180 students per day. Don't expect them to be able to pick out one student who might eventually become violent when no one has yet determined what exactly leads to these incidents. (And we certainly try to keep our eye out for this type of student.)
In the wake of the Columbine shooting in 1999, the FBI released a 40-question survey, if memory serves me correctly, with a list of the traits that school shooters might (with an emphasis on that word) have. As I pored over that list, I discovered the items on it applied to nearly every student (and most of the teachers).
What is truly remarkable are the large number of students who are helped because teachers, counselors, and administrators reach out every day to students who have been bullied, students who until a teacher made an effort, thought that no one was in their corner.
Is there more that can be done to prevent bullying? Of course, and each year schools provide more training to teachers to help them deal with the problem. Bullying continues, but teachers are constantly working to lessen it.
We always hear about the students like Thomas Gregory White who slip between the cracks, but we never hear about all of the incidents that may have been prevented...because of teachers, counselors, and administrators who made the extra effort. Those are the stories that never get told.
6 comments:
I have the utmost respect for teachers, Randy. Their responsibilities are great, and I know this, but to suggest that all teachers are doing everything they can to combat school bullying is BS. We are a nation of people who look the other way, and teachers are no different. We send our kids to school because we HAVE to, and we trust that the teachers and administrators that we entrust our children to will be the first line of defense against maltreatment. If the system is designed in such a manner that teachers can't adequately protect our children (even from each other) because of "150-180" kids in their care every day, then the system is broken, and that should be addressed. But to use that as an excuse for a teacher's neglect in protecting every single child from every form of preditor (even other child bullies), is also BS. Teachers know when they choose thier profession what they're up against; if they can't adequately do the job, they shouldn't have it.
I read another school bully column on JoplinDaily.com. Maybe this is the answer. http://www.joplindaily.com/articles/2007/03/08/opinions/e01thinkingoutloud.txt.
Maybe, if parents and teachers can't be there 24/7 to protect our children, parents and teachers should be teaching their children to protect each other.
I don't know what the answers are, but I know defending anyone and everyone's efforts in combatting school bullying - when it is such a HUGE problem everywhere (including in OUR schools) - won't fix the problem. I'm tired of hearing people - and especially teachers - say that they've done all they can. Maybe they have, but if this is the best they can do to protect our children, then their best isn't near good enough. It's high time people stop making excuses for not doing enough and start asking what else they can do. It's time for parents, teachers and administrators to "soldier-up." Stop denying the problem exists; stop making excuses for why they alone can't fix the problem and start looking for viable solutions. Bullies are just kids, and they too need the help of the adults in our society to steer them in the right direction. To give up on that effort is to give up on our children - the bullied and the bullies. Shame on us, and shame on you, Randy - as a teacher, defending you and your colleagues' efforts to combat a problem that clearly has an inadequate defense in place. As a teacher to our children, we don't want to hear your defend yourself or your colleagues. We want to hear you defend our children.
I don't agree with Turner very often but maybe the parents of today should take on a more responsible role in their lives of their children. Do you really believe that teachers do nothing about bullying? What do you think the parents say when confronted about their child being a bully? I will tell you.....they blame the school instead of themselves. They need to look inward as well to try and internalize the problem to find out what values the kids have or have not been taught.
Southwest Missouri is populated with some real idiots.
Parents love to claim ownership of their children's education until something goes wrong. Then, the teachers screwed up. And shame on them, they knew what they were getting into.
Here's a thought. Instead of investing in another pack of Marlboro Reds in the hard pack, invest in some No. 2 pencils and read your kids a book.
Here is another thought. Instead of teaching our kids that religion is about exclusion and condemnation, teach them it is about inclusion and acceptance.
Oh, yeah. And teach them that faith and science are not mutually exclusive.
Teachers can provide an education, but parents provide an attitude toward society. Bullies are likely parent-bred. Blaming it on teachers is both asinine and ignorant.
No one is blaming teachers for the behavior of bullies. I'm the first to agree that PARENTS bare the FULL responsibility of RAISING respectful, responsible, compassionate, just children into like adults. Were teachers are failing is in protecting the victims.
If I have raised a good child - one who is all those things I've listed - but she is relentlessly teased and harassed, even physically assaulted at school by someone else's bully, how am I to take responsibility for that? Not for the bullies behavior - for my own child's safety!
If I'm sending my child to summer camp with a church group, I am entrusting my child's safety to the adults I've sent her with. If I send her to a slumber party at a friend's, I'm entrusting her safety to the friend's parents. And if I send her to school, I'm entrusting her safety to the teachers, administrators and other "adults" she's with.
The bottom line is, the bullying is happening on the teachers' watch. Teachers aren't responsible for a bully's behavior, and they're not even responsible for the bully's reform, but they damn-well are responsible for protecting the bully's victims.
The administration needs to take a SERIOUS look at the bullying that IS happening, and they need to heavily research anti-bullying programs. They need to find one that matches the scope of our problem in Joplin, and then implement it.
Kids who bully need a rehabilitation program in place that will FIRST, remove them from the general populous - thus protect their victims - and SECOND, work with parents, group and individual counseling to correct the behavior - more importantly - correct the child's ill-guided notion that they have the right to torment and torture others.
There needs to be ZERO tolerance for the mistreatment of others - PERIOD - verbally or physically.
As for the last comment posted, by anonymous at 10:27 - I bet your kids are a real treat. You realize - in the course of about four paragraphs, you called me an idiot, an ass and ignorant? The comment posted before yours - at 7:09 - said the same thing you did, but without being insulting and hateful. You're a bully, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
No one is blaming teachers for the behavior of bullies. I'm the first to agree that PARENTS bare the FULL responsibility of RAISING respectful, responsible, compassionate, just children into like adults. Were teachers are failing is in protecting the victims.
If I have raised a good child - one who is all those things I've listed - but she is relentlessly teased and harassed, even physically assaulted at school by someone else's bully, how am I to take responsibility for that? Not for the bullies behavior - for my own child's safety!
If I'm sending my child to summer camp with a church group, I am entrusting my child's safety to the adults I've sent her with. If I send her to a slumber party at a friend's, I'm entrusting her safety to the friend's parents. And if I send her to school, I'm entrusting her safety to the teachers, administrators and other "adults" she's with.
The bottom line is, the bullying is happening on the teachers' watch. Teachers aren't responsible for a bully's behavior, and they're not even responsible for the bully's reform, but they damn-well are responsible for protecting the bully's victims.
The administration needs to take a SERIOUS look at the bullying that IS happening, and they need to heavily research anti-bullying programs. They need to find one that matches the scope of our problem in Joplin, and then implement it.
Kids who bully need a rehabilitation program in place that will FIRST, remove them from the general populous - thus protect their victims - and SECOND, work with parents, group and individual counseling to correct the behavior - more importantly - correct the child's ill-guided notion that they have the right to torment and torture others.
There needs to be ZERO tolerance for the mistreatment of others - PERIOD - verbally or physically.
As for the last comment posted, by anonymous at 10:27 - I bet your kids are a real treat. You realize - in the course of about four paragraphs, you called me an idiot, an ass and ignorant? The comment posted before yours - at 7:09 - said the same thing you did, but without being insulting and hateful. You're a bully, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
Well, let's face the truth: In today's economy MOST parents have to work full-time to make a living. This wasn't the case in the 40s, 50s, 60s or even most of the 70s. So more parents work now and, wonder of wonders---more kids get bullied and school violence increases.
The real culprit is our screwed-up SOCIETY. We've been backed into a corner--forced to turned our kids over to the damned TV, to computers, to computer games, to teachers, so we can make a living.
And the people not in the trenches have NO idea how it is.
Unfortunately, those of us who DO have to work have to entrust our kids to teachers and "After School Programs" and, frankly, I'm damned tired of it. We're cheating our kids.
My son's Cub Scout shirt costed $40. Little League baseball signups cost $50 per kid for 9 year olds and above. A Scout trip to Springfield costs $30: And those are positive activities.
Meanwhile our pathetic "President" of the United States allows Big Oil to screw America, signs a prescription RX bill that raises total cost in a flat broke societey to go up by 40 percent; refuses to rein in the medical conglomerates and the pharmaceutical conglomerates and the insurance companies.
Every day we're in a deeper hole and yes, our kids are suffering. If anyone has a solution, I'm listening.
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