Bullying II
"You are entitled to a life in which everyone is always nice to you. If people repeatedly treat you badly, please don't think it has anything to do with you or your behavior. If you feel bad, it is because of them, not you. Nor is it your responsibility to do anything to make them treat you better. Just tell the authorities, and the authorities will punish and rehabilitate the people who are being mean to you."
The Perfect Law, read carefully, you will realize it requires schools to make sure that all of the students and staff are saints. The school, which does not have the option of choosing which students attend, but must accept children with all their mortal imperfections, must guarantee that no student does anything intentionally to any other student that causes them any emotional distress because emotional distress interferes with a student’s ability to learn. No negative gestures, words or social exclusion will be tolerated in the school. The staff must address every complaint and provide detailed reports of their actions. Teachers, who were trained to be educators, are now mandated to take on the role of security guard, detective and judge. Did they go to law school or the police academy? Are they qualified for these roles?
One of the things that the anti-bully law forbids is behavior that has the effect of substantially disrupting the orderly operation of the school. But few things substantially disrupt the orderly operation of a school as anti-bully policies! How can teachers and administrators function when they have to be busy making sure that no kids are upset by anyone else, investigating every complaint that a child brings to them, interrogating suspected bullies, carrying out judgments, and writing comprehensive reports on every incident?
Pay attention to the more subtle things that the perfect law demands, like freedom from embarassment. It is the subtleties the anti-bully activists are trying to put into law, and these are the things we should be wary of. Realize once something is law, it must be obeyed, no matter how counterproductive, immoral or foolish the law may be. Furthermore, it is the school that is held legally responsible and liable to be sued when students bully each other.
Bully Police is a foremost lobbying organization in the United States that pressures states to pass school anti-bully laws. The organization grades each of the 50 United States on the intensity of it’s school anti-bully law, from F to A++, and ridicules any state that does not have an intensive anti-bully law that meets with their approval. It also features a perfect anti bullying law
which strongly recommends this version of the law to all states.
Psychology Today
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