A couple of days ago, one of the local papers in Toronto reported about an eight year old girl whose life has become a nightmare because she is a victim of bullying in her Scarborough school. I find it truly amazing that the kid's mother made 163 visits to the school office to lodge complaints about the ordeal her daughter was going through and the school authorities were still unable to deal with the bullies. What's going on in our schools and more importantly who are these people who are in charge of our kids for the better part of the day? How does one deal with the school staff who let your repeated concerns about your kids' safety fall on deaf ears?
Many a time, children will not let on to their parents that anything untoward is happening to them while they are away from you. According to this website, these are the signs you should look for:
Wiithdrawal from family and school activities, wanting to be left alone.
Shyness
Stomachaches
Headaches
Panic Attacks
Not being able to sleep
Sleeping too much
Being exhausted
Nightmares
Bullying is definitely not a trait that should be ignored by teachers and parents. It is not a part of growing up as you have been lead to believe. Yes, it is good to fight your own battles and to stick up for yourself, but how many have the gumption to do that as adults, leave alone when one is just a young kid? Bullying can damage the pysche and those who were bullied as youngsters tend to have different kinds of psychological mishaps in later life. As for the bullies themselves, what are the bets that most of the murderers and wife beaters started out as bullies?
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A bully is ANY kid that holds any power over any other kid, if the roles were reversed it would be the same, kids are vicious nasty little wanna be dictators with angelic smiles and need a strong guiding hand of a father's discipline and those that got it do stand up as adults.
ReplyDeletePunishment by labeling children is a form of bullying by adults as all kids are bullies if they can get away with it.
163 times to the school but how many to the parents of the other kid?, first place I'd go.
Seems to me that rather than look to the school to deal with the problem she should deal with it personally by contacting the parents of the other child, after all it's her child's safety at risk and 163 is way past the time limit I would allow it to continue by about 161 days.
Good post Maria. I missed that one.
ReplyDeleteMy kid told me about a kid that was being bullied, I went to the school, and they went into all classrooms that day and talked about bullying. I was very impressed, with my kid for telling me about it, and with the school for the quick action.
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