Friday, May 13, 2005

Hooligan Headgear

Somewhere in the prairies a quiet revolution is growing. These days, anybody with school aged kids will tell you that bullying is slowly getting out of control (In many cases it's already there and people are pretty much oblivious). It's not that kids haven't been bullied before, but these days it seems as though it is far beyond simply teasing somebody for a funny shirt or a couple of fistfights. In our brave new world these kid are taking weapons into the schools and in some cases possibly provoking other kids into extreme measures like suicides or shootings.

I am pretty hard line on this stuff and applaud the actions of a teacher in Manitoba for taking some bullies and forcing them to wear helmets with "loser" and "I'm stupid: I bully." written on them while submitting to roleplaying where the rest of the students got to poke fun at them. The parents of the bullies complained that the punishments were unethical and that the school went too far. I find it pretty good that the school actually put the kids through what their victims went through. One bully's parents actually admitted that their son was not likely to bully anytime soon without thinking about wearing his helmet again.

The schools have decided that the helmets are probably not going to happen again but the role playing will very likely be used again. It's about time the schools give some control back to the schools. People are getting out of control in our school systems here in Canada. Parents who have spent years focusing on themselves and taking blame for nothing are teaching this to their kids, helping to further our society that has become less and less accountable over the years. They reinforce that fact that these bullies can do whatever they want by taking any punishment to their children to the media and the school board. How about understanding your child is a bad-ass and sorting it out.

Once they perfect this system we need to implement it in the real world as well. Picture being able to take the aggressive drivers on our roads and making them drive in a compound with each other. After a day or two of cutting each other off and generally driving like morons they would either realize that they need to chill out, or end up dead by the hands of each others' miserable driving skills. Yeah right, let's be honest. They would leave the compound at the end of their sentence and take it out on everybody else. Very likely these really calm folks would even die in the compound as a result of a massive coronary brought about by their super mellow nature.

Ah well, I've got to go put on my helmet and let the workers ridicule me for a while. I haven't bullied anyone, but it sounds like it could be fun.

9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

They do need to do something about bullies, here too. There's a sneaking admiration for the bullies and contempt for their victims. Any school intervention here concentrates on the victims, not making the bullies stop. I hate that!
blue2go

9:15:00 AM  
Blogger Katya Coldheart said...

anything that shames bullies into being nicer human beings should be embraced into schools...

those people are more likely to end up in trouble with authority...

11:16:00 AM  
Blogger Karen Schmautz said...

Speaking of aggressive drivers...here in the country, people are always driving too fast down the middle of a barely two-lane road around blind corners with a mountain on one side and a sheer 100 foot drop-off with no guard rails on the other side. Then they get mad because they have to slam on their brakes when they see me coming around the corner (do mountains have corners?). If I refuse to be the one to back up, it just makes 'em madder. I shall write my Congressman and recommend that these bullies be sent to your Canadian compound.

12:01:00 PM  
Blogger glomgold said...

I like the idea of that bully helmet. It's kind of like a non-pointy dunce cap! We should make those stupid drivers wear dunce caps too.

1:08:00 PM  
Blogger Happy and Blue 2 said...

I actually have followed this story to and some of the bullies parents are considering legal action against both the teacher and the school division.
It's a strange life..

1:49:00 PM  
Blogger Karen said...

Those helmets are a good idea. What's legal action-worthy about putting bullies through the same things the bullies put their victims through?

2:09:00 PM  
Blogger Adrienne said...

All I can say is AMEN BROTHA!

4:49:00 PM  
Blogger Ruth said...

i think bullies should be given special gear just to warn da rest of us- we can see them coming. as for aggressive drivers, we can give them special bumper stickers. cars arent spozed to be weapons for rage..

10:30:00 PM  
Blogger Rhodent said...

I read about the helmets... and the impending legal actions! It seems to be everywhere... and usually it's the parents who don't want anyone disciplining their children... because theri children couldn't POSSIBLY do something like that.

5:43:00 PM  

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