This week, state Senator Betty Little from Queensbury co-sponsored legislation aimed at targeting bullies in our public schools.<\/p>\n
“Bullying is a chronic problem,” she argued.\u00a0 “Left unaddressed, the intensity usually grows greater each day for the child subjected to teasing, ridicule, isolation and physical violence.”<\/p>\n
I grew up in a different age when bullying was seen as a rite of passage, a more or less natural part of childhood.<\/p>\n
As a consequence, I spent several years — at two different schools — in absolute terror.<\/p>\n
I know that sounds like a strong word.\u00a0 But I remember vividly the anguish that came to surround the simple act of going to school.<\/p>\n
I was confident every single day that I would face mockery, hazing, and often a terrible thrashing.<\/p>\n
I’ve experienced a lot of frightening things since those school days.\u00a0 I’ve been robbed in northern Africa.\u00a0 I’ve gone over waterfalls.\u00a0 I’ve watched smoke pouring out of the vents of a rickety Cuban airliner.<\/p>\n
But nothing matches that sense of powerlessness on the schoolyard, the sense of being trapped at the bus stop.<\/p>\n
And the truth is that I didn’t have it so bad.\u00a0 I remember with deep shame a girl in my middle school — an awkward, beautiful, art-classy sort of girl — who was picked out for torture by the other children.<\/p>\n
They called her “Parasite” for some reason.\u00a0 I even heard teachers calling her that.\u00a0\u00a0 One day I passed her in the hallway, approaching from behind, and she flinched like a thrashed dog.<\/p>\n
At the time, this all seemed inevitable to me:\u00a0 that’s what school meant.\u00a0 It was a grinding, tribal conflict.\u00a0 There were winners and losers.\u00a0 You were in or you were out.<\/p>\n
Years later, when my older brother Allen had kids, he was the first to set me straight.\u00a0 He had become a school teacher himself, a conservative no-nonsense kind of guy.<\/p>\n
“My boys will never go through that,” Allen said.\u00a0 “They go to school to learn, not to survive.”<\/p>\n
“Okay, but isn’t bullying a part of growing up?” I asked.\u00a0 “Doesn’t it toughen kids?\u00a0 Give them spine?”<\/p>\n
But I knew as I said it that it wasn’t true.\u00a0 There was absolutely nothing about being bullied that made me stronger.<\/p>\n
I love books and ideas and conversation and debate, but I came to hate school.\u00a0 I barely finished high school, and never finished college.<\/p>\n
The good news is that things are getting better.\u00a0 The push to make schools safer began in earnest after the Columbine shooting.<\/p>\n
After that deadly rampage, teachers and parents testified that their school’s culture was shaped by bullies who systematically terrorized students.<\/p>\n
“I saw how afraid and scared my special education kids were,” one teacher told a commission investigating the shootings.\u00a0 “I mentioned it at staff meetings.\u00a0 I didn’t get any response.\u00a0 They kind of blew me off.”<\/p>\n
The tragedy in Colorado sparked a national reassessment of the social culture within our schools.<\/p>\n
Many districts here in the North Country have already adopted zero-tolerance policies and added counseling staff trained to deal with this kind of problem.<\/p>\n
But in pushing for new anti-bullying legislation, Senator Little makes a strong case that we still have a long way to go.<\/p>\n
“Last month, a West Islip teen hanged herself after being harassed by cyber-bullies who taunted her even in death,” according to Little’s statement.<\/p>\n
-Another West Islip teenager was repeatedly cyber-bullied and beaten so badly by a classmate that she had to have reconstructive surgery on her face.<\/p>\n
-In Brooklyn, a 5-year-old kindergarten student was beat up by classmates, who also cut her hair.<\/p>\n
It’s heartbreaking and it’s preventable.<\/p>\n
As we debate this legislation, our goal should be a a simple new social contract between teachers, parents and law enforcement:\u00a0\u00a0 Our kids should feel safe going to school every single day.<\/p>\n
Your thoughts welcome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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