Bullying has become a serious problem within the United States. I’m sure bullying has always been a problem but with new technology, specifically, social media, the issue seems to have become more severe.
Statistics from 2010 show that nearly 1 in 7 children, ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade, are either bullies or being bullied. Even scarier is that 67% of polled children believe that school shootings are the result of someone who is abused at home or in school. But how do you combat bullying at any level? It seems to be a precarious topic amongst school administrations as battling against it is very difficult. I can tell you one thing, there are definitely ways we shouldn’t combat bullying.
Recently headlines were made by a former San Antonio teacher who was removed from her position after she had her students hit a 6-year-old boy for being a bully. The kindergarten teacher sought to show the boy how it feels to be bullied. For the stunt she received 30 days in jail with two years of probation. On top of that, the judge is seeking to prevent her from being able to teach for two years.
Let’s talk about this though. Bullying is taking on new forms and is having even more dire consequences, so how in the world did this teacher think this was ok? I understand making a model out of someone. I understand teaching children to fight back or to stand up against bullies. What I don’t understand is how a grown adult could coerce 6-year-olds into abusing a classmate without seeing the folly.
What I think makes the entire situation worse is that these children are 6 years old. Can you even call a 6-year-old a bully? Of course you can but they may not know what they are doing is wrong. At that stage in their development a true teacher should be able to call attention to their actions in a constructive way. We should be showing kids how they make each other feel not demonstrating it. Take a note from Super Nanny and get down to the child’s level so as not to intimidate them and stress through words they will understand what they are doing and how it is wrong. On another not, let’s not line up the other kids and have them hit a classmate until tears are shed. That is just wrong.
Bullying in all forms is wrong. What makes this case so disgusting is that it’s a form of bullying that is coming from a person of authority. This is coming from a person you entrust to be with you child for 6-8 hours a day, 5 days a week. She may, as she claims, be a good person, but she made a royal mistake in acting the way she did. The judge was right to sentence her in such a fashion.
GOOD BUSINESS 