School anti-bullying policies too weak, report says - pressofAtlanticCity.com : Latest News
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Great sentiment!... but you cannot legislate kindness. Every teacher will tell you how they actively discourage taunting and bullying whenever it rears its head. Every administrator worth their salt will make it clear that bullying and harassment is against the rules for student conduct, and they will make deliberate efforts to arrest it. However, as children lurch into maturity, they will insist on having their own standards for interacting with each other; and adults cannot manage peer interactions all day. As a middle school administrator and parent of "tweens" I can verify that students have a host of socio-political identity groups where they retreat for affirmation. Not all of them are equal. Some groups are structured around what is most popular. Others -- thank heaven -- are based around academic achievement, while still others are misfit groups who sometime draw scorn from the majority of their peers. Nevertheless, not every cold stare, rebuff or round of name calling spells doom for an adolescence's self-worth. Kids seem to survive it all... They all ways have.
Instead, using character education and present school law, adminstrators must continue to set the proper tone in schools, encourage staff to be vigilant about blatant taunting and bullying, and judiciously assign consequences for the more serious infractions of intimidation, harassment and fighting. I beg your pardon, but this [initiative] sounds like more appeasement. And I smell grant money, staff hires and more monitoring of local public schools at the root of it.
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