wake up to bullying/E.C. Bernard

[Guest guest]

Did any of you see Fox and Friends this morning? It's a morning news talk show on Fox News. They had a news story of a father screaming at a bus load of kids and threatening them with death if they touched his daughter again. His daughter has CP and apparently, the kids on the bus were bullying her - putting condoms on her head, pulling body parts, poking, calling her names. so the dad got on the bus and started screaming at the kids and told them to knock it off or else. Apparently, the bus cam can catch the father screaming. I wonder if the camera caught the kids bullying? This man needs a good sped lawyer to get his hands on those video's. Now the father is being prosecuted. He had already gone to the school, asking for help. The school put two non-English speaking adults on the bus to help the situation...which did nothing. Even the bus driver is sitting there ignoring the situation as the father is screaming.

I was just so upset after seeing this news clip and the resulting discussion. They had an "expert" on there, E.C., and I just screamed at the tv. The guy said all the same trite and useless things they all say. He said, "The father feels guilty" for having a child with a disability. (That's why he snapped...ugh, they so do not get it!!) and said we have to teach these kids (the bullied) to be more self-reliant. (Improve their self esteem...I was screaming, "We could improve her self-esteem better if those kids were not so effectively ripping it to shreds every day on the bus!" morons!) And really, this girl bravely got on the bus every day, knowing she would be teased and bullied. I don't think she needs a lesson to learn self-reliance.

And of course, "Contact the school" for help. Which parents SHOULD DO, and which he did. But which accomplished nothing. There is only one E.C. in the world! <g> But the school staff were obviously doing nothing to stop the problem. The "expert" should have said "contact the school and threaten a lawsuit" to get their attention. Only then will they take it seriously.

And finally, the expert came up with the biggest waste of time, "The father should talk to the parents of the kids who are bullying." The expert admonished that the parent has to approach this situation the right way. Oh please! What a disaster! Can you imagine a parent who has a child covered in condoms on a daily basis trying to say to another parent, "That's not nice." The situation is so beyond that. And the school staff should have hauled these parents in to discuss it long ago and then kicked these kids off the bus until they stopped. This is not something the parent should be doing. You are just setting up the same situation. Many times, these parents will defend their little darling to the death and are bully's themselves. You should not do this! You have no idea if you will be talking to reasonable parent who cares or one who is going to slug you for suggestion little ny is not an angel. I couldn't believe he suggested that.

Then there was discussion about the "poor kids" on the bus who were "traumatized" by the parent screaming at them. I LOL. These kids were not traumatized and frankly, they deserved more than they got! A parent screaming at them? They see more trauma on you-tube, frankly. They are not stupid - they can understand "cause/effect" relationships. It was just the height of nonsense to hear them discuss this angle. I was disgusted. I thought about being on that bus as a student and I would have been thinking, "Thank God someone is finally doing something with these mean kids!" I think it is more "taxing" on the kids to have no adult solving the problem or in charge - to just be lost at sea on a bus with mob rule. What is more traumatizing than that? Seeing a parent yelling to leave his kid alone is traumatizing? I was so disgusted.

Then the "expert" said that the girl is on suicide watch now - and he alluded that this is because the father screamed at the bully's on the bus. Oh yes, that is what sent her over the edge. It wasn't the constant daily torture that she dealt with and then finally having her dad flip out over it. AUGH! Can you tell I was yelling at the tv? (Maybe that's the first sign of senility or old age or mental illness or something? Yikes!) lol.

I realized after reading your book, E.C., that I knew more than this "expert" about bullying. And I just felt so bad for the father in this situation. I remember standing in an office once being told, "We realize he was upset when they pushed his head into the window and wouldn't let him go, but we just can't have him screaming on the bus like that." (Made me wonder who had the learning disability, lol) I just relived that moment and wanted to scream at these people who don't get it. I wish I was really rich to send this man money to hire a good attorney. Ugh. I hope he gets a good atty just from the publicity his case is getting. He deserves it. Anyway, I got up and sent an email to the show and let off steam. lol. what a way to wake up today!

Roxanna

"I

predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Jefferson