Alma Mater Getting Sued

[Pix]

Bullies are mostly a product of environmental factors and they do not have the coping mechanisms to deal with problems in a rational manner. They are not going to learn how to 'cope' if you beat them up, if you imprison them (send them to a place full of other insane people expecting the insane to rehabilitate the insane - it doesn't work) - is as insane.

Prisons (in THEORY more than practice) serve 2 purposes: rehabilitation is one, but protection of society another. In the case of bullies, the idea of locking them up to prevent them from hurting others thus makes sense to me. In theory (granted this would no doubt get screwed up) locking them up for sensitivity training or in a mental health facility could be a similar alternative.

That said, locking them with criminals and true sociopaths is also likely to make them worse instead of better, and they can learn all kinds of ways to game the system and get away with crimes as well as making criminal connections while on the inside. Should they be stigmatized as a convict after they get out which makes it difficult to get a good job or get into college then they can likely be pushed into criminal behavior which means now society is unsafe, not just a school. Therefore I can appreciate other options being used (so long as that option isn't "nothing").

I'm also disinclined to treat kids as adults as they're kids (which is why I focus on the adults in charge--and I do think if schools suffer for allowing bullying then they won't allow it, and hopefully mentally ill bullies would then get the help they need). I did some stuff as a kid that if I'd done it as an adult I'd consider terrible and near unforgivable, mainly because as a kid I was immature, stupid, and hadn't fully developed self-control and an awareness of long term consequences. If anyone thinks a kid should be treated as an adult in the legal system then I think they should be willing to grant them full rights of adulthood, including the right to vote, because it's saying that kids ARE adults.

And just to nitpick, I do think--actually know from experience--that at least in some cases bullies will stop bullying a victim if they fear violent reprisal from their target. Of course that doesn't stop bullying in the school, just for that one person. And it wouldn't stop extreme cases (like when one boy, after failing to inspire other boys to help him beat up an openly gay kid when he wasn't brave enough to beat up the boy by himself, just brought a gun to school and shot the boy in class). Punishment by authority figures (like if schools treated bullying like they do drugs--you know, how they strip search girls for Midol and then suspend them if they find it--stupid, yes, but maybe appropriate for bullying) would also curb it...though granted only in the school itself.

Just out of curiosity, what do you think should be done? (If you want to include details then maybe you should start a new thread and link to it here--or not, just a suggestion as I think it might be worthwhile to think about.)