And now days the school calls the police for minor fights and kids end up with records that can drastically alter their lives in a negative way. I almost wonder if this zero tolerance mindset creates an all-or-nothing mentality in kids when they realize they aren't allowed to defend themselves. And if this mentality (equivocating criminal record and expulsion with the end of one's opportunities and life) leads to more extreme behavior - hey, if the cops are going to be called for punching my bully, why not take it further?
This lead to me being punished more than normal for the rest of my public schooling. Once you have a "record" if you so much as dare to be 5minutes late to a class they just send you to "in school suspension" as a bad kid for the entire day. There I met kids doing much worse things than me, and almost all of it was escalated by administration getting police involved. Police would hang around these kids to arrest them again and again, never teaching them anything.
Granted this was in a rural area, which seems to be a bit slower to adopt those newer policies. I mean, we still had kids bringing their guns to high school in their cars to go hunting in the evening.
> "allowed to defend themselves"
> "punching my bully"
...and this is what most bullies would say. No, bullying cannot be solved by the victims, otherwise it would not be a problem in the first place.
Bullying needs to be stopped by the school - and without calling in armed bullies to stop the bullies.
As someone who has punched multiple bullies into the face, I can tell you it does stop it quite efficiently.
Two of them basically instantly switched to never again daring to acknowledge that I even exist, for the remaining >5 years of being on the same school. The remainder wasn't smart enough to stop instantly and thus got multiple beatings. There's always the one kid who needs to touch the hot stove multiple times until they realize it hurts ;)
Would I recommend it to children now that some decades have passed and I am an adult? I don't know.
But it does work, ideally if applied without prior threatening and in quick succession. People really don't like having multiple fists in their face when they didn't expect it to happen.
I'd argue that the number of bullied people who could give a bunch of bullies "multiple beatings" are.... few.
Please avoid the patronizing tone. Your experience is not universal. I've personally witnessed victims escalating the conflict into much worse situations.
How do you think that works if zero tolerance policies punish the aggressor and victim equally, essentially preventing the victim from defending themself? And by your reasoning, then bullying shouldn't exist today because the school policies should prevent it, yet it's more rampant than ever.
I was bullied once. Eventually I fought back and gave the kid a bloody nose. Guess what - he was nicer to me and to other kids too. Prior to that he had no empathy. That experience changed him. I know others with similar experiences too.
I never said that. Please don't make up strawmans.
> And by your reasoning, then bullying shouldn't exist today because the school policies should prevent it, yet it's more rampant than ever.
I never said that.
> I was bullied once. Eventually I fought back and gave the kid a bloody nose. Guess what - he was nicer to me and to other kids too. Prior to that he had no empathy. That experience changed him. I know others with similar experiences too.
Funny how I only hear the "stood up to bullies succesfully" story and never the other ones. See my other comment.
Sorry, I don't really understand your point. eeZah7Ux seemed to me to be saying that the victim should run and report it to the school. I don't see how a zero tolerance policy would punish the victim in that case.
I don't want to victim blame, because they are victims... but it's often enabled by their own character traits. They'll be greatly helped throughout life if they acquire the ability to defend themselves.
There's always enough kids from abusive or neglectful households to make lots of conflict in schools. It used to be (I have heard) that schools and teachers were extremely well respected such that a parent wouldn't go against something a teacher said. So in a way the teacher could help actually parent the kid. Nowadays school is more like having a personal childcare service and parents act like they're paying customers and control every aspect of their kids interactions with it.
Self defense is not a crime.
