Bullying and Biglaw: Perfect Together?
The New York Times is on a bit of a “bully” kick lately — using their “bully pulpit,” if you will. They recently ran this 1100-word article, by Pulitzer Prize winner Dan Barry, about an Arkansas teen who has been subjected to bullying at school for years — sometimes to the point of physical violence. (Gawker glibly summarizes it as a piece about “a random kid, Billy Wolfe, who gets knocked around a lot.”)
Sure enough, it has a legal angle to it:
The Wolfes are not satisfied [with the school’s response to their complaints about their son being bullied]. This month they sued one of the bullies “and other John Does,” and are considering another lawsuit against the Fayetteville School District. Their lawyer, D. Westbrook Doss Jr., said there was neither glee nor much monetary reward in suing teenagers, but a point had to be made: schoolchildren deserve to feel safe.
One ATL reader who drew this article to our attention is definitely on the side of the parents: “I’d like to see a post about the tort and criminal aspects of the case. Seems like the school’s gonna get creamed.”
This reader is probably not alone in feeling sympathy for Billy Wolfe. We’d guess that victims of schoolyard bullies are disproportionately represented among the ranks of lawyers, especially lawyers at top law firms. What do revenge-seeking nerds do after high school? They grow up to become lawyers, so they can acquire wealth and power, and lord it over their used-car-selling ex-tormentors at twentieth high school reunions.
But the Times didn’t stop there with its fixation on bullying. A second Times article, in today’s paper, discusses bullying in the workplace. How long before Nick Kristof writes an impassioned column on the subject, after traveling to Arkansas and hanging out with poor Billy for a week?
More discussion, after the jump.
Blogger and columnist Tara Parker-Pope writes, in her piece about workplace bullies:
Bullying in the workplace is surprisingly common. In a survey released last fall, 37 percent of American workers said they had experienced bullying on the job, according to the research firm Zogby International.Unlike the playground bully, who often resorts to physical threats, the work bully sets out on a course of constant but subtle harassment. It may start with a belittling comment at a staff meeting. Later it becomes gossip to co-workers and forgetting to invite someone to an important work event. If the bully is a supervisor, victims may be stripped of critical duties, then accused of not doing their job, says Gary Namie, founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute, an advocacy group based in Bellingham, Wash.
Sadly, this pattern of behavior should be familiar to many denizens of large law firms. At some places, it’s a recipe for how to make partner.
What to do about the problem? What red-blooded Americans do when faced with any problem: draft a law!
The New York State Legislature is considering an antibullying bill, and in several other states, including New Jersey and Connecticut, lawmakers have introduced such measures — without success so far. A measure was withdrawn in Connecticut last week after business groups opposed it, although the bill is expected to be resubmitted.Business groups often argue that existing laws are adequate to protect workers. But bullying generally does not involve race, age or sex, which have protected status in the courts. Instead, most workplace hostility occurs just because someone doesn’t like someone else.
Indeed — which is why it might not be terribly amenable to legislation. As the Times notes, with some understatement, “it can be hard to distinguish between normal personality disputes and the incessant torture of workplace bullying.”
P.S. Despite our skepticism towards anti-bullying legislation, we are not unsympathetic to bullying victims, having been in their shoes once ourselves. We can still remember how Dominic B. prevented us from accessing our locker in high school, pushing us repeatedly against the opposite bank of lockers each time we tried to approach. He finally let us open our locker when Guy V. — a friend of ours with higher social standing, as a varsity athlete and overall “cool guy” — interceded on our behalf (“C’mon, Dom, leave him alone….”).
When the Bully Sits in the Next Cubicle [New York Times]
A Boy the Bullies Love to Beat Up, Repeatedly [New York Times]
Bullying Article Encourages Bullying Of The ‘Times’ [Gawker]
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Comments
FIRSTY FIRST FIRST FIRST!
4:07 must have been bullied.
How fucking helpless have we become as a society? Now we expect the government to protect us from bullies? This is the pathetic bottom of the slippery slope that all the New Deal naysayers no doubt decried 70 years ago.
Agree 4:11. Instead of a lawsuit, that kid should have reacted the way those kids at columbine did. This is America right?
"most workplace hostility occurs just because someone doesn’t like someone else"
Which is a perfectly sound reason to fire someone. What the Hell is wrong with these namby-pambys?
"We'd guess that victims of schoolyard bullies are disproportionately represented among the ranks of lawyers -- and especially lawyers at top law firms. What do revenge-seeking nerds do after high school? They grow up to become lawyers, so they can acquire wealth and power, and lord it over their used-car-selling ex-tormentors at twentieth high school reunions."
This is spot on.
And another thing - school children do NOT "deserve" to feel *naively* safe. But that's exactly what lawsuits and legislation like this promotes - a naive fantasy land where you never have to stand up against someone bigger than you or deal with confrontation. Kids who are indoctrinated like this grow up thinking they have some kind of "right" to be free from crime, accidents, and any other misfortune that might befall them -- and that it is the government's job to ensure this. Unfortunately, that's not the real world. Some degree of force (either physical or psychological) is a way of life, and anyone who thinks it can be legislated around is delusional.
Guys in by high school used to beat the crap out of the managing partner of Cravath all the time. It was no big deal.
(though one of us did get in trouble when we hog-tied him with athletic tape, covered him in shaving cream, and threw him into the cheerleaders practice)
The government has a responsibility, under a public school system, as a guardian of children entrusted to its care. 515 U.S. 646, 665 (1995).
School administrators have a duty to ensure that students are educated in a safe environment. 306 F.3d 616, 633 (8th Cir. 2002).
See also Dorothy J. v. Little Rock School Dist., 794 F.Supp. 1405 (E.D. Ark. 1992) (collecting cases relating to the duties of schools); 78A C.J.S. Schools and School Districts § 465 (2008).
While I don't really buy into the Times' breathless outrage, if the facts are accurate, the lawsuit sounds like a slam dunk. Administrators shouldn't respond to beatings by saying that the victim was "asking for it."
And yes, children do "deserve" to feel physically safe in school. I can agree that we overemphasize self-esteem, and that makes children incapable of dealing with the real world. But B.F.D. seems to be arguing that we ought to allow schoolyard beatings so people will be able to deal with workplace beatings. Don't really see the logic there.
I really felt bad for the kid in the NYT article. Mainly because he lives in Arkansas. The bullying, not so much--he just needs to find the local Mr. Miyagi.
And the guys who hassled you in high school probably became MBAs. Bullies: you can't beat them, you can't join them, but maybe you can handle their litigation needs.
4:19 - You are spot on. My wife is a teacher and has plenty of stories about kids' parents constantly fighting their battles for them. What are these kids going to do for the rest of their lives - live with mommy and daddy so that someone will always make life "fair" for them? If anything, it's a good lesson on how not to raise kids.
Everyone gets beat on or bullied at some point, whether physically, emotionally, or otherwise. Suck it up.
Contrary to popular belief, bullies are often the least tough of the playground characters. Those to be avoided are the really quiet kids with several older brothers. They are likely well-versed in the pugilistic arts and probably anxious not to be on the receiving end of some rough-housing. That said, society would be well served by teaching its collective children that an occasional right-hook on the play ground is an acceptable means of deterring future bullying. Bullies pick on the meek, prove you're not meek, bullies won't pick on you. I know it's crude, but it's prision rules and it's just the way it is.
Why on earth don't that kids parents find him a different school?
I'm all for sticking to your priniciples, but if your kid's getting his ass kicked every day for years on end, at some point your kid's sanity and health ought to take precedence over your beliefs about what OUGHT to be happening.
That school sucks, but those parents are assholes for not putting their kid in a safer environment.
I'm comin' to whup yo' ass Lat! You little punk.
Why do you keep hitting yourself? Punk.
Where's big tough Guy V., now, huh?
Eat knuckle sandwich, biotch.
PS Next I'm comin' to pound on Nicky Kristoff!
4:40, I couldn't agree more. One of the first things my father taught me when I started school (in Russia), was hot to throw a punch. It's the old, "You don't have to win - you just have to fight" principle.
If anyone ever hits my kid, I pressing charges and suing the parents. If it happens at school, I'm suing the school too. Hello Aston Martin!
That kid needs to sack up. You deal with bullies by communicating to them that you are not a target.
4:50 - "You don't have to win - you just have to fight" - Exactly right.
Put yourself in the bully's shoes. He wants an easy target. A target that fights back and gives him a bloody nose, even if the bully ultimately prevails, is not as attractive as a target that will never fight back. Plus, kids who have been knocked around learn not to mouth off to people they don't know and have confidence when someone tries to bully them (they know they've survived worse beatings).
It sort of sucks, but it is also just the way the world works. Anyone who pretends differently lives in a dreamland.
If a kid is not being abused at home, it is very likely he will be a target for abuse at school. We all get abused -- somewhere -- I prefered bullies to my dads finger in my ....
I demand a Portsmouth List of Shame!
This is pathetic. I knew this d-bag in law school that kept trying to get people to get in a fight with him so he could press charges and ensure they would have criminal records and ruin their careers. This is no different than that. Seriously, do you fight back by becoming a litigious bully yourself? Isn't threatening to sue everyone around you just a different type of bullying, and a really weak one at that.
4:34 - You conveniently omitted the key word in paraphrasing my assertion. I said that kids don't deserve to feel NAIVELY safe. Of course they deserve to feel some degree of safety. We all do. But like almost everything in the real world, this is a question of degree.
I haven't read the NYT article. Maybe what went on with this victim was so egregious and pervasive that the school should have done something about it. But 9 times out of 10 when schools respond to 'bullying' nowadays, they are overreaching.
I first noticed this trend years ago when I moved from a public city school in the north to a more affluent suburban school in the south halfway through high school. There were fights from time to time at my city school, but it wasn't "dangerous." I always felt safe enough, even though I was a skinny dork who was more often the bullied than the bullier. If someone stole your lunch money, he might get punched in the face and that was that. Lesson learned: don't steal that dude's lunch money.
In my suburban school, I got in a shoving match that lasted maybe 1 minute with like 2 punches thrown. It ended, and that should have been that. No big deal, no one seriously hurt. The school called the police, threatened to ticket us for disorderly conduct, suspended us for like a week, and made us appear before the superintendent to argue why we shouldn't be expelled. It was absolutely ridiculous, and this is the kind of overreaching that I view as detrimental in the long run.
Our profession is amusing. All of the thespians- and french horn players-cum-junior associates who have somehow convinced themselves that not that they have a law degree need a reality check. This thread reminds me why I went to law school...
The reason you're going to get your waifish ass handed to you in that deposition next week, or your next oral argument, or god forbid your first trial, is the same reason you got picked on by the town bully and why none of your coworkers like you- you're a milquetoast. Your parents taught you to be that way by fighting your battles for you like the kid in this post, and you'll always be one.
By the way, the "pugilistic arts" are but one of a number of ways defeating a bully. If you're not physically imposing, try humor, or out-smarting the bully, or becoming friends with the another big kid. This isn't rocket science, it's basic human interaction. These are lessons a pathetic proportion of children don't earn in school, which can cripple one's social skills, and which makes an unfortunate percentage of adults miserable humans to be around.
Life's tough. What's next, suing the school for getting picked last in dodgeball?
5:04- What Law school was this? That seems like a sure path to expulsion.
B-ba-b-ba-ba-ba-b, go Bayside!!!
4:32: Thank you. It is fucking lunacy to claim that protecting this kid from a bunch of animals is somehow evidence that this generation is soft. It is not acceptable to get knocked around in any context, especially not in an educational setting.
5:09, why is it detrimental to kids in the long run to make a big deal out of disorderly, potentially dangerous, and distracting conduct in a place where kids are compelled by law to be? Also, what if somebody gets called racial slurs all the time? Hey, the world's racist - learn to deal with reality! The world's sexist, girls - if somebody grabs your ass in the hallway, just deal with it! There's tons of anti-Semites out there, so quit your complaining!
I also agree that the parents should just suck it up and send this kid to a private/religious school where this kind of shit simply isn't tolerated (for the most part) and kids can get expelled. It sounds to me as if they have the means to do so - it'd only be for a year or two anyway.
"It is not acceptable to get knocked around in any context, especially not in an educational setting."
Haha, your outrage is soooo cute!
Lat,
You're welcome.
Lat, you are 120 years late. Didn't this happen in Vosburg v. Putney?
Ok, follow the link to the NYT article and look at the photo of the kid.
Now tell me, seriously, that you wouldn't bounce that pathetic looking excuse for a man off a locker.
Am I correct in thinking that a bunch of people who bitch about not getting a car home after 7:30 are suddenly tough guys? Give me a break.
The kid does hit back. But he has been hit so hard 2x (presumably on the first blow) that he has been rendered unconscious. One time it happened IN CLASS. Clearly the school is effing up.
5:32: You're clearly among the few people who have actually read the article. This is not somebody getting their books thrown on the ground a couple of times.
Is sexual humiliation part of bullying?
5:29 has a point, although I wouldn't commit a battery at the sight of the kid. He really does look pathetic and scared. And from the article, his constantly hand-holding mother isn't helping his situation any.
Percentage of posters decrying the parents' "hand-holding" who constantly accept financial help from their own parents: high.
Kid is a wimp... getting knocked out in a school fight is so pathetic. He needs to man up.... or come STRAPPED!
5:38, the reason I'm in debt and biglaw is precisely because I didn't get financial help from the 'rents. Moreover, there's a difference between what Billy's mother appears to be doing and paying for a kid's college.
Look, this kid is now the Nation's wimpiest kid as highlighted by the Nation's softest liberal paper. Why don't we all pitch in and get him a sex change -- no one hits girls (for being wimpy).
Ok, physical assaults of the sort described in the article are bad: the school shouldn't permit them to go unpunished, and they're no less actionable than if I started backhanding associates who gave me shoddy writing.
But: "Billy Wolfe, for example, deserves to open his American history textbook and not find anti-Billy sentiments scrawled across the pages. But there they were, words so hurtful and foul." And a facebook page? This kid is toast: you can't legislate respect, and no judge can make your peers like you, treat you with even a modicum of decency, or interact with you at all.
I predict he wins his suit, the school cracks down on physical assaults... and poor little billy is more despised and ridiculed than ever. He'll never get why, and his mother will try and have those horrible instances of free speech controlled, but ultimately, this kid is being set up for angry, resentful failure at life.
Dear Billy,
Kill yourself!
love,
Mom
Maybe he can hire the lawyers for the AutoAdmit Does?
5:04,
I think litigious bullying would be bringing suits without just cause. But battery is a tort.
"Imagine yourself sitting at a conference table and you offer something as a suggestion and someone looks at you and shakes their head every time."
Maybe if you would stop saying dumb stuff, the rest of the table might find your commentary worthwhile.
Why does NYT (or me) care about some kid getting bullied in Arkansas? WHO CARES! You think black people aren't bullied by whites in the south. And asians aren't bullied by blacks in the hood. And asians are bullying whites in kung-fu movies. As long as we see color, we will be bullying the lesser races....it is a vicious cycle. But, Darwin had it right... we have to beat down the weak so they cannot spread their seed. The best thing is for the humiliation and breatings to continue so that this child can never have a healthy relationship with the opposite sex and turn out more wimps.
5:48 - What you're not grasping is that it appears that going to his mother started all of this, and the continued protection his mother has tried to offer has perpetuated and escalated it. Yeah, it sucks that he's had to go through this, but bringing a lawsuit sure as hell won't make it any better. This is only going to alienate more kids and make them hate him more. The kid's in a shitty situation, no doubt about that, but a lawsuit is only going to exacerbate it. Keep in mind, that there are also two sides to every story, but of course we're not getting the other side in this case.
I had a partner throw a binder at me in front of a client. I burst out crying and the client started laughing saying I was a "fag" and "sissy." This is the environment that we work in and we have to learn to overcome it. I cannot just sue everytime someone "brains" me, or spits on me, or turns out all the lights when I am in the bathroom. If I ran out of the room everytime someone asked if I wore women's underwear, I would never be a part of the team. Sometimes you have to laugh it off to be part of the group. I find that harrassing others (especially juniors) deflects some of the attention from me! Try that.
Anon 5:56 = FTW
Beautiful post.
Dominic B. - What's FTW?
Praise ALLAH (ALLAH AKHBAR) that we have the one true leader to be elected to United President of States of America! Without this MR. OBAMA we could have no more war. THank you Mr. OBAMA for contradict this great devil Republicans and their demon leader Jesus. Obama will bring peace whereever the States of America have brought war (except Hillary's imaginary sniper war). I look to this day Obama votes in as president! AMEN!
6:03... Uhh... Ummm...
Yeeeeaaaaah.
5:56 (1),
His mother started it how? Did she report the batteries before they had occurred, or did she "start it" by reporting them? By filing police reports? By reporting to the school that her son had been beaten up at school? And if so, would this "instigation" constitute a defense at law?
i was bullied to death... heath ledger
6:07, it's clear that his mother being overly protective is no legal defense; stop being a twit.
The point is simply this:
1) Somewhat obnoxious wimp ("SOW") gets made fun of or harrassed.
2) Mommy of SOW calls mommy of cruel tormentor and/or school administration and gets tormentor in Trouble.
3) ....
4) SOW is now automagically more popular and respected, and less prone to ridicule than ever before!
Oh, no, wait... it's the opposite of that.
The school is lucky this kid hasn't come in with a gun. Haven't these places learned anything about how immature, bullied kids can just explode after a while?
Assuming today's parents know how to fight battles for their kids, then aren't they in the best position (as individuals who obviously are willing to fight) to know how much fighting their kids should do for themselves?
6:13, look at little Billy and then tell me that the parents who raised that sop of a human being have a good sense of how much fighting their kids should be allowed (or encouraged) to do themselves, for purposes of the kid's own healthy development.
6:13,
I meant could the bullies or the school cite the mother's actions in a defense that they were provoked.
6:25,
If you seriously meant that, you have zero understanding of criminal law.
The answer is of course no.
i am a girl and my dad told me i was allowed to hit someone (one boy in particular) only if he hit me first. trust--that boy backed down when he saw i was ready to fight. so i think billy boy has to fight back -- but the article reads like he has fought back and he is the one to get in trouble with the school. if i were 14 and getting punched at school i would hope my parents would file a police report for me. since when does the school get discretion for calling the police?
I like the women that encourage lewd behavior and harrassment by wearing tight and revealing outfits and smiling lasvisciously at me. I just want to spanky their big ass with a 18 inch ruler and shout "OBJECTION YOUR HONOR"... but I just sit here, cutting myself with paperclips and stopping blood with rubber bands wrapped too tightly.
Former bully victim
When 6:25 sits at a conference table, every time they open their mouth, someone just looks at them and shakes their head.
Here is a simple solution... boxing gloves, in a ring, headgear and referee. boys will be boys -- let them duke it out in a safe confine. This is how we used to do it at my military school. We could challenge anyone to a round in the ring... and if you backed out you had to SHUT THE HELL UP and give me your lunch money. Since I was a midget, I routinely hit "below the belt" and left many a one-nutted cadet waddling around with no lunch money. So moral of this story... well that is pretty obvious.
Remember the kid with Permanent Ear Damage (no, not billy madison) from the Desk slamming incident??!?! Kids need to toughen up... learn to take a punch with out passing out, and take a slap on the desk without losing hearing! I am going to go home and beat my kids senseless and kick the dog.
Could we just sedate the kid? I hear he was a big-mouth bigot who had it coming... he was a bully in middle school and now others were hitting puberty and laying him out. Lets get this kid drooling on himself with teenage lexapro and haldol... put him in padded room and let him play with LEGOS (the big blocky ones). This is the south... in the south the primary educational outcome is "damage control" -- the best you can hope for is that your students won't become burden on society -- trailer trash, rednecks, welfare mommas, hoodlums, democrats, etc.
Can you "disabuse" someone using abuse? I thought so... violence is clearly the answer.
Brad Renfro is GORGEOUS!
6:38, the primary educational goal with respect to most of humanity is "damage control."
When is Brad Renfro's next movie coming out? oh, yeah he OVERDOSED ON DRUGS LIKE HIS LOVER HEATH LEDGER... BULLIES UNITE!
How come everyone thinks of the bully as the bad guy? Maybe the bully has a low self esteem or disfunctional home life. Poor bully.
6:30 -- I just blew snot out of my nose laughing -- I know you are joking, but that is SO TRUE!
haha at 6:41(1)
I agree. I deserve sympathy too.
Bullying Lat was just how I coped with having my puppy die when I was younger. It made me sad, so I pushed around Davey at school to compensate.
It worked.
No means no. Bullying is a form of male-on-male rape, before sexual development occurs in the victim (and occasionally the oppressor). Most commonly the aggrssor is experiencing a mild form of "roid rage" as they progess into, and through puberty. They feel misuderstood by their feminine and hairless peers and exert control over them through violence, humliation, etc. acting out of how they feel on the inside -- ostracized and hurting. The pre-pubescent boys anxiety can lead to stunted development both physcially and emotionally often delaying puberty into the late teens with the bullying cycle feeding on it self -- anxiety, bully, anxiety, lack of development. Eventually, the underdeveloped youth reaches puberty, but has been so badly damaged that he is a shell of a man. Others reach out to those in similar situations -- poorly developed teenagers in a variety of outlets, namely the internet, porn and gay community. Often addiction begins during this stage, planting seeds of a crop that will destroy (or try) the boy/man's life with alcohol, drugs, sex or gambling. The triggers of anxiety at confrontation lead to a over-compensation and aggression, which can be mistaken for bullying in adults, but while a bully is an aggressor, the new "bullying" behavior is a merely a defense mechanism, but is nearly indistinguishable. Psychological intervention is required; but very difficult as the man-child has developed and covered/repressed the memories of being bullied, such that the memories are not even available for recall. Hypnotism can often be therapeutic but most often the hurt will lie dormant until a trigger -- such as watch an animal be hurt or man hit a woman -- leads to an overwhelming rage, which the man acts on. For an interesting study of bullying in Prison see SPENCER, et al.
6:41(2) I was not joking. I am wearing lipstick under my desk....
6:50--excellent points
I never bully, but I sometimes carve my name in the flesh of my victims.
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't the movie "Bully" more a homo-erotic fantasy/snuff film?
I need a better reference that "SPencer" and "Prison" please... very interested.
Spencer Short is the poet laureate of Skadden Arps. He has a published volume... look it up!
Billy the Bully, has a nice ring to it... but if I was a defense lawyer I would have a field day with Silly Billy the Bully boy.... no one could find that silly boy guilty! billy will go scott darn free!
HILLARY LIED, PEOPLE DIED!
(Bosnia; look it up!)
Give the kids guns. That would solve the problem.
Give the bullys guns so that pistol whip these sissy boys!
6:28 and 6:31--
Dense as plutonium.
I'm a nerd who's headed to biglaw solely to lord my wealth over the a$$holes who made high school hell for me.
Wish the statute of limitations hadn't expired on the bullying already, or I'd be filing a lawsuit too.
Hell, I'd probably take some bullying cases pro bono.
He He, revenge of the nerds!
It looks to me like Billy's mouth is writing checks his body can't cash. Some of his teachers even said he was disrespectful and disruptive, his parents started all this shit when they called the prank callers parents... Maybe Billy should sue his parents for intentional infliction of emotional distress?
If he was a student at a Boston area school, the aggressors would be in the juvenile system. With police officers in school, a fight has become a criminal offense. It is too bad they live where they do; nothing makes you feel better about a little jerk than to see him brought in wearing handcuffs and prison clothes.
GOD DAMN AMERICA
Obviously he should carry a knife or a gun rather than resorting to the legal system to address bad conduct by others.
Obviously there's no possible set of actions he could take other than (1) doing nothing; (2) resorting to the legal system; or (3) carrying and using a lethal weapon.
Obviously.
The school doesn't have much obligation. See DeShaney v. Winnebago County Dept. of Social Serv., 489 U.S. 189, 103 L. Ed. 2d 249, 109 S. Ct. 998 (1989)
See also -
Scruggs v. Meriden Bd. of Educ., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58517 (D. Conn. 2007)
Kid ain't got nothing.
I suppose he could also lift some weights and kick some ass. What about that? Or what about getting one of the big stupid kids to have his back, by, oh i don't know, paying him or something. Or maybe he could tell his parents to stop dressing him in drag before he goes to school in the morning.
I love how one of the NYT slideshow pictures is taken in front of the "GUN FREE ZONE" sign at the school.
Dollars to doughnuts, this kid violates that one: there's just something about the look on his face that says "nobody home."
9:43 -
I'm sure you wouldn't use one of those three options if you got assaulted by a gang on the way to work everyday.
Is there any chance you might call the cops and involve the legal system?
Nope. As a handgun carrying Idaho lawyer, I'd opt for (3). But this is a high school brat.
So you are saying the kid should be allowed to carry a gun to school to defend himself?
Or are you somehow entitled to protections this guy isn't?
9:43 -
Why do you think there is such a thing as a legal system?
Hint: It has something to do with the natural method of dispute resolution that goes back to when Og got pissed off that Urk was hanging around Og Woman.
*Slams psychology nerd @6:50 into a locker.
ironically, more lawsuits simply means less money for the school system to keep kids safe. by extracting the necessary resources to go through the litigation process that would lead to an 'order' of school safety, schools will have less money to pay their security guards. and if they instead simply choose to layoff teachers, why not just send all kids to juvenile detention?
Most of the comments above are just plain idiotic, but BFD at 411 and 419pm takes the cake. Children don't have a right to feel dafe in school...WHAAAAT? All I'll say is, lets see if your attitude changes once you have kids.
Anon Clerk - you neglected the Third Circuit, which has found that permitting bullying of a LD kid constitutes a violation of FAPE. This article mentioned specifically that this kid is LD.
9:56: I don't think the Fayetteville schools are rough. I think they're schools with a bunch of teachers and staff who turn a blind eye when a kid is getting tormented.
Options for dispute resolution:
1. Ignore it.
2. Use legal system.
3. Get weapon and/or hired thugs.
As a society, we prefer #1 for minor stuff and #2 for everything else and when #1 won't work.
Settle out of court is greatly preferable to settle out back.
This actually has been some of the most sane postings I have encountered on the internet on this subject. Very interesting to see you all talk about social and legal ramifications of this case.
I live in Fayetteville, my son goes to school with Billy - same grade, same Junior High and now High School. Not that some of the posts are rational - then most kids from Fayetteville are very upset about this because they know Billy. check out
http://www.abajournal.com/news/bullied_at_school_for_years_billy_wolfe_brings_suit_with_his_parents_help
Dan Barry is a columnist, not a news reporter. How deeply did he delve into the other side? Well I don't know, my feeling is not very. Maybe a prefunctory call to the school.
Now, some of what happenned to Billy was absolutely uncalled for (website) and I don't think he deserved what he got, but did he ask for some of this - well I will let you all be the judge.
Yes, to the poster who said Billy's mouth is writing checks that his body can't cash - my son will tell you that does seem to be the case. My son is wise enough to stay clear from kids who just seem to find trouble, like Billy - and that goes for kids on either side of this argument.
I hope after the world discusses this for a few days, it settles down, and gets handled locally. Fayetteville is a nice University town and not really as over run by red necks as one would imagine.
My kid started getting bullied in school in Kindergarten. He fought back and has repeatedly gotten kicked out of school for fighting. I have been told that he never started a fight, but that he shouldn't fight back, that "some kids are like that" and that "your kid should just learn to take it". Know what? I'm proud of him for fighting back. Yes - I interfered and talked to school officials because I don't think my son should be afraid of being ON SCHOOL GROUNDS for fear of getting hit, slammed against walls, pushed down, stepped on and kicked just because he happens to be smaller than some brat who was never taught to behave himself. It IS the responsibilty of the school district to keep kids safe. And bullies should be punished. By the way - one of the reasons bullies cite for pushing my kid around is that he's "too smart". Bullies use any excuse to exert power. It isn't really becasue it kid is small, thin, fat, learning disabled or anything else. The real reason is that bullies are jerks.