lovingpet
Posts: 4270
Joined: 6/19/2005
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No. There is a difference in one child victimizing another and some kid quietly eating his lunch with a "weapon". As the parent of a child that was and still is to some extent bullied, I can tell you it gets out of hand in a hurry. If the child doesn't say anything about the dirty looks, it is not a far leap until they are being beaten up on a daily basis. My child was even attacked by another student outside our home simply trying to walk to the bus stop one morning. I don't need zero tolerence. I need zero bullshit. I teach my children to be fair and to think for themselves. If it has come to the point that they are approaching me or someone in the school, it is time for action. I was told about the other student's tough life and how they could not restrain the rights of one child for violating the rights of another. The bullies were never punished in any way and continued until I pulled him for two years. This included that attack outside my home that neither the school administration, nor the police were willing to deal with, passing off the jurisdictional responsibility to each other and leaving my kid vulnerable to future attacks. I had to resort to driving him each day and he wound up broken out in hives, developing severe allergies, and being sick daily until the school year was finally over. My child is not violent. My child never retaliated though he did voice his objections clearly. My child did not receive intervention from anyone except me. My child was definitely fighting the battle all alone for a very long time. Many kids suffer in silence and try to resolve the issue in many different ways all of which fail. Children do need guidance in order to learn what is acceptable and not, how to handle conflicts, and much more. This is not social control. It is called raising children instead of letting them run wild.
I would agree there is a great deal of "programming" done within the walls of the schools, but I do not think that teaching each other how to interact in a positive manner is one of them. I think teaching children to properly use weapons is far more beneficial than making them forbidden fruit and giving them no guidance about what they can actually do and what the consequences are. I think teaching children skills, basic ethics, and a concept of consequences is a fabulous idea. Unfortunately, that does involve some level of teaching right from wrong and that would be a "moral" judgement and would not be very "tolerant", so the alternative is to have zero tolerance instead. How ironic.
lovingpet
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Zero Tolerance for 6 year old - 
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