Dr. Glenn Mollette
Contributor
Four teenagers have been charged in connection with the attack of a 14-year-old girl who later took her own life after video of the incident was posted on social media in New Jersey.
One juvenile is charged with aggravated assault, two juveniles are charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and one juvenile is charged with harassment.
When I was an elementary riding the school bus, we had a few fights on the bus. One young man who didn’t live that far from me was constantly getting into fights on the school bus. One day he had a kid down repeatedly punching him in the face. The bus driver stopped the bus and escorted both boys off the bus while still a couple of miles from their homes. We then drove off and left them on the road. I don’t recall seeing the fight continue as they had to walk or hitchhike a ride to get home. Since the one boy was being beaten so bad, I don’t think the driver made the best decision since the other kid could have finished him off on the rural road we were traveling. However, it did appear the fight had stopped as we drove off.
School children face challenges. There are ongoing pressures from bullies who must be corralled and disciplined, dismissed from school or in some cases put in a place where they can get rehabilitation and help for their psychotic issues. Locking a 14-year-old up in jail for years solves nothing. However, kids that bring about injury or death to another student need mental help and rehabilitation before being freed to invoke pain on someone again. Most likely if your family has lost a family member to a bully you want the offender locked up for life.
Even though my school era was not a perfect world School teachers and principals had authority to discipline us, suspend us from school and could put bite with their bark. We knew the teachers ruled and we respected them.
No school can patrol every corner of a school facility. Bullying, fights and bad things typically occur in unsupervised spaces. Schools can’t hire enough security guards or have enough monitors to patrol ever corner.
Life is like this. The world is like a jungle most days. There are bullies in the workplaces, neighborhoods and mean people can be found all over.
Teachers, administrators, parents, and students must work together for safety and security. Children and teachers must feel safe with an environment free from bullying, hazing or intimidation. Kids should not have to wake up every day fearful of going to school. Neither should the school staff and parents.
The issue of bullying and school safety requires school boards, all staff, parents, and students to work together. It’s not a task for a few to accomplish but a job for us all.
GlennMollette.com
