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mikekle
Guest
In todays schools, JUST a picture of ANY gun is enough to get that kid expelled! LOL its sad, but true.
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JimG
Guest
After reading about this story I can only be thankful that I grew up in an era when nobody had to worry about boys or girls backpacks and lunchboxes with logos. Nobody had backpacks, and everybody carried their lunch from home in the exact same way–in a brown paper bag. Simplicity can be great.
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Back2Church
Guest
Yeah, no kidding. Like the boy who chewed a poptart into the shape of a gun, or the boy who was playing cops and robbers or whatever during recess and used his finger as a gun and said “bang, bang!” Each kid received a temporary suspension for his “offense.”
Which brings up an off topic issue. I never quite understood how suspension made any sense as a teaching tool. Kids go to school to learn, which should make them better additions to society… unless they break some rule, at which point they are turned away. How do we make bad kids better if we kick them out of the institutions that educate them? You may only become a decent addition to society if you are already a decent member of society? How does denying education to a problem student do anything to help him or the community he lives in?
But that’s another topic for another thread.
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Deus_tecum
Guest
No, 13 pages!We’re doing TWELVE pages of comments on a backpack?
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HoneyBea
Guest
This is what I have on my car : )
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HoneyBea
Guest
This is what I have on my Tahoe : )
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ringil
Guest
Good for the school.
I wonder how folk’s opinions would vary if a child was being bullied and asked to remove a Pro Life sticker from their bag. I am thinking the response would be quite different.
I wonder how folk’s opinions would vary if a child was being bullied and asked to remove a Pro Life sticker from their bag. I am thinking the response would be quite different.
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HoneyBea
Guest
My response would be no different. I would also not allow my 9 yr old child to wear a pro-life sticker to school.
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Cricket2
Guest
No the mother did not put a target on him. That is the wrong idea, and this kind of thinking is why bullying has got out of hand. Bullies find every excuse in the book to pick on another person or child. They need to be kicked out of school and their parents need to find another way to educate them. Start holding them responsible and hitting the ole pocket book and I bet a lot of this nonsense will stop.
When I was in school bullies got kicked out and stayed out. Now we seem to have a system that feels more sorry for them than their victims. It is rubbish.
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maryjk
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Country_Gal
Guest
I don’t think bullying today is any worse than bullying in the past. It existed fully in the past. Nothing new under the sun.
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pnewton
Guest
At least this would keep the prisons well stocked.
Mary_Gail_36
New member
In my children’s school, a number of years ago children were getting into arguments over pokemon cards.
The school did 2 things. It disciplined the kids who were fighting and banned the cards from everyone.
I think the school could have handled it that way, so it wasn’t just this boy who could not have the backpack.
A universal rule would not have put this kid in the spotlight, it might have defused the situation.
In my grammar school we had two choices of school bag. A maroon one with gold lettering of the school logo, and a white one with a maroon logo.
The school did 2 things. It disciplined the kids who were fighting and banned the cards from everyone.
I think the school could have handled it that way, so it wasn’t just this boy who could not have the backpack.
A universal rule would not have put this kid in the spotlight, it might have defused the situation.
In my grammar school we had two choices of school bag. A maroon one with gold lettering of the school logo, and a white one with a maroon logo.
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Skye_Ariel
Guest
I agree.
I wouldn’t let my kid wear that either if it caused him/her so much trouble. Kids bully for enough other reasons so why invite bullying for things you CAN control? Kids have enough to deal with without unnecessary pressures that can be avoided. Let kids be kids, I want my kids to remember a happy childhood. No need for kids to be bullied for political stands or things like that. Let them be kids.
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Skye_Ariel
Guest
Yeah I think all schools should have uniforms to eliminate a lot of the pressure around how kids dress or who has nicer clothes or what kinds of bags kids carry etc. Let them all dress the same.In my children’s school, a number of years ago children were getting into arguments over pokemon cards.
The school did 2 things. It disciplined the kids who were fighting and banned the cards from everyone.
I think the school could have handled it that way, so it wasn’t just this boy who could not have the backpack.
A universal rule would not have put this kid in the spotlight, it might have defused the situation.
In my grammar school we had two choices of school bag. A maroon one with gold lettering of the school logo, and a white one with a maroon logo.
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JackyB
Guest
My junior and senior schools had uniforms. Am I correct in saying in America you don’t as a rule? It certainly made getting up in the morning and deciding what to wear a simple matter. The mother should have taken the bag away from her child, his foremost memory of his school days I would imagine, are always going to be centred around this unhappy event.
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HappyCatholic01
Guest
Or as I asked, if a student who claimed he or she was gay was asked not to advertise their homosexuality to avoid bullying?
I doubt the school would treat this situation the same, which is my beef, along with my dislike of the mother using her son to make whatever point she thinks she has. Children are not political puppets.
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CradleJourney
Guest
Interesting. I specifically try very hard to make sure my daughters and sons are confident enough to stick out. I have geeky brains, and some have been labeled a “teacher’s pet”. I see nothing wrong with that and refuse to teach them to conform. We’re a six child Catholic family living on the verge of poverty with strict media standards. No matter what “item” or “style” I was able to buy for them I doubt they’d “fit in”. Now if one of my kids wants a popular item and it fits within our limited budget - sure, they get it. And if one wanted to carry a “gender inappropriate” backpack, I’d discourage it but allow it if they insisted - and they said they could handle any comments.
I teach eye contact. I teach posture. I teach picking your battles. I teach respect. I teach kindness. I teach discipline, empathy and the need to think things through. I teach physical self defense tactics (escape moves, pressure points). And yes, I have taught how to verbally spar as well.
Some of mine have been bullied. Some have not. Some I have had to work to keep from becoming bullies. Each situation is part of parenting - but hasn’t been a major part. For us, being “different” is the normal and preferred way of life, and I do what I can to help my children accept and embrace it.
I also find it interesting that the currently preferred and promoted way of dealing with bullies here hasn’t been mentioned much in this discussion. That’s for bystanders to speak up (I did see that in the pink shirt post). So that’s what I’m working on for my kids now - that if they see bullying, be the person to speak up and redirect the attention.
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Cricket2
Guest
You are so correct. We were taught as children 1. to never bully a soul or count on consequences 2. to come to the defense and protection of those being bullied if need be and3. to report bullying. If the teacher/school did nothing we let our parents know and my father would go to the school himself and make sure the Principal was well advised of the problem even if it was not his own child getting bullied.
Also in my day, they sent the perpetrator home, not the victim and the victim was not “blamed” because of what was worn, how they looked or an such nonsense. Bullies were expelled.
I personally believe that a child who bullies should be expelled and social services called to go see his/her family. When a kid is a bully something is wrong at home.
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Skye_Ariel
Guest
Right, most public schools have no uniform which I think they all should. So much drama goes on in schools especially junior high and high school that centers around who’s wearing what. Yes a uniform makes it easier and less drama.
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