School bans 9-year-old boy's My Little Pony backpack

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Phemie said:
Over a lunchbox???
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No, over making a national spectacle out of her child for her own aggrandizement. Your question is kind of like “over a wrong turn by an airplane?” after the 9-11 event.
 
Deus_tecum said:
No, over making a national spectacle out of her child for her own aggrandizement. Your question is kind of like “over a wrong turn by an airplane?” after the 9-11 event.
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A mom who stands up for her kid. Poor child.
 
People do need to learn how to fit in. As an example, in middle school, if a kid doesn’t bathe regularly, they get razzed that they have BO. Then they start showering every morning. I know that I never, ever had to make my kids bathe after elementary school. Peer pressure took care of that one for me. My only worry was having enough hot water left.
 
Cricket2 said:
You are correct, and banning this child from using his back-back is an ignorant idea. Yes I said ignorant. It places blame and responsibility on potential victims of bullying instead of placing it on bullies. Bullies should be expelled from school, social services sent to their homes to see what is wrong there and be held accountable for their actions. The victims of this behavior need to be reassured they did nothing wrong and allowed to go on in peace.

I would also require the parents of a “bully” to attend classes with them the first year they returned to school. Bet the bully problem would come to a sharp end.
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Agreed. These children were physically harming the boy and telling him to kill himself over him owning a backpack they didn’t like. People claiming that the boy ditching the backpack would somehow magically make the bullies go away and not find something else to bully him for clearly have never dealt with a bully before. Giving in to their pressure just encourages them. Even if getting rid of the backpack and otherwise changing himself in order to attempt to escape would work, how would that be right? Most likely if he did so his bullies would just mock him for it, and he would be miserable because he would have to grow up pretending to be someone he’s not.

People seem to keep getting caught up in the fact that the boy likes something that is aimed at little girls and somehow see that as justification for him being bullied, as though a cartoon aimed at girls is automatically inferior to one aimed at boys and boys who like such things are moral and masculine failures who deserve to be abused. But put it into a different context. What if the boy was getting bullied because his backpack had, say, Captain America or Batman on it. Maybe he’s kind of old for a cartoon character backpack but so what. There are a lot of adult men these days who wear shirts with those characters on them, who liked it from younger times. At some point kids who are bullied for stupid things like what kind of backpack they have are going to try to stand up for themselves and continue to use it despite the bullies, or they’re going to learn to always try to hide anything about themselves they think a bully might latch onto, and they’re going to be unhappy and guarded. The boy was trying to stand up for himself but the school sided with the bullies.
 
Midwest88 said:
This. To me that’s the hierarchy. I was teased on a several occasions, but for some reason it really never fazed me. There were two kids in my grade school that were teased almost everyday. They’re okay - well into their early twenties. I’m not saying that I approve of teasing, but it seems those two kids I went to school with were stronger mentally than today’s young adults.
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I have to agree, back when I was in school, I was teased a few times here, but that was about it, I cant even remember what it was about though. I definitely remember other kids that were bullied often, but nothing ever came of it, they all grew up and that was that.

It seems like only recently has this become a big issue, but kids have endured bullying and teasing ever since kids started going to school (probably since the mid 1800s in the US), and only now is it suddenly a problem?? How come no one brought this up back the 60s, 70s, 80s,?

While I dont agree with bullying, I do think we are raising somewhat weak adults in todays system who will be largely unprepared for life as an adult.
 
mikekle said:
I have to agree, back when I was in school, I was teased a few times here, but that was about it, I cant even remember what it was about though. I definitely remember other kids that were bullied often, but nothing ever came of it, they all grew up and that was that.

It seems like only recently has this become a big issue, but kids have endured bullying and teasing ever since kids started going to school (probably since the mid 1800s in the US), and only now is it suddenly a problem?? How come no one brought this up back the 60s, 70s, 80s,?

While I dont agree with bullying, I do think we are raising somewhat weak adults in todays system who will be largely unprepared for life as an adult.
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If lessening emotional suffering for kids is possible, why stop it?

Is it so unreasonable to teach children not to be mean towards each other and be respectful despite superficial differences? Why shouldn’t children be taught the lesson of kindness?

Does the bagpack hurt anyone? Is it sinful or immoral? No. Does the teasing/bullying hurt someone? Yes.
 
All you people who are for the pony backpack, and the self aggrandizing mom would probably change your stance completely around if the boy wanted to bring his toy gun to school or wear a backpack with a picture of an AR-15(that’s a hunting rifle) and a statement about freedom.

(from the “jus’ sayin’” files)

For those who say the AR-15 is not a hunting rifle, be aware that the recent 2nd largest wild hog taken by a hunter was killed with an AR-15 configured to fire .308 Nato rounds.
 
Deus_tecum said:
All you people who are for the pony backpack, and the self aggrandizing mom would probably change your stance completely around if the boy wanted to bring his toy gun to school or wear a backpack with a picture of an AR-15(that’s a hunting rifle) and a statement about freedom.

(from the “jus’ sayin’” files)

For those who say the AR-15 is not a hunting rifle, be aware that the recent 2nd largest wild hog taken by a hunter was killed with an AR-15 configured to fire .308 Nato rounds.
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Assumption much?

Anyway, are there cartoon shows about freedom? Because that would be awesome.

Does that freedom include the freedom for a little kid to wear a backpack with a pony cartoon?
 
mikekle said:
It seems like only recently has this become a big issue, but kids have endured bullying and teasing ever since kids started going to school (probably since the mid 1800s in the US), and only now is it suddenly a problem?? How come no one brought this up back the 60s, 70s, 80s,?
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It was a problem then as well as now, just handled differently.

This made me think of this again, from a few pages back:
J_Peterson said:
If only Gregory from my 9th grade art class knew they were only teasing him. Perhaps he wouldn’t have shot himself.
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The “good old days,” when they didn’t make such a big deal about bullying, weren’t all that “good” for the victims. This might be an extreme example but kids back then were still damaged. Just because “that’s the way it always was” doesn’t make it right.
 
Back2Church said:
Keep them rolling, or else you might learn more about this story.

If you click the link, you’ll see a video embedded in the article in which you can see and hear the very same words come from the boy himself. The story is not just about teasing, it’s about physical violence as well. That should be enough to meet your definition of bullying, yes? Or does he need visible cuts and bruises or worse before he can claim he was bullied?
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My point is, you will never have the full story.

Right now, you are only hearing one side. The school can’t say what they did to the kids that did the teasing, and their parents aren’t parading their children on TV to say what they did or what the school did to them.

So, how many TV stations had this boy spoken to? How many times has he told his story? Has he embellished it at all? Can he name names of those that pushed him down? Of those that told him to kill himself? Has he named names? And if not, why?

I wonder if he or even is mom (or Dad, where ever he is) think this has gotten bigger than they wanted? I wonder if they realize that no matter where this kid goes, he will always be known as the 9 year old that liked My Little Pony? His face has been, well, pretty much everywhere. Or maybe that is what they wanted.
 
So if the mom’s desire was to make her child even more of a spectacle, she has succeeded.
 
Update:

Bullied boy can carry ‘My Little Pony’ backpack, NC school says

foxnews.com/us/2014/03/21/bullied-boy-can-carry-my-little-pony-backpack-nc-school-says/

Here is a snippet:
Buncombe County Schools administrators released a statement Thursday saying they would work with Bruce to make a safe transition plan for her son to bring his book bag to school.
The statement says school officials regret that the issue of being told to leave the book bag at home was perceived as blaming the boy.
“Every situation with young children is a teachable moment and we will use this example in our efforts to address a wider issue of bullying. We ask for everyone’s patience and understanding as we continue to work collaboratively with the family toward a resolution,” the statement said.
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I wonder how many landfills are filled old Justin Beiber and Hanna Montana backpacks…

Or my Keith Partridge Lunch Box. Or Leif Garret folders. Or those Mork and Mindy suspenders. And troll dolls.

By September, some new and different fad might come out, and the Ponies will be passé.

At least Mickey Mouse will always be coo!!
 
maryjk said:
My point is, you will never have the full story.

Right now, you are only hearing one side. The school can’t say what they did to the kids that did the teasing, and their parents aren’t parading their children on TV to say what they did or what the school did to them.

So, how many TV stations had this boy spoken to? How many times has he told his story? Has he embellished it at all? Can he name names of those that pushed him down? Of those that told him to kill himself? Has he named names? And if not, why?

I wonder if he or even is mom (or Dad, where ever he is) think this has gotten bigger than they wanted? I wonder if they realize that no matter where this kid goes, he will always be known as the 9 year old that liked My Little Pony? His face has been, well, pretty much everywhere. Or maybe that is what they wanted.
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Well, there’s a pretty big difference between claiming he was only teased, never actually being bullied, and rolling your eyes at such a fiasco (which is basically saying that you know the full story), versus saying you think he’s probably lying about how bad it actually got and that he’s just trying to save face and win people over (which is mere speculation).

Of course we don’t know the full story. If you read my earlier posts, you’ll see that I doubt that an average kid (and his loving mom) would actually let it get so bad before ditching the bag. Not because the bag choice was inherently wrong or that the bullies aren’t doing anything wrong, but because it seems like such a trivial thing to endure such suffering for. My gut feeling is that the mom is one of those righteous crusader types who encouraged her son to stick with the bag until it blew up into this. But that’s all speculation. I’m certainly not making a claim of knowledge and rolling my eyes at those who don’t agree with it.
 
Deus_tecum said:
All you people who are for the pony backpack, and the self aggrandizing mom would probably change your stance completely around if the boy wanted to bring his toy gun to school or wear a backpack with a picture of an AR-15(that’s a hunting rifle) and a statement about freedom.

(from the “jus’ sayin’” files)

For those who say the AR-15 is not a hunting rifle, be aware that the recent 2nd largest wild hog taken by a hunter was killed with an AR-15 configured to fire .308 Nato rounds.
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That’s a bad comparison… There’s a big difference between a weapon and a cartoon character.
 
St_Francis said:
Well, I have to admit that I have problems with the whole concept of how we as a nation (US) educate our children, and this just seems like one more bad fruit of the insanity.

(Lest anyone think I have no admiration for teachers, I think that they are often wonderful generous souls who are trying to make the best of a bad situation.)

I have no problem with that. I think it is a shame that that 9yo boy has no man in his life who will explain that his job is to grow up to be a man, and that part of being a man is setting aside certain comforts. But to me, that’s a separate issue than how to schools deal with bullies.

I have seen so many anecdotes about dealing with bullies in the old-fashioned way–I wonder if anyone has done research on that?
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I totally agree.

I have a friend who tells great stories of her two boys (now in their 20’s) and how they used to stick up for kids against bullies at an all boy Catholic high school.

It worked and the teachers/administrators let it happen. They turned a blind eye when the big football player kid told the bully kid to stop picking on the skinny kid or they would beat the **** out of him after school.
 
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