Michigan Votes Forum

 How do we distinguish bullying from simple teasing?

Perhaps what we really need is true school choice.  Competition amongst schools would solve the problem of bullying because a parent would be able to simple move their child (and the money that goes with the student) to a school that prevents such activity.  It would take too many of those instances before all schools took action to prevent abuse to other kids.

Wow, here we go again. Many schools, maybe all schools have a bullying policy.  Maybe, just maybe, parents should stop their child from being a bully.  The child being harrased can change to multiple schools, but the child doing the harrassment is maybe suspended for a couple of days and returned to the same school.  The parent of the suspended child would in all essence say "my child is a good boy or girl and would never harrass another student".  When are parents going to start taking responsibility for their child(ren)?  Stop blaming the public schools.  It appears to me that our wonderful legislature and governor are trying to kill public schools and allow charters to open.

This has good intentions, but it is just a feel good bill.

It is the role of the school to set its own standards on bullying. 

What I would do is pass a voucher program if I really wanted to do something to help public schools and here's why. 

If the school lives or dies based on choice and compitition among the schools and the legal gaurdians satisfaction of the school, then that would be the bast way to solve bullying. A healthy education enviorment will have very little bullying.

melvins523:

 It appears to me that our wonderful legislature and governor are trying to kill public schools and allow charters to open.

We can only hope.

tometeacher:

 How do we distinguish bullying from simple teasing?

When your child is so miserable you want to move them to a different school.

The republicans have turned this into a bill that would allow bulling, rather than prevent it, if the bully is merely making "a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction". What a joke!

Why would a charter school not have a bully or two? And where are the studies or proof of any kind that charter schools will provide a quality education. More republican ideology without basis in fact.

 To the Republican Senate:   Your politics are getting in the way of your common sense and compassion.  All humans are worth protecting don't you think?

 I don't know what you mean by 'true school choice", however, that would not solve the problem because when  allow your child to switch schools but you still live in the school district you leave, the school district you left their administration, teachers, parents and kids are still allowed to bully and harass not only the child that left but now the family that allowed the child to leave. Since they changed count day to early fall, about 90% of the money stays at the original school too.

 Yes, I agree, and it's usually the MEA Union, and it sounds like people like yourself that don't want all humans protected. Talk about common sense and compassion. What about the bulling of all the laidoff employee's and the compassion for those who were laidoff unethically and by breaking Union contracts to do it without being supported by their "TEAM" I'd bet money that you're a Union worker!

Wow, here we go again is right! Just send the kid who is bullied away to a "School of Choice" school where you would then as the teacher of the school he/she left bully him/her and their family for not supporting the school in their district. Oh, I can hear it now. "So, they took their child out of our school because our school isn't good enough." Grow up, be a teacher and stop the bullying. Be a good example too. I don't think our legislature or the governor are trying to kill the public schools, the administrations and teachers are doing that all on their own!

Bullying and teasing can be one and the same. The tone, aggressiveness, and amount is usually the telling property. Teasing more often than not is bullying. Also, whether it is happening under the teacher's nose or away from an adult's eyes is a factor. When I was a junior high school student I witnessed, in the cafeteria, a girlfriend being constantly teased by boys in a sexual manner--they may have thought it was teasing, but it was constant, day in and day out, and to her, it was sexual harrassment, or bullying. She was often in tears, though she didn't show that to the boys who teased her. What might be intended as fun to the teasers might not be fun to the "teased." Bullying is meant to be mean. Intent is one factor, but not the only factor.

While perhaps the Republicans do not want a child to be punished for saying, "I believe that God says homosexuality is wrong" outloud, or "You should change" to someone who is gay, as part of a moral conviction, because he/she has been taught that way and sincerely believes it and is not being hostile, there's a slippery slope to "You're a sinner! You're gay!" or "Men are the heads of households, not women!" or "You should grow up to be a mother, not a doctor, huh!" or any number of inappropriate things a child might say due to religious beliefs, that could go into harassment. If children were to simply go around stating their sincere moral beliefs obnoxiously, inappropriately, that could be harassment.

Definitely a slippery slope when we are drafting laws limiting free speech. 

It is sad when children are bullied relentlessly and technology enables it to be much more constant and pervasive.

Still, I do not think we will ever be able to legislate away the fact that children are often cruel to one another because they have not

lived long enough to have empathy, kindness, and perspective.