Bullies Can Be Stopped: Here's How

It's a who's who list of a tragedy sweeping our nation's schools. Those on the list are Austin Murphy, 15, Eric Mohat, 17, Jesse Logan, 18, Tyler Long, 17, Hope Wittsell, 13, Jon Carmichael, 13, and Megan Meir, 13. These are only a small portion of the number of kids that have committed suicide as a direct result of bullying. I am unable to wrap my head around the type of nightmarish hell it takes to make it easier to commit suicide than go to school.

When a kid commits suicide after suffering for weeks, months and often years at the hands of school bullies it's called bullycide. Bullycide has been increasing over the years but recently the international spotlight flickered on forcing the world to see what we couldn't fathom. Following the suicide of a 15 year-old Irish girl in Massachusetts, authorities took an unprecedented step leveling felony charges against her tormentors. Bullying is not a joke or a rite of passage. It is a crime and they should've included the parents and school officials in the arrests.

These teens were so radical in their pursuit of peace they could only find it in death. We need to be just as radical in protecting those that may be next. The first offense should result in the bully's parents being immediately summoned to the school so that when they learn of the incident it doesn't have the slant that time and kids can give it. The offender should serve a day of in-school suspension and lose all school privileges for a week, including all sport-related activities, field trips, dances etc. At the high school level driving privileges should be revoked for a week. Younger children should be barred from school buses requiring parents to make other transportation arrangements.

Suicide is the result of feeling trapped in an unbearable situation with no way out and no end in sight. Clear boundaries and strict increasing punishment that applies to everyone removes that hopelessness by creating checks and balances that prohibit leniency for favored students. Stringent adherence to discipline will decrease the likelihood of a repeat offense.

Second offenders should be suspended from school and ordered to court where a judge will determine an appropriate court-ordered diversionary program such as anger management, bereavement, addictions and mental and emotional disturbances for the bully and his or her family. Treating the root cause of why bullies bully is the most effective way to stop the behavior. In order to do that the entire family of the bully, including step families, should be assessed.

Once the family has received counseling, the parents will then be held just as accountable for their child's actions as they are their own. Therefore, the third offense results in expulsion from school for the remainder of the year and felony charges for the bully and his or her parents. I'm willing to bet parents would be a lot less defensive of their little tyrants and a lot more proactive about stopping the bullying if they knew they would pay the price of their kid's actions.

Schools can be forced into compliance by basing the amount of funding they receive on the level of bullying they have. Schools with chronic bullying issues will not only have their funding reduced but also be required to foot the full cost of transporting and educating victims that want to move to a safer school. Troubled schools should be placed on a watch list. A school that fails to improve will have a mandatory change in administration. On the other hand, those dedicated to safety should receive bonus funding in material form for large, expensive projects such as technology upgrades.

This plan is extreme but no more so than the following statistics from the U.S Department of Education, Institute of Educational Sciences: In 2007 a whopping 85% of schools reported at least one violent crime. Yet, less than half took serious disciplinary action. Students aged 12-18 were victims of 1.5 million non-fatal school crimes as opposed to 1.1 million non-fatal crimes away from school. That translates to our kids being safer on the streets than in school.

We must stop the disease that is devouring our kids from the inside out. We must press upon our local, state and federal leaders that the war on terrorism should extend to America's classrooms. And above all, each of us must make deliberate conscious steps to become the change we want to see in our youth. The future of this great nation depends on it.

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/crimeindicators/crimeindicators2009/
http://cbs11tv.com/local/jon.carmichael.teen.2.1601157.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20002154-504083.html?tag=contentMain;contentBody
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/story?id=7228335
http://www.jaredstory.com/
http://www.jaredstory.com/suicide.html
http://www.newschannel9.com/articles/says-986488-williams-school.html