Oklahoma Father Crusades Against Bullying

A tragedy occurred in Oklahoma last spring. According to WALB, an 11-year-old named Ty Smalley committed suicide after two years of being bullied at an Oklahoma middle school. When Ty finally stood up for himself, the school suspended him. He then committed suicide last May. Last June, on Father's Day, his father, Kirk Smalley, made a promise to his son to help stop this from happening to another child. He is now waging a war against bullying. He thinks bullying should be a crime. What do you think?

I have to be honest; I am a parent who has had both of my children bullied in the school system. I am leaning more on the side that bullying is definitely a crime. I could tell a few stories of how both of my children have been bullied, but the one story that sticks out the most is when one of them was in middle school.

My son was a bus student. Unfortunately, parents do not always have control over what happens on the bus. My son was stuck on what was known as one of the "bad buses." Almost every week, he would come home from school super late because the police had to come and take some of the disruptive children off of the bus.

Some boy middle school students decided to bully the other kids on the bus. They did not need a reason. They would just target a different person every day. My son was not lucky enough to miss being a target. Why these kids never got kicked permanently off the bus is a mystery to me. No one seemed to be doing anything to stop this gang of bullies.

I reached my breaking point when he got jumped from behind on the bus and came home all bloody and bruised. Since there are no federal guidelines that schools must follow for bullying, schools are left to make their own rules. My son's school system suspends all the students involved, whether they were the victim or not. My son got suspended. So not only did he get injuries from bullies, but then it felt like the school was also bullying him too. I can see why Ty Smalley felt so hopeless, because I could see the same look in my own son's eyes.

Fortunately or unfortunately, however you want to look at it, my children have always had parents who will back them up to the end of time. We told my son that he had done nothing wrong, and that we were proud of him. Then we had very long talks with the school, and we told them exactly what we thought of their bullying policy. The school told us we had just one choice if we wanted this to end. We could press charges against those who hurt my son, because there were physical injuries.

So, yes, you can press charges if your child is being physically bullied, no matter what the age. There are other ways you can be bullied too. For example, what if your child is being verbally bullied? The saying that words do not hurt is not true. Words do hurt. How far can bullying words go before that should be a crime too? That is the question that is being asked now. Where are the lines for bullying? When should it be a crime?

Kirk Smalley is doing everything he can do to help stop the bullying problem. He thinks that other kids should stand up for others who are being bullied. He speaks at Oklahoma-area schools, and he holds vigils. He is waging war against bullies. What would you do if this happened to your child? Bullying needs to end.

Source:

http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=13264204