There are laws for everything. The police and the courts do their best to enforce the laws of a town, a city, or even the country. Laws are designed to protect innocent people, and make sure that everything runs smoothly, and to keep people safe. School children learn quickly what the laws (rules) are in their school. When students break the rules of the school they are usually sent down to the vice-principal’s office to be disciplined. But, in order for rules to be effective they have to be enforced. Too often kids are given the idea that their behavior isn’t all that bad, by the school administration, or their teacher. They are given a slap on the wrist and told to go back to class. Or, they may not have to face any consequences at all. Occasionally, if a student’s behavior gets out of control and affects the safety of other kids, the police have to get involved. The rule of thumb should be that what is illegal in society is illegal in schools. If a student truly is disorderly, the police should be called and the student should be charged as a disorderly person. If a student is involved in a theft, the police should be called in and the student should be charged based upon the offense. Kids need to see the association between their behavior in school, and their behavior in society. If there is no association, a student will break rules in school because there aren’t serious consequences, and then when the student is out of school, he will break those same rules or laws because he believes he can get away with it.
One problem that is getting out of control in schools and in society today is bullying. And although many schools have anti-bullying policies and supposedly a “0 tolerance” for bullying, bullying incidents are rampant and on the rise. This is exactly why we need to have anti-bullying laws nationwide. Bullying is not illegal, and realistically it should be. The only thing that a person has to do is to look at a police blotter to find out how many incidences of domestic violence went on in the town they live in to understand why we need anti bullying laws. Do you think a grown man or woman woke up one day and decided to abuse his or her spouse or his or her children? It is behavior that has been brewing in the person’s mind for years, and it is behavior that they have been allowed to get away with for years. Violent crimes like assault with a deadly weapon, school shootings, road rage, and rape are all acts of bullying that have just been brought to a higher level.
Unfortunately, schools have soft pedaled around this problem, and do not take a hard enough stance when it comes down to imposing consequences for bullying behavior. That slap on the wrist communicates to students that what they did wasn’t so bad, and it’s worth a shot to try it again. If anti-bullying laws were created and enforced these bullies would have to deal with the police for their behavior. The student would be charged as a bully and held accountable. As mentioned before, our schools today do have policies that address the problem, but the policies are usually not enforced. Too much time is spent trying to involve parents, who could be bullies themselves. Often when parents of bullies are contacted, they become so argumentative and miserable that school guidance counselors or administrators will do anything to avoid having to confront the parents with their children’s bullying behaviors in the first place. Bullying incidents then get swept under the rug. Another common response to bullying is for parents of the bully and the victim to meet face to face to supposedly address the problem. This usually accomplishes nothing, except to make the victim or the victim’s parents feel even worse. There should be absolute laws that make bullying illegal. Nothing short of having anti-bullying laws that are enforced will do anything to reduce bullying in our schools. Only then, with the enforcement of anti-bullying laws and real consequences for breaking the laws, will this rising tide of bullying be stemmed.
