We hear a lot about bullying these days. When I was a kid, we knew what a bully was, and yes, some us were bullied. I myself was a target many times growing up - we moved a lot, from country to country, so I was often at the disadvantage of being the "new kid" who had a funny accent and weird clothes etc, plus I wore glasses throughout my entire childhood, and I had braces as a teenager...you get the picture. Somehow despite these obstacles I managed pretty well, and was never picked on for long before I had figured out a way to fit in. But I certainly didn't have any help from special programs at school, or rallies, or pamphlets, or books or seminars. So with all these new resources available and the fact that bullying is so in the news all the time, why does it seem that the problem of bullying has gotten far more serious than I remember it being when I was a kid?
Here's what I think. When I was a kid, and someone picked on you, you told your teacher, or your parent, or your big sister, and one of them went and kicked the crap out of the bully's parents, or the bully. Unless you were talking about a whole gang of bullies, in which case you were basically screwed and you just did your best to fly under the radar as much as possible with all the other little kids getting picked on. It was just one of those many rites of passage of childhood that we all survived and at least then we weren't alone. The problem is that now if you're a bully you can get away with just about anything. Because not only can no one get away with punishing you, such as a teacher, or another parent, your own parents most likely don't give a damn what you do to other kids anyway, and they certainly don't give a damn what your teacher thinks, or other kids parents think. So there is absolutely no one left to punish the bullies out there. And they know it, so they go to even greater extremes than they once did.
This is why I believe that the Young Offenders Act is a load of crap and should be thrown out. If kids know they cannot be punished and held accountable to anyone for their actions, of course they'll do whatever they damn well please! Duh! Isn't that like the basic first rule of parenting?? Actions and consequences?? Apparently not the first rule anymore. I suspect that this basic facet of raising your children must be completely missing from an appalling number of households out there, because how else do you explain why so many kids are growing up to be these horrible little monsters who have no respect for other people? They cannot all be born sociopaths. Therefore I believe it is the parents who are responsible, and the parents who should be held responsible along with their progeny for any heinous acts they commit which should be punishable by law.
Okay, so what should the consequences be? Some lawmakers out there need to come up with a family version of punishment for harassment. Do they get their house toilet papered and egged every Friday night? Do they get wedgies doled out on a daily basis? Do they have to supply a different child with their lunch money every day?
I don't know what the answer is, but it's about time we started figuring it out. Maybe what we need is a good old fashioned Anti Bullying super hero, a vigilante to take matters into their own hands and clean up this world. Wouldn't that be interesting? I know one thing - that's a super hero that I could believe in! What do you think? Any takers out there??
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