Bully For Us, cont. - a few choice vignettes

Picture, if you will, a few snapshots....I've tried to select some where my own children were not targets, but they (and, in some instances, their mother) were able to bear extremely credible witness. These are several episodes that dramatize the ways in which adults aid and abet cruelty among schoolchildren.

1. When: Springtime, 2004; Where: Schoolyard, during recess; Who: Assorted Fourth-Grade Boys - as is customary in these settings, play grew a little rough, and the trash-talk escalated between two boys, whom I will call "T----" and "B----." T. was renowned locally as a gifted polymath - an accomplished, versatile athlete , who also played several musical instruments, sang well, performed in local amateur theatrical productions, and earned excellent grades; B., on the other hand,lived with his divorced father, had repeated first grade, and was classified as a "special-needs" student. All the boys in immediate proximity to the dust-up alleged that T. threw the first punch; when they protested the teacher's response, which consisted of lovingly sending T. to the nurse's office, while marching B. to the Principal's, they were admonished to "stay out of it.
   

2. When: June, 2006; Where: Playground adjacent to seasonal swimming pool, at local Health & Racquet Club; Occasion: Fourth-Grade Graduation Party; Who: Assorted Fourth-Grade Boys (different cohort from first group) - a group of students, principally male, are playing volleyball, and a game called "Running Bases," which I have never really figured out; several mothers (including this one) are standing nearby, chaperoning the event. One boy, "A-----," is familiar to any local Little League parent as having one of the fiercest arms in town; another boy, "M---," has developed a reputation for being mercurial and hypersensitive, prone to emotional outbursts and behavioral difficulties. A. lobbed a tennis ball at M.'s head, causing M. to howl, and cry out in rage. Mrs. S. (whose large family are very active in Little League) shrieked at M., and ordered him to leave the play areas and find his own mother (who was supervising refreshment set up). Mrs. M. was understandably irate, and marched back to confront A. Although A.'s own mother was not present to defend him, several other mothers did so aggressively - M. had overreacted, of course, to the light impact from a ball that just happened to nick him...conventional wisdom espoused by mothers who couldn't possibly have missed the whooping and high-fiveing that accompanied the "accident."

3. When: 2005-2006 (sometime during school year); Where: Middle-School Cafeteria; Who: Fifth and Sixth-Grade Boys, plus some Teachers - "J----" is a fifth-grade boy, known for impulsive behavior, and often described as "annoying." Classmates have been known to slam him against the wall with impunity, in full view of teachers. On one occasion, two sixth graders, "D--" and "T---," invited him to sit with them, in order to escape the barrage of verbal harassment underway at his own, fifth-grade, table. A veteran teacher (whom, for disclosure's sake, I profess to admiring, in most instances) immediately ordered J. to sit back down. When T. & D. protested that J. was being bullied, all three boys were sent to the office; the teacher claimed to have seen "no signs of bullying." When T. reported this to his mother, she had to ask which planet a table-full of chuckling boys, next to one sobbing boy, was not a "sign of bullying" on.

Please pardon the format malfunctions, dear reader. I have not yet wrestled with the finer points of blogging for an actual readership. I hope to improve my products in the days to come.

I will address some wherefores and what-nows presently...

adt