Why is bullying an accepted practice in children but called assault in an adult?

[Rebecca Roy]

Why is bullying an accepted practice in children but called assault in an adult?  I mean, why is shoving, hitting, locking someone in a locker, room or dumping them in a trashcan not called what it truly is?  Assault is assault no matter the age.  Yet all too often I see that it is the victim of bullying treated as if they did the assault, or told they are lying even if they have the bruises to prove they are not.  There needs to be an overhaul of the public education system as in the past two months there have been two very public suicides of students.  For bullying, and this is sick and wrong and must stop, so here is my list of how to curb bullying:

 

1.       Require age appropriate lessons on what bullying is (harassment training) and why it is not appropriate and wrong.

2.       Have teachers taught to intervene in bullying, to stop it before it can really start, make sure they have a authority to do so and back them up when they do stop it.

3.       Teach not only diversity but community as well, teach what we have in common not just what makes us different.

4.       Age appropriate punishment for bullying, a kindergarten child shoving another student down gets time out while a high school student gets charged with assault.   Yes I said the high school student gets charge with assault, they are at the age they know better than to shove someone down and are at the age that yes, (teen though they are) can control all urges to harm someone.

5.       Teach “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” really, this could help make a better world, if I can “zip the lip” and not say something hurtful 95% of the time (hey I know I am not perfect but I do try) a teen can learn.  Even if it is just at school and on their “social” networking sites.

 

So those are a few things I thought up that could, if teachers and students started working on them make school much better for many students.  I do believe that it could decrease the spate of suicides we have seen in teens.

[Kenny]

First off, kids are dumb and punishing them like adults for stuff they just don't have the mental capacity to truly understand wouldn't help anyone. Also, when a child punches another kid, the worst that can happen for the most part is a bloody nose, and (in my personal experience) even that's rare. If me and a man my size got into a full on fist-fight, one of us would almost certainly be going to the hospital and if it got really out of hand then one good curb stomp could easily kill someone.

As far as high school students getting charged for assault, you do realize that the common sense part of the brain doesn't finish developing until your early to mid twenties, right? Charging a 16 year old with a felony and sending him to jail and ruining his life because he got pissed at someone and threw a punch would just cause more harm then good.

[Marianne]

I think I agree with Kenny on this one in regards to bullying and assault, although I think ages 16-18 are certainly more aware of consequence and it should be dealt with individually. I mean, you can't let a 16 year old off the hook if he takes someone out with a screwdriver, but generally punching? Detention and leave the law out of it. You'd probably get better results taking his computer/console away for a week than you would sending him to jail for months.

[Andy M]

For the most part, I agree as well. Especially since I know from experience that most of my classmates are idiots. However, that works with punishment too. Someone who repeatedly bullies usually won't care about a detention, and they'll forget about the loss of their video games after a week. I'm not saying send them to jail, but they need something that will make more of an impact.

And regarding Kenny's first point; while it may be true for elementary school, high shoolers can get pretty big. Some of the seniors in my school could kill me by sitting on me. If two got in a fight there would be some serious injuries, and that should be taken into account.

[JimmyKeepCool]

I have to agree with Kenny. The part of your brain responsible for thinking about long-term effects and consequences is the last part to finish developing (somewhere around 25).
I don't think jail time would be an appropriate response for high schoolers; if anything it would aggravate any behavioral or anger issues the teen had. Then again detention does not work all that well either. Detention is more like a time-out and that's really only a punishment for little kids. I think something like community service, counseling, or an anger-management program would be a better response for teens, but due to budget constraints, this probably is not an option for most schools.

[Rebecca Roy]

Well a 16-18 year old does know better and though they should be charged jail is not a good idea. Community service works wonders, a few weekends of that will sort them out nicely. That and them knowing they do it again they can forget about graduating from high school, the only way they will get close to graduation is through getting a GED.

[Kadie - Anne Elizabeth Evans]

I like some of your ideas, training teachers to deal with bullying is an excellent one. Teachers need far more power in situations like this, I don't know if this is something that happens in the U.S. but in Britain more and more schools have a "no touch" policy. Meaning that a teacher is not aloud to touch a pupil, not aloud to make physical contact. This needs to be taken away, a teacher needs to have the power to intervene in fights and physically separate pupils in such situations. In fact, I'm personally in favour of bringing back corporal punishment. Not in the same way as it used to be but anyway this is another issue for another thread.

I do feel your one assault and you're being dealt with by the police is a bit too strong, perhaps a three strikes and your out approach would be better. If you are caught physically hurting someone more than twice then the third time the police are contacted and the situation is handed over to them.

I defiantly agree that something needs to be done to stop bullying however I don't think it's gonna be as easy as follow these four steps and bullying will be gone. each situation is individual and needs to be approached individually.

[Emily]

In the last few years of my high school experience, they really started cracking down on bullying. Teachers went to seminars to learn how to handle a bullying situation, there were new, harsher punishments for bullying put into effect, and we had countless presentations to raise awareness and decrease bullying. There were report slip stations set up around the school where a student could anonymously report incidents of bullying they witnessed, or for the actual victim to report it.
Personally, I did see a decrease in bullying. Teachers were very intolerant of it and would write students up immediately. I do recall a few more physical cases that did actually lead to the student doing the bullying being suspended, and it was considered assault but they chose not to press charges or anything.
So I agree with all of your ideas and thoughts, but I just wanted to bring up the fact that reformation is happening in some places...