Blaming the "victim"
In this morning's Winnipeg Free Press there was an article regarding a 17 year old who cruelly killed and dismembered his parents this summer. The article is reporting on a school Custodian Tracy Rose who got to know the boy last year and had actually warned the school that he was high risk of doing something angry. Of course it should be clear that I don't support anything he did and I'm not defending him, but the school's response touched a nerve as both somebody who was bullied and whose child is occasionally bullied.
The alleged response from the vice principal was "there were less than two months left (in the school year), and that all (the teen) has to do is learn to get along better with his peers and everything would be alright".
I can't describe how much this notion bothers me, and not because of the outcome. I'm literally shaking. How dare a school official blame the victim. In a day and age where they preach so heavily about the need to stop bullying, how can this person turn around and declare that it is up to this messed up child to simply adjust his own tendencies to suit the norm. I guess it's clear which side of the social pool this administrator fell in.
Those of us who were bullied spent OUR ENTIRE LIVES giving in to norms and avoiding bad situations in order to save some sanity. Unfortunately this young person didn't have enough sanity left to keep doing it.
I'll be honest that I still occasionally give my child advice to pick her battles because she's going to have plenty of them, but that's a far cry from choosing to ignore that battle and say it will go away on its own because the school year is ending.
When will officials learn that it IS their responsibility to take action on these things when somebody thoughtful enough brings it to their attention?
The alleged response from the vice principal was "there were less than two months left (in the school year), and that all (the teen) has to do is learn to get along better with his peers and everything would be alright".
I can't describe how much this notion bothers me, and not because of the outcome. I'm literally shaking. How dare a school official blame the victim. In a day and age where they preach so heavily about the need to stop bullying, how can this person turn around and declare that it is up to this messed up child to simply adjust his own tendencies to suit the norm. I guess it's clear which side of the social pool this administrator fell in.
Those of us who were bullied spent OUR ENTIRE LIVES giving in to norms and avoiding bad situations in order to save some sanity. Unfortunately this young person didn't have enough sanity left to keep doing it.
I'll be honest that I still occasionally give my child advice to pick her battles because she's going to have plenty of them, but that's a far cry from choosing to ignore that battle and say it will go away on its own because the school year is ending.
When will officials learn that it IS their responsibility to take action on these things when somebody thoughtful enough brings it to their attention?
posted by Russ at 9:08 AM
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