What Should Be Done?

I think the difference, Liana, is that when we were in school, if kids misbehaved, they got the paddle. Now people are afraid to discipline their children at all for fear of being 'narked' on, which has the unfortunate result of a whole bunch of kids with a shitty attitude toward authority and no respect for boundaries of any sort.

My daughter was bullied at a school with a good reputation but which was suffering a bout of poor leadership and an uncontrollable intake and there wasn't a lot we could do. But she's stronger now; she confided this weekend that she's banned from a fast food chain throughout Manchester - apparently some time ago one of their female workers had seduced her best friend's boyfriend, so she went into the outlet where the girl worked, jumped over the counter and gave her a black eye. Thuggish behaviour? Maybe, but she was doing it for someone else and by herself, not in a gang and I'm sort of proud of her.

What we need is a spanking thread Liana :o)

Your pride is misplaced, Neil.

I'm not sure I'd condone my daughter whuppin' someone for something she wasn't personally involved in...shouldn't the one meting out the black eye have been the girlfriend to the boyfriend?

That is a horrible story... and when you project your children into these situations... it makes it worse still. We ALL have demonic streaks within us RIG. It is the 'group mentality' at work here that is worrying... thing is, it so easy for people to fall into 'group thinking' and do things that otherwise they would never consider doing individually. I feel sorry for the parents of all the children involved. If anything we should be educating children to be more individual, to learn and be aware of the traps of 'groups' that we all can be prone to if we are not careful.

yes, its the group mentality... i agree that we all have it within us too. Saw a diusturbing programme last night on bullying.. teachers were secretly taped telling a young girl who was being regularly beaten, to just ignore it as much as she could. That she brought it on herself. Scandalous. The head teacher that recently suspended over 40 pupils because of a mass bullying incident, deserves a medal. As one expert says last night - removing the bullied child is easier than punishing the bullies... their parents would kick up such a fuss that schools cant handle it. A dreadful state of affairs. I can see with the pressures that schools have these days how that could be true, but its terribly immoral isnt it?

Well that sounds better but still...

If it was last month it was probably just the eye'ds of March.

I dunno what gets into them Rig. There wasnt any bullying at my school... at least not that i remember.

Groups, gangs UGHH! If I recognise something like that is happening, I run a mile from. It is why I don't go on protest marches, even though I may be sympathetic to a cause... and although I like football, terraces make me feel uncomfortable, especially when I want to applause a good move by the opposition, and feel hemmed in. I do remember attempted bullying at school, I did stand up to it though (at some small cost)... I think it would have been far worse if I hadn't.

oh actually i DO remember a case in junior school, Nigel was bullying a kid called Timothy. I stepped in and had Timothy lovesick til secondary school if i recall correctly. Poor Tim. His dad used to beat him too, I remember seeing the strap marks in PE class. It IS true to some extent that ome kids have victim stamped all over them, but how to turn it around.. thats the problem.