Blame the Victim

Please meditate on the following situations for a moment -

• The government addressing the families of the 9/11 victims and saying that their kin should not have been there in that building that fateful day. There after, the govt moves on to ask common people working in "potential terror targets" to either be prepared to counter attack or switch jobs to less risky places of work.
• A hapless assault victim told by a court that its her fault not to be able to defend herself against a bunch of roudy, powerful assailants. 

Ridiculous,  right ??. Thats basically what will happen if I extrapolate the logic implied in a recent media article I read about "bullying in US schools". It went on to blabber about how the victims of childhood bullying cope up with their lives later on and how it has affected them in various different ways etc. I felt like yelling "What's wrong with this society ?". 

The problem is not the one who got bullied, Idiots. Its the one who did the bullying. I have found it really surprising (read shocking) how indifferent these school systems are to the actual bullies. Talking to them is not going to be of any avail. If they are good at listening to these nice talks about being a good kid, we wont be having them as bullies in the first place. You have to make sure you punish them such that they don't do this. I remember my schooldays where a miscreant (nothing even close to a bully) gets punished right then and there by the teacher whoever is present in the scene. Think about punishments like kneeling down (may be in the sun), running around the ground, or standing on a bench depending on the act and the punisher. Thats what we need to say the least to tackle this bullying scenario. Not counselling or advise to the hapless under-dogs that they shouldn't cross paths with the pitbulls. School is a place for study. Anything that happens within the premises other than learning should be dealt hard. May be the american society in general or its teachers or both should stand up and take these bullies to task. Who knows a generation down the lane - gun violence and gang violence may even reduce.

I personally had a chance to experience this behavior of their school systems. I was a TA in UTDallas during summer of 2003 when one of my duties was to help the kids of Dallas School district with science camp stuff. Outside of the class, one day, one weak kid got bullied (right in the UTDcampus) by one other stronger fellow. Not sure if he was attacked physically. The older brother of the victim was furious and wanted to know the details of the assailant. But the teachers were dodging about how they dont know who did it etc etc. But apparently, the suspected bully dint show up for the class next day onwards. I still considered he was shielded by the system. I couldn't intervene as I was neither a witness nor did I know the exact details. But the "cover up" if you want to call it happened before my eyes.