Grim Bullying Tale From Middle School, teacher watches and ignores it

[The Straight Story]

Grim Bullying Tale From Middle School

DeLAND, Fla. (CN) - A mother claims a middle school teacher watched as her son was "punched, kneed in the stomach and finally stripped of his clothes and photographed by four older students," then "without saying a word or lifting a finger to intervene ... went back into his office and closed the door."

The mother claims her son suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and is on medication more than a year after he was bullied at that Volusia County middle schools - then bullied again at a second one.

Melissa J. sued the Volusia County School Board and teacher Wayne Wheeler, in Volusia County Court.

She says classmates repeatedly attacked her son in the boys' locker room at Holly Hill Middle School, while Wheeler "did nothing to stop it."

The mother says: "While attending Wheeler's class, and under Wheeler's supervision, [her son] was verbally assaulted, punched, kneed in the stomach and finally stripped of his clothes and photographed by four older students.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/01/09/42858.htm

Link to complaint:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/01/09/Bullied.pdf

[bullwinkle428]

1. K&R. And people wonder why some of these kids are pushed to such desperate circumstances

where they end up killing themselves as the only way to escape the situation.

[CanonRay]

2. The kids that did this should not be allowed to attend school

their parents should be forced to home school them, since they are clearly not socialized.

[justiceischeap]

3. Maybe they were initially homeschooled

and that's why they're not socialized now.

[Romulox]

4. This happened to me, when I was young (not so extreme!) Teachers witness bullying, do nothing

routinely. Many consciously or unconsciously participate in the bullying themselves.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

5. Or maybe the teachers are terrified themselves

of being sued by the bullies' parents. And the teachers probably can't count on administrators or the school board having their backs.

And, most bullying is more subtle than the OP incident. It could be hard to identify as bullying with certainty.

[Romulox]

6. That's a convenient excuse. Teachers have a DUTY to protect. It's not optional. nt

[Occulus]

7. I don't know; when the kids ganged up on me in elementary school

and bodily upended me into the trash bin the teacher was standing there laughing.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

8. Did anything come of that case?

Or did you just "suck it up" and move on? I can only remember "ratting out" one teacher, and that wasn't for ignoring bullying. Usually, I just fought back, generally got the worst of it, and tried to move on.

On it's best days, High School sucked. Other times, it was worse.

[strategery blunder]

9. This happens every day

Happened to me in school all the time. Every day.

I remember the ONE time a teacher saw it and actually DID intervene to actually stop the bullying like it happened yesterday. Why? Because that was so RARE. Most teachers I had just averted their eyes when it happened and pretended not to see it. If I ever tried to complain, I heard "Oh, we didn't see it so we can't do anything," which was BS because the teachers WILLINGLY CHOSE not to see it.

I am not anti-teacher by any means. I certainly don't buy into the whole for-profit standardized testing or privatization agenda. I don't question that teachers take the duty to report suspected abuse at home seriously, but teachers definitely need to take the duty to protect their students from other students more seriously.