In USA Today News, an article was released about how lately there has been a rise in court cases involving parents suing the school districts for failing to protect their child from being bullied. As one who has been extremely abused to the point of becoming suicidal as a child, I deeply sympathize with the parents' sadness and feelings of frustration and regret since their child was abused, especially if that child took his or her own life. It leaves a large black hole in the parents' hearts, for they cannot fathom why no one rescued their child or came to their child's aid. Justice is best served bringing the bullies, or in some cases murderers, to court to be tried and convicted. However, I do not believe that suing the school will necessarily bring justice to their child.
It is true that these bullying court cases shed light on how teachers, faculty, and students need to be more aware and take an active role in preventing bullying and abuse in their schools. On the other hand, suing the school districts for millions of dollars merely hurts the school by severely draining its funding, which there is already little of given recent laws that have been damaging public education for many years. Stealing money away from the schools greatly limits what already little those schools can already do or what programs they can enact, particularly programs that aid in increasing bullying awareness and prevention. Does fragmenting the shattering glass known as the public schooling system truly bring one's child justice? Does cutting an already bleeding wound stop the pain or only make one suffer more?
Then, I suppose I should get down to my real question: who is to blame? Do we continue to blame the schools for failing to recognize and protect our children from abuse and bullying? The people that run these school are only human and not omniscient. They can truly do little to get involved since they have their own tasks to perform on top of seeing to the education of everyone's children. Do we fault only the children responsible for taunting or torturing our victimized children? They may be rotten to core, or deep down, just as tormented and miserable as the children who they bully. Do we lay responsibility upon the parents of the bullies for not properly raising and disciplining their children? They may be the ones responsible for raising such a nasty and evil child, or they could be completely oblivious to their child's imperfections and cruelties. Do we blame the parents of the bullied for neglecting their children and keeping them in an abusive environment? They may have known what has been happening to their child and were hoping that things would get better soon. On the contrary, they may have been unaware or deceived. Do we attribute some of the fault upon the bullied for not speaking up or getting help? They have voices and can speak for themselves, but this is the hardest thing to do: admit that you, the bullied, are not responsible for your suffering and anguish. In your mind, some of these questions may be easy to answer, but ultimately, you cannot attribute one single entity for the horrible events that happened to victims. And instead of pointing the finger at the world for not saving your child, help your child! Get your child out of that school! Have your child seek counseling! Hire a therapist or a psychologist! Listen to child for once! Do something rather than nothing at all! For if you wait too long, you will lose the most precious being to you.
