I watched Dr. Phil this morning as I often do on weekdays and while I'm happy that I saw the show it made me very angry. Angry to the point that something has to be done. Angry to the point that I've decided that it's my responsibility to do something about it. Angry to the point that I will do something about it.
Dr. Phil's show this morning was about bullies in middle school. This show hit a little bit too close to home. Bullies in middle school is exactly the problem we have been dealing with this year with Braxton. Bullies are the reason that Braxton has gotten in trouble this year and had fights. Bullies are the reason he has been picked on.
The school does nothing to stop it. The school does nothing but punish both the kid doing the bullying and the kid on the receiving end. This does not solve the problem, nor does it help the problem, it does not even delay the problem. All this does is get the problem documented. But whats the good of getting the problem documented if the bullying gets carried too far and the child being bullied finally cracks and does the unthinkable, like a child did on the show this morning and took her onw life? Did the school do anything? Absolutely not. They told the parents that kids will be kids! Even after knowing what this child was put through day after day.
From our own experiences with bullying and dealing with school I can say that I have no trouble believing what this poor woman on Dr. Phil's show said, because when I called my child's school about his being bullied, I got basically the same reaction. "Kids are just going to bully." Well, I have decided, after watching the show this morning, that that answer is no longer acceptable. And the next time, and I have no doubt that there WILL be a next time, I will NOT accept their solution. Their solution will be to punish both Braxton and the other kid, no matter who started it and no matter what Braxton did to defend himself. Well, that policy will no longer be acceptable with me. I have let him take the wrap for the other kids way too long, and it's not going to happen any more.
I'm going to Dr. Phil's web-site and I'm going to get his information on school policy's and the Bullying Pledge and the policy for schools. I'm going to insist that Braxton's school impliment this policy. I'm going to insist that they put everything they can into this campaign. If I have to beg Dr Phil and Jay to come here I'll do that too. But I'm not going to sit by quietly any more. Something is going to be done.
I think it is the responsibility of every parent who has a child in middle school, because thats where bullying runs rampant, to make it a personal mission to find out about bullying in your childs school. I challenge every parent of a middle schooler to insist that your childs school have a policy on bullying and to see that it's implimented and followed! It is up to us to protect our children. But it's a sad sad state of affairs when we find ourselves protecting them from one another. That's when you know you are living in a sick soceity.
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