Bullies have always existed among us and over the years,
many theories about what causes a human being to perpetrate these excessively
dominate behaviors have been considered. What is it about these individuals
that make them believe they are superior and therefore deserving of the
unquestioning obedience and subjugation of others?
We are all born with a temperament
that steers us toward being introverted or extroverted; strong willed and
aggressive or compliant and cooperative.
Any of these personality types are just fine in moderation; however
trouble begins brewing when these traits move toward the extremes. Mix in the parent’s character types, style of
childrearing and attitude towards others and things can get complicated very
quickly.
It’s said most bullies actually
have low self-esteem, which causes them to overcompensate with their peers by
acting strong and assertive because those traits are usually associated with
popularity. I suppose this could be true
in some cases. Unfortunately, many times
when the bully is given extra attention by other kids or adults, the bad
behavior tends to escalate, so I’m not so sure about this excuse.
The incidents of bullying are
increasing exponentially, both in occurrences and the severity of cruelty
involved. Whether your child is in
public, private or even Christian private school, you can bet they will
encounter a bully, but when your child becomes the target, the stress they
suffer can become severe enough to drive them to suicide.
It’s very difficult to know how to
handle this situation. Despite a
nationwide campaign in our schools declaring zero tolerance for bullying,
teachers and administrators are all but helpless to prevent or stop it. Kids are very savvy when attacking others,
lying in wait to taunt and threaten their victim when the teacher is out of the
room or not paying attention.
It happens on the playgrounds and
in gym class, and is prevalent in locker rooms and on the bus ride to and from
school. Then the child tries to report the event, as they are instructed to do
by the authorities, the bullying only tends to escalate in retaliation. The very fact that this is still a huge issue
in our society, escalating in severity and so very difficult to overcome,
testifies to the evil spirit behind it.
In case you haven’t heard, one of
the saddest, most outrageous examples of bullying has garnered world wide news
this week, which prompted me to write this article. Karen Klein, a 68 year old grandmother living
in the Greece School District near Rochester, NY, was recently verbally
assaulted with outrageous insults and threatened with profanity laced taunts by
at least 4 students while riding school Bus 784 as a monitor. Ms. Klein drove a school bus for 20 years and
now rides as a monitor to help control the student’s behavior. Unfortunately, no one monitored what happened
to her.
According to my understanding,
this incident happened two weeks before the summer break of this year,
2012. Ms. Klein was sitting in a bus
seat alone when the surrounding students began picking on her while another
student videotaped the 10 minute incident on his cell phone. He then stupidly
posted the video on YouTube for the world to watch. Here is a very small sample of what you can
hear on that tape:
Girl #1—“Oh my God, you are SO
fat, Karen!”
Boy #1—(after poking Ms. Klein
with a book) “Your reflexes are so slow, you freakin’ fat f***.”
Girl #1—“She has reflexes like an
elephant!” (laughing) then “Oh my God,
you are such a ****ing troll!”
Ms. Klein leans over and says, “If
you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything.”
Girl #1—“Why don’t you shut the
f*** up?!”
Ms. Klein removes her glasses and wipes
moisture off her face.
Girl #2—“Are you sweating? Look at
her sweating like…”
Ms. Klein, “No, I’m crying.”
Girl #2—“Why are you crying?”
Girl #1—“She probably misses her
box of Twinkies.”
Later, one of the boys say, “You
probably don’t have any family because they all killed themselves to get away
from you!” (multiple laughter)
Again, this is a very small sample
of what this lady endured at the hands of….wait for it….Middle School
children! Not other adults. Not college
jerks. Not even immature high school kids. These were children thirteen to
fifteen years old!
Wake up parents! Welcome to the wonderful, wild and woolly
world of early teenagers in this day and age.
The father of one of the boys spoke on camera and expressed shock and
disbelief that his son would be capable of such actions. “This is not the way we raised our kids. I would have never thought in a million years
he would be capable of acting like that!”
Rather than punish his son, he was planning to get him into therapy to determine
the root of his problem.
Hey Dad…the root of the problem is
your son is an unsaved child who, day after day, is at the mercy of the Godless
public school system and is desperate to be accepted by his peers yet too
immature to stand up for what is good and proper in this world. THAT, sir, is the root of the problem.
Let’s take a closer look at the
‘root’ cause of the dangerous decline of morality and manners in this modern
day of progressive ideas and government intrusion in the lives, homes and education
of our children.
Before 1962, it was customary in
America’s public schools for the kids to pledge allegiance to this country’s
flag and to say a little prayer at the start of every school day. The prayer was this: “Almighty God, we acknowledge
our dependence upon Thee, and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our parents, our
teachers and our country. Amen” What an
outrageous atrocity of abuse that was heaped on these students, being taught to
respect and have pride in their country as well as reverence for the Creator of
the Universe. Great time of day! How crippled and psychologically traumatized
these children must now be as adults!
In 1962, the Supreme Court decided
in the case of Engel vs. Vitale to end prayer in public schools, giving birth
to the most overused and abused phrase in the English language: ‘Separation of
Church and State.’ This was the initial
step in removing God and His moral laws from our classrooms; a brilliant idea
which has spawned a generation of self-absorbed, egotistical, greedy, loud
mouthed, immoral God haters. Gee, what a great idea that turned out to be!
So, the people thought, ‘OK, we
can’t pray anymore. At least we can
allow the kids one minute to silently pray or meditate on whatever their groovy
parents might be teaching them.’ One lousy minute of silence in the classroom
was too much. The Supreme Court outlawed
this in the case of Wallace vs. Jaffree in 1985. And the thought police were born.
Then, in 1992, Lee vs. Weisman
caused the Court to prohibit clergy led prayer at any public high school
graduation ceremony. Lord knows we don’t
want to ask the Sovereign One to bless and guide the students who were about to
venture out into the cold, cruel world!
And finally, until the atheists
can dream up some other obnoxious lawsuit, Santa Fe vs. Doe banned in the year
2000, school sanctioning of student led prayer at public high school football
games. That ‘Doe’ person sure has
wreaked a lot of havoc in our society, haven’t they?? Now, our boys can play football, bash their
helmets together with the force of a 30 MPH car crash resulting in at least
some degree of brain injury every time, all without the protection of that
pesky God hanging over their shoulder.
The glorious Marxist experiment by
our liberal university’s intellectual and morally bankrupt elite, which spawned
our messianic President, has been a smashing success! Our society is finally free from those
bothersome mores of conduct such as kindness, clean language, obedience toward
authority figures and respect for others, especially the weakest among us, our
elderly and the unborn.
Thank God----whoops, no, we can’t
thank Him. He doesn’t exist! In fact, I believe I heard “God is dead”
somewhere. Hmmm…we can thank ourselves
for ridding our society of any moral compass and introducing relativism into
our lives. It’s apparent by the example
of the Middle School students on Bus 784, this social lie conceived in the same
bed as political correctness, has made our lives and American culture is SO
much better.
We have finally thrown off the
chains of politeness as well as the basic Ten Commandments and can now feel
free to act as the moment and situation strikes us, with no repercussions! In
terms of bullying, well, what is bullying after all? It’s simply one of many ways we can relate to
others. If something we say or do negatively affects someone or hurts their
feelings, that’s their problem. They are
free to feel or do whatever they wish. After all, there is no ‘right or wrong’
now! We’re much too sophisticated for
that nonsense!
How sad that the moral and
spiritual condition of this nation has degraded to such a state that our
children routinely pick up language and behavior so foul, it would make a
sailor on shore leave blush. That it would even enter the minds of not only the
Greece Middle Schoolers, but kids nationwide, to speak to and treat any adult
the way Ms. Klein was treated is something we should grieve. How much lower can we sink before Almighty
God has had enough?
I hate to break it to that Dad
whose son was involved in this unconscionable verbal assault, but ‘therapy’
isn’t going to help his little darling. He needs strong discipline, appropriate
punishment that includes making restitution to his victim and to be introduced
and educated in the precepts of our Holy God.
We must remember that the kids,
who routinely act this way now, will eventually be the ones making the
decisions about how to care for their parents when they are too old, weak and
frail to care for themselves. Scary
thought, huh?
