Perhaps this was the only way to get this child into behavioral therapy or other counseling.

Citizen Mom has a point… the pendulum swings. Liberal to conservative, libertine to Puritan, permissive to restrictive. Its the way of the world… trading one set of problems for another.

In this particular case, we aren’t talking about sticking gum in someones hair or giving them a wedgie (not that either of those are acceptable) – we’ve got an 11 year old accused of attacking another kid with a scissors. And apparently she has a history of violence. There needs to be some kind of intervention.

As far as teaching kids to tattle? That’s absurd. The “code of silence” has been the rule among kids in every culture, throughout history.

Bottom line: its a PARENT’S responsibility to prepare their kid to deal with conflict. The problem is that most parents are replaying the psychological tapes they heard from their parents (or following advice of equally clueless “experts”).

I’ve bully-proofed hundreds of kids in my professional career. 70% of the time, a kid can deal with bullies using very simple psychological tactics. 25% of the time, they have to use force (overwhelming fire-power is often the key to peace). 5% of the time, adults need to get involved.

http://emergingcenter.wordpress.com/
http://www.totalbullysolution.info

I’m a former third grader teacher and currently a parent of a third grader, first grader and kindergartner. What I’ve found over the years is parents react differently when teachers contact them about their child’s behavior. Some parents want to work with the school to correct the behavior and others deny that their child could ever be exhibiting such behavior, whether it’s bullying, swearing, being mean or not cooperating in class. So a lot of how we deal with children depends on their parents.
In this day and age most school systems have a no tolerance policy for bullying and harassment. I think that’s a good thing. But….how much is an 11 yr. old girl going to really learn from being prosecuted? Isn’t there another way?

If you’re reporting being terrorized by your peers, is that considered tattling? I’ve never understood how it gets villianized. “Josie said a BAD word!” maybe that’s tattling, but “Chuck forces me into my locker and punches me in the gut every day” should not be considered tattling. Also, if it’s assault at age 30, why wouldn’t it be assault at age 11? Maybe how you deal with the crime should be different, but it should still be a crime.

I think 10 and 11 year olds should be held accountable for their actions, especially if they have been bullying for many years and their parents deny or don’t care if their kids are bullying. My 9 year old was bullied by four first cousins, 11,9,7,and 6. The younger ones started hitting him as hard as they could and throwing rocks the size of golf balls at him. The olders ones egged the younger ones on, and were waiting to jump on my son as well if he fought back. They have done this before. Before I could make it over to where they were a lady jumped on the cousins and made them stop. I tried to determine what was going on and the dad to three of these kids (and the older ones)told me to not discipline his kids! He didn’t even ask what they were doing or what was going on! He turned around and walked off, and the bullies grinned at me because they got away with it! I am now afraid for my son’s safety, and I called the police and filed a complaint agaisnt the children and the dad. I didn’t think I could do anything else with the dad being a jerk and not caring if his kids bullied…..