BULLIES CAN ALWAYS FIND A JOB

The Victoria Advocate is protecting an employee of VISD and that amazes me. There is a principal who has been reassigned, because of her unprofessional way of dealing with staff and children. This person has physically abused children and crossed the line with staff members throughout the years. She will probably be promoted and have a position at the administration building.

Since I found this ad, thought maybe it would help this bully to find other employment, rather than in a school district that can't afford to move any more incompetency into the White House on Profit Drive.

BULLY IN THE NEWS: VISD'S LACK OF LEADERSHIP

Even though school is out we find ourselves in the middle of another couple of sticky situations in Victoria Independent School District.

There is a principal assigned to two sweet country schools in the district. These two schools have been known to have fine, caring adults who worked together for the good of the children. When this all changed was when a certain principal was assigned to those out of the way schools. Because these schools were off the beaten path, I suppose, the principal decided that she could continue with her bullying of adults and students. Suffering under this principal came to a head and a teacher pressed charges against this principal. After a court decision of "not guilty" this principal was reinstated.

Multiple teachers were so outraged that they put their employment on the line when they created, signed and presented a letter to the local School Board. In small towns, willingness to stand behind your convictions is a risky move. Let's hope that these teachers are treated fairly, since the School Board moved to keep the principal on the disputed campus.

Who are the winners in this whole scenario? Well, it sure won't be those brave teachers or the children on the campus, because the six-hundred gorilla in the living room(read "bully" here) has been exposed, examined and given her same campus for the next year. Thought it was uncomfortable for those under her direction before, well now she knows that she has already won a lawsuit, so what's her motivation for her to change?

BULLYING: NO KINDNESS IN SIGHT

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.

~ George Washington Carver


In the headlines/news lately there seems to be a new wave of kids committing suicide as an answer to the bullying treatment they have been enduring. Suicide is so shocking and devastating to those left behind. Families sometimes never truly recover from the loss of a loved one through this frantic solution. What is even more shocking is that sometimes after the death of a young person, peers are texting each other with congratulatory "Job well done" messages. How sick are some people?

Growing up as a child with "issues at home" I was an easy target for the mean, hateful talk delivered by the popular girls. Fortunately, this was before cell phones, texting, email and all the other quick communication devices. It was bad enough to endure the looks, sneers, giggles behind hands and the occasional passed note in class.

What did I do to deserve the wrath of the bullies, you might wonder? Well, I didn't have the latest clothes; my last name was different from my mom's; and my mom cleaned their families homes. So, essentially, there was nothing I could change in order to not be a target. I did find that as long as I had a few close friends and I didn't allow the taunts to register on my face, the girls would eventually ignore me. Not existing in their sphere of popular girls was much better than ever being in their vicious spotlight.

Graduating from high school and going away to college was the solution for the small town, inbred, hoity-toity girls who tried to make my life miserable. Amazingly, some of those mean, popular girls are now on their second marriages. Wonder how they felt when their children were teased because the last names in the family didn't match? Of course, in this day and time, last names not matching in the family is almost expected.

So, when I read of a child who has been bullied to death and then comments that say to fight back or this is a nation of wussiness I realize that our society truly hasn't come very far, after all. There will always be the weaker (by society's standards) but that doesn't give anyone the right to pick, pick, pick until the bully feels superior.

Kindness is the only way that we can change this mindset from destructive into constructive. How difficult is it to teach children to be kind? Maybe we should start with commentors on The Victoria Advocate who pick, attack, retreat, repeat, etc.