April 23, 2012
The issue of school bullies has caught the attention of several subscribers. I posted an article on what a student can do to remove himself from the situation. I think getting out is far better than staying in.
But some parents love money more than they love their children. They will order the kid to go back and "stand up to the bully." Why do they do this? Because they like two incomes. They like the idea of free education. They approve of the local schools. It costs either money or time to pull a student out. They are not about to pull him out. So, they tell him to stand up for his rights.
If you sense that I have contempt for such parents, then you're pretty sharp.
So, this is a second-best strategy for those parents who are willing to fight for their child, just not willing to pay for his escape from the tax-funded trap. They prefer to remove the bully from the school rather than removing their child from the school. They don't care what he is taught, or what moral temptations he faces. But they are willing to get rid of a bully.
Once again, I return to the strategy recommended by Saul Alinsky. Begin with the assumption that every system is vulnerable. You then search for the point of vulnerability. Push on that pressure point until the people in charge of the system decide that the pain that they are receiving from the protest is greater than the pain they will experience by submitting to the protesters. It is all a matter of comparative pain.
THE BULLY-PRINCIPAL ALLIANCE
Let us begin with the principal of the middle school or high school involved. He does not want trouble. He wants things to go smoothly. Along with every other bureaucrat on earth, he fears a reduction in his budget more than he fears anything else, except getting fired. He is very concerned about the flow of funds into his school.
As far as I know, every American public school district is paid by the state government in terms of the number of students enrolled full-time. Any time a student is expelled, the district and school loses funding. Therefore, there is a bias in favor of retaining students. This bias favors bullies.
Bullies figure out very early that they can get away with almost anything. The principal will not expel them. It is an ideal situation for unscrupulous, cowardly, large, not-too-bright bullies. They can make trouble for other students, which is a form of revenge.
A bully is motivated by envy. He resents the fact that other students do better than he does in class. He wants to pull them down, or to make their lives miserable. He does not care if he gets in a little bit of trouble, just so long as he can make enough students miserable, especially students who perform better academically than he does.
So, there is a working arrangement between the principal and the bullies. They stay in school, and he gets the money. This is a powerful alliance. It is highly self-interested. It is symbiotic. This is why most schools have bullies.
The teachers have very little power, because they are not in charge of the expulsions. They defer to the administration, and the administration has a bias against expelling students.
What can be done? The students who are tired of being bullied are in a position to impose a great deal of pain on the principal. They have to be systematic about this. They have to be willing to take some risk. Above all, they have to be willing to rock the boat. They have to be willing to impose pain on the principal. If they can impose enough pain on the principal, he will intervene to expel the bullies. The bullies will no longer be in a position to impose pain on their victims.
Parents can get involved in this as initiators. Because students usually are unaware of their power, they do not initiate anything like this. So, let me begin on the assumption that one parent is willing to buck the system in order to make life more pleasant for the child, who is suffering pain because of the bullies.
THE PLAN
The parent's first step is to go to the campus and ask to see a copy of the campus handbook. Maybe a short version for parents is available. There are always rules and regulations governing the operation of any administration. A short version may be available to parents, or it may not be. Legally, the complete document has to be on file. Any parent can see it. Most parents pay no attention.
The parent gets the handbook and looks up the rules governing bullies. If there is no published rule governing bullies, the parent asks to be shown the document. There is some document, somewhere.
If the parent gets stonewalled, he says: "Do I have to call my lawyer?" The word "lawyer" is universally terrifying.
The goal is to get a photocopy of the section on bullying.
If there is still no cooperation, the parent goes home and types a letter requesting a photocopy of the appropriate document. He sends it registered mail, return receipt requested.
If the principal stonewalls on this, which I do not expect, the next step is for the parent to write a certified letter to the superintendent of schools. The letter will include a photocopy of the previous requests that the parent sent to the principal asking for the guidelines. The parent will request that the superintendent send the appropriate papers. The letter is sent registered mail, return receipt requested.
The parent sends a photocopy of this letter to the principal.
The moment any bureaucrat receives a letter that is sent return receipt requested, he is put on alert that serious trouble has begun. He probably suspects that the parent is willing to escalate the confrontation to the point of calling a lawyer. The parent should be ready to do this. But I do not think it is going to be necessary.
Within two weeks, and probably less, the parent will be in possession of the guidelines regarding bullies.
The sooner he has this, the sooner the next phase of the confrontation will begin.
The parent shows these guidelines the student. The student becomes aware of the fact that there are guidelines available to protect him. The guidelines are not being followed, but they exist.
The parent now types up a form. This form is for the student to use immediately after any confrontation with a bully. The bully must initiate the confrontation. The student refuses to cooperate with bully. If the bully threatens the student verbally, this is assault. If the bully physically hits the student, this is battery.
If the bully demands payment in money, student verbally protests. If the bully in any way threatens the student, the student hands over the money, and says specifically to the bully that the only reason he is handing over the money is because he is afraid of being beaten up.
Normally, no one tells bully this. The student tells bully this. At this point, if the bully takes the money, the bully has committed a felony. If there is a witness, the bully is in deep trouble.
The student then goes to a classroom and fills in the form in ink. (He carries spares.) The form will include the following information:
The name of the bully
The time of the confrontation
The place of the confrontation
What the bully said to the student
If there was physical contact, it is described.
If there was a witness, have the witness sign it.
It is important that the student travels with another student. If the bully does anything to the student or threatens the student in the presence of a witness, his position will soon become untenable.
The student would be wise to carry several of these forms with him. When he travels with another student, and the other student is willing to be a witness and sign the paper, that witness is recruited into the program. He becomes an ally. At that point, the student should hand the ally copies of a blank form. He, too, carries blank forms.
On the assumption that the bully is leaning on a lot of students, other students now have a reason to carry the sheet, to travel in the presence of another witness, and to write down the details immediately after the confrontation.
As soon as the student brings home a form filled in, the parent makes a photocopy of the document. The parent then sits down and types a letter informing the principal of the infraction, and requests an interview in person. The parent makes a photocopy of this letter and files it and the original form. Then the parent goes to the Post Office and sends the letter with a photocopy of the document to the principal. The letter is of course sent return receipt requested.
The principal is now facing a problem that he probably has never faced in his life. He is now scared. He sees what is about to happen. He has to grant the interview.
At the interview, the parent demands that bully be expelled. There is no compromise on this issue. The parent makes it clear that the bully has broken the law, and that the principal has an obligation to expel the student who has broken the law. It is not a matter of internal campus policy. It is a matter for the police. But the parent plays the firm but decent person. He lets the principal decide what to do next.
The parent has a copy of the guidelines governing the expulsion of bullies. He shows it to the principal. He knows the parent knows. The parent makes it clear to the principal that if he refuses to expel the bully, this is only the first round in a long series of confrontations with the school district. The parent makes clear that he is ready to call a lawyer if necessary if this issue is not settled in terms of the guidelines.
The parent then goes home. He lets the principal sweat. He types up a summary of the meeting. He goes to a notary public and signs it. Then he sends a photocopy to the principal, with a cover letter telling him that this is for the school's files.
The principal now has to make a decision. Is it worth risking a legal confrontation with a parent who has a piece of paper on the violation? The bully does not have a piece of paper. The bully's parents are not in a position to make as much trouble for him as the parent of the victim can make for him.
At this point, the principal is going to call the bully into his office for a frank discussion. He still does not want to expel the bully, so he is going to threaten the bully with expulsion. He will also threaten to call the bully's parents. The bully will probably ignore all this, because he learned a long time ago that the principal is a spineless wimp. He does not know that he is in the middle of a trap set by one of his victims.
The bully may confront the student again. Maybe he will not. Maybe he will push on some other seemingly helpless victim. But he will not stop. Every time the bully does this, the victims should recruit another member of the team. They now work as teams to fill in the forms and sign as witnesses.
Each witness gets a photocopy copy of whatever he signed. The victim provides this. No later than the next day, the witness gets a photocopy of the signed form.
The parent of the victim then calls the parent of the witness to warn him of the problem. The parent sends a photocopy to the witness's parents.
The goal here is to create parental resistance based on documents signed by the victims. Each parent requests a conference with the principal, and each makes the exact same demand: the bully must be expelled.
The principal is going to figure out that these pieces of paper will be lined up in front of a judge at some point if he does not remove the problem. The bully is now outnumbered.
Pieces of paper with signatures on them terrify bureaucrats. I think the principal will take the right step and expel the bully.
But maybe not.
If the bully commits another infraction, either against the parent's child or somebody else's child, the parent schedules one more interview with the principal. The parent makes it clear that the next step is to organize all the parents to cooperate in the venture to inform the superintendent of the principal's unwillingness to take action against the bully.
The principal now sees that he is up against a determined opposition. It would take a courageous principal to defend the bully's right to stay in school. The bully is going to have nobody on his side.
ESCALATION
If the principal still resists, then the parent sends photocopies of whatever documents he has to the superintendent of schools. He asks the superintendent to intervene in order to remove the problem on the campus. Of course, this material is sent by registered mail, return receipt requested.
He asks other parents to do the same.
I believe that the bully will be gone within 24 hours of the receipt of the first batch of documents. But, if the bully is not gone within a week, the parent then gathers together photocopies of the documents and types up a letter to the school board. The letter explains the problem. The letter asks the school board to intervene on behalf of of the victims. A copy of the letter to the school work is sent to the superintendent and the principal.
He gets other parents to do the same.
At this point, I think the bully is as good as gone.
The media are not yet involved. They will be if necessary.
All of this assumes that the parents really want to get the bully off that campus. If parents will not stand behind their children, then the children can take on the principal on their own authority. I will discuss that in a future report.
Again, it is all a matter of comparative pain. The parents must inflict more pain on the principal that he is willing to bear. This is the Alinsky method, and it works.
When they feel the heat, they see the light.
Are there other bullies on campus? Wash, rinse, repeat.
© 2022 GaryNorth.com, Inc., 2005-2021 All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without permission prohibited.