Ohai, Catholic Church! Much to the dismay of many of our readers, we've been loving up the New Pope lately and giving him plenty of nice time. To everything there is a season, however, and now we turn turn turn back to our more-familiar role scoffing at the Church for its public panic attacks over the use of everyone else's private parts. Our comedy villain of the day is the archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul, which is currently
Since the crush on Francis the Humble is over, I guess one can note that a week ago he <a href="http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2013\/apr\/15\/pope-criticises-us-nuns-group" target="_blank">reaffirmed that nuns need to mend their radical feminist ways</a>.
You should feel right at home in NYC -- unless of course you <i>need</i> to feel different, in which case it would suck because you&#039;d be pretty much ordinary.
Yeah, I was pretty much the official school nerd, and the resident tough guy felt the need to beat on me one evening. He failed to do the math (natch), which might have told him I was 6&quot; taller and 30 lbs heavier. (It would not have told him that I had been wrestling with my cousins, for entertainment, since about age 4.) Anyhow, problem solved, in pretty short order. Like you say, you don&#039;t want to recommend the Karate Kid solution, but you go to school with the assholes you have. My explanation to the principal (who was a bit puzzled) was &quot;he wanted to fight,&quot; and that got me off with a &quot;don&#039;t do it again.&quot; I didn&#039;t have to. (The other guy failed to show up for senior year; he&#039;s probably slouching in a low-rent bar somewhere as I write this.)
Bullying is childish behavior allowed to go too far in the same way that fighting is often just horse-play that gets out of hand (among kids). Adults need to step up, and draw lines.
Part of the problem is this feeling among teachers that they cannot discipline children in any way without inviting the ire of the parents or even a lawsuit.
I&#039;m not, and won&#039;t, argue that bullying isn&#039;t a very real problem with very real consequences, but tossing children into the soul-grinder that is the criminal justice system is just as brutal. State sanctioned bullying by probation officers, youth judges, and low level administrators isn&#039;t any better than bullying by kids.
But they ARE talking about it. You pass a law, there are penalties if you violate said law.
If there are no penalties, it is a pointless exercise.
And why does everyone assume that if I don&#039;t like laws that further ingrain youth courts into our children&#039;s lives, that I must think that bullying is no big deal?
I was bullied to my face, until I went temporarily insane (the school&#039;s words) and almost killed some stupid kid w/ a pen. I think he&#039;s still partially blind in one eye. After that, they only did things like set fires in my locker, talk trash about me, etc.
It&#039;s possible that &quot;fighting back&quot; doesn&#039;t solve a lot.
And what kind of policies have schools that have done this come up with?
They give us &quot;conflict resolution&quot; officers, that are, in reality, police officers that wear a special armband or colorful badge.
They give us zero-tolerance policies that forces kids out of the school system and into the courts.
They give us Administrators that call the police when kids talk back, and officers that tase middle-school kids.
Why are these the types of policies they come up with? I don&#039;t know. Maybe it&#039;s laziness, far easier to have the courts do the lifting. Maybe it is fear, fear of lawsuits, losing jobs, public opinion. Maybe both.
What we need are policies that result in immediate and meaningful intervention. That isn&#039;t what these laws will give us.
Lots of schools have come up with exactly the kind of policies you are asking for. Laws are needed for the dickwad administrators who haven&#039;t done so on their own. For example, say, the asshats at Rutgers who refused to deal with a bullying, violent, homophobic coach even after a gay student had (rather publicly) committed suicide after being bullied.
Schools need to address this shit. If they won&#039;t do it on their own, then they need a little firm guidance from the zero tolerance folks in the state legislature. /ffs
Yeah, maybe someone will someday be able to explain to me why a church that is wholly given over to obsessions about virgins and whores requires female students to dress up like a pedophile&#039;s wet dream.
Damn, they might as well be cheerleaders in a Baptist high school in Texas, almost.
Since the crush on Francis the Humble is over, I guess one can note that a week ago he <a href="http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2013\/apr\/15\/pope-criticises-us-nuns-group" target="_blank">reaffirmed that nuns need to mend their radical feminist ways</a>.
You should feel right at home in NYC -- unless of course you <i>need</i> to feel different, in which case it would suck because you&#039;d be pretty much ordinary.
I&#039;ve seen some videos that present certain suggestions.
Just remember, it&#039;s not bullying so long as there&#039;s a safe word.
Yeah, I was pretty much the official school nerd, and the resident tough guy felt the need to beat on me one evening. He failed to do the math (natch), which might have told him I was 6&quot; taller and 30 lbs heavier. (It would not have told him that I had been wrestling with my cousins, for entertainment, since about age 4.) Anyhow, problem solved, in pretty short order. Like you say, you don&#039;t want to recommend the Karate Kid solution, but you go to school with the assholes you have. My explanation to the principal (who was a bit puzzled) was &quot;he wanted to fight,&quot; and that got me off with a &quot;don&#039;t do it again.&quot; I didn&#039;t have to. (The other guy failed to show up for senior year; he&#039;s probably slouching in a low-rent bar somewhere as I write this.)
I thought they preferred to wash their hands of the whole business.
The rest of the joke goes &quot;THUNK!&quot;, and Jeebus says, &quot;Oh come on, mom!&quot;
Well, since I am already going to hell for stealing Eucharist as an altar boy...
I don&#039;t see how criminalizing kids for childish behavior helps the problem at all.
You&#039;re just swapping one way to fuck up kids with another.
Bullying is childish behavior allowed to go too far in the same way that fighting is often just horse-play that gets out of hand (among kids). Adults need to step up, and draw lines.
Part of the problem is this feeling among teachers that they cannot discipline children in any way without inviting the ire of the parents or even a lawsuit.
I&#039;m not, and won&#039;t, argue that bullying isn&#039;t a very real problem with very real consequences, but tossing children into the soul-grinder that is the criminal justice system is just as brutal. State sanctioned bullying by probation officers, youth judges, and low level administrators isn&#039;t any better than bullying by kids.
At least with the kids you have some recourse.
But they ARE talking about it. You pass a law, there are penalties if you violate said law.
If there are no penalties, it is a pointless exercise.
And why does everyone assume that if I don&#039;t like laws that further ingrain youth courts into our children&#039;s lives, that I must think that bullying is no big deal?
At my school (Sacred Heart), they had to wear the skirts from 1st grade up.
And I mean had to... Even when it was freezing out.
I am guessing they had some kind of kick-back deal with the local tights manufacturer.
I was bullied to my face, until I went temporarily insane (the school&#039;s words) and almost killed some stupid kid w/ a pen. I think he&#039;s still partially blind in one eye. After that, they only did things like set fires in my locker, talk trash about me, etc.
It&#039;s possible that &quot;fighting back&quot; doesn&#039;t solve a lot.
Even dumber: the Northern Nerds were trying to blow up TRAINS.
And what kind of policies have schools that have done this come up with?
They give us &quot;conflict resolution&quot; officers, that are, in reality, police officers that wear a special armband or colorful badge.
They give us zero-tolerance policies that forces kids out of the school system and into the courts.
They give us Administrators that call the police when kids talk back, and officers that tase middle-school kids.
Why are these the types of policies they come up with? I don&#039;t know. Maybe it&#039;s laziness, far easier to have the courts do the lifting. Maybe it is fear, fear of lawsuits, losing jobs, public opinion. Maybe both.
What we need are policies that result in immediate and meaningful intervention. That isn&#039;t what these laws will give us.
Lots of schools have come up with exactly the kind of policies you are asking for. Laws are needed for the dickwad administrators who haven&#039;t done so on their own. For example, say, the asshats at Rutgers who refused to deal with a bullying, violent, homophobic coach even after a gay student had (rather publicly) committed suicide after being bullied.
Schools need to address this shit. If they won&#039;t do it on their own, then they need a little firm guidance from the zero tolerance folks in the state legislature. /ffs
Yeah, maybe someone will someday be able to explain to me why a church that is wholly given over to obsessions about virgins and whores requires female students to dress up like a pedophile&#039;s wet dream.
Damn, they might as well be cheerleaders in a Baptist high school in Texas, almost.
266 consecutive popes?