Ship of Fools: A Case of Bullying

Thread: A Case of Bullying Board: Hell / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=005723

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

A young boy named Keaton Jones has been the victim of vicious bullying at school. As a result of a Facebook post by his mother describing the bullying, Keaton has garnered worldwide attention. (There are dozens of sites I could have linked to; I chose the one that seems to have the fewest annoying popups.)

The attention and support Keaton has received are all well and good. But there are several questions that spring to my mind:

(1) The bullying allegedly took place in the school cafeteria. Back when I was a schoolteacher, faculty were assigned "cafeteria duty" to keep tabs on the darlings during lunch. Were there no faculty present to witness this bullying? If so, why did they apparently do nothing to stop it?

(2) Allegedly this is just one of several bullying episodes that regularly take place at this school. Why is nothing done to stop it?

(3) Keaton's mother has apparently not tried to contact the school about this problem. In fact, she has said (as reported on this morning's TV news; I can't find a link where her quote is given -- it may be on her Facebook page, and I don't use Facebook) that she doesn't even know who the school principal is. Why not? I can't imagine a parent who wouldn't be all over the school every waking hour if their child were the victim of lesser problems than this, let alone such a blatant case of bullying.

In short, what is wrong with (a) the school to allow this to go on; (2) the parent who doesn't even know who the school principal is?

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

Apparently (according to the internet - you can google that yourself), Keaton's mom is an avowed white supremacist who has only just remembered to lock her racist Instagram and Facebook posts, but has left the gofundme page open for 'donations'.

I don't advocate bullying in any way shape or form. And I especially don't advocate calling your classmates the N-word.

There's more to this than poor kid gets bullied, school does nothing.

[edited to add - the gofundme page is of uncertain provenance.]

[ 11. December 2017, 19:52: Message edited by: Doc Tor ]

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

Ah, I see. Should make for some interesting developments.

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

Right now, All I can find is TMZ with a possible screen-shot of his mother saying some directly racist things, a probable screen-shot of her saying some insensitive, secondarily racist things and him holding a confederate flag and reports of him saying nigger.
Even if all this is true, it does not justify bullying.

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

What is the connection between being bullied and seeking money? I know go fund me and the like are used by people needing to pay medical costs etc but I don't get the connection here. Is the money meant to pay for him to go places or have special treats or go to another school or something?

Or is Go Fund Me used in other ways?

Huia

Posted by Helen-Eva (# 15025) on :

That story troubled me because the frequent response of a victim of bullying is to beg their parents not to say anything, rather even than go to the school, never mind make a public video. Back when I were a kid (several millennia ago) a video of oneself sobbing over bullying would have been a dead cert to give the bullies much much more material to bully with. So I was really surprised that the mother did that, even if it was what the boy wanted, which surprised me.

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

That blazing beacon of truthfulness, Fox News, now reports that the mother has taken down her confederate flag photos "for a reason" and that she denies that she is only out to get people to give her money.

In an amazing display of how well she uses language, she has also posted:

quote:
I'm guessing y'all didn't because y'all wanna steady Judge me and say I'm using him for money that's false.

I'm tempted to ask her which of the money is false.

[ 12. December 2017, 10:50: Message edited by: Amanda B. Reckondwythe ]

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

One day this boy will be Donald J Trump. Same cloth, same cut.

Posted by sabine (# 3861) on :

The mother is highly suspect in my mind, and I believe she used the situation to her advantage, making her bullied son a dupe in a money making scheme. Not a motherly thing to do.

However, I'm withholding any denigration of the boy until more facts emerge. It's possible the bullying did occur, and if that's true and folks extend their anger at his mother to him, it would be like adding salt to a wound. Not something a victim of bullying should have to endure.

So I'm going to wait to see what happens.

sabine

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

I really do feel sorry for the boy as he is caught in the middle of all of this. But I still ask: what is the school doing about it?

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

What do you think a school should do about a student who subjects his classmates to racist abuse? And is that a separate problem to a group of students who confront a classmate about his racist abuse in an attempt to get him to knock it off?

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:
What do you think a school should do about a student who subjects his classmates to racist abuse?

Expel him.

quote:
And is that a separate problem to a group of students who confront a classmate about his racist abuse in an attempt to get him to knock it off?

There is a difference between "confront[ing] a classmate about his racist abuse" and physically and verbally abusing him.

Since when do two wrongs make a right?

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:
What do you think a school should do about a student who subjects his classmates to racist abuse?

If he did, the school needs to address it.

quote:

And is that a separate problem to a group of students who confront a classmate about his racist abuse in an attempt to get him to knock it off?

Confronting is not wrong. Putting food down his clothes or any other bullying is. There are times I would like special licence to punch racists, but it is not right to do it.

Other than the confederate flags,* no other thing is verified. Not the the child saying nigger, not the mother asking white folks to stick together.

*Confederate flags are racist no matter the intent, but this does not mean everyone who holds one is intentionally racist.

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

Yeah. Of course everything that's been reported has happened.

I've no dog in this fight. But you don't expel a Y6 kid for racism. Neither do you expel kids fighting against racism in (a Tennessee) school.

Posted by Anselmina (# 3032) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:
Yeah. Of course everything that's been reported has happened.

I've no dog in this fight. But you don't expel a Y6 kid for racism. Neither do you expel kids fighting against racism in (a Tennessee) school.

I've no dog here either. But are you saying that the boy wasn't bullied? Just confronted by his schoolmates in some kind of negotiating process?

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

I don't think we can say at this point whether he was the bully, the bullied, or some of both.

I mean, I've just discovered that Master Tor had been hauled in front of his Year Head for objecting in a robust manner to anti-semitic comments. I said two things to him: you should have told me and, well done. We have Left It At That.

Posted by Tubbs (# 440) on :

I can't imagine any scenario where, if the Tubblet was being bullied, we wouldn't be at the school in a heartbeat demanding that Something Must Be Done. (Or, in the reverse, if the Tubblet was bullying someone, we wouldn't be doing some of that something). It does seem odd that she'd never spoken to the school.

I only saw a snippet of the video on FB and the mother's reaction was that although it was great people were so supportive, attention wasn't the same as acceptance. Which, whatever else is going on, struck me as quite sensible.

I'm suspending my judgement. (Damn it! I have an inner Daily Mail reader who demands air every so often)

Tubbs

Posted by Erroneous Monk (# 10858) on :

I imagine there are occasions when it can be difficult at first to tell whether a scenario is bullying or whether there is aggro on both sides, and, if so, whether one side's aggro is more justified than the other. On the other hand, in practice I've seen good teachers getting the facts and making appropriate judgments, so I think it can be done.

I've had one occasion when The Boy - now 11 - confessed to having got physical with another boy the same age (and with whom he actually gets on reasonably well) at camp, because other boy was making fun of a younger child. I told The Boy I'd rather he didn't resort to violence, but his response was "He was making fun of a littl'un and upsetting him and I asked him a few times to stop and he wouldn't. So..."

The Boy has admitted to feeling a bit frustrated in his first term at secondary school that there are some boys who are Trouble, and who spend all their time trying to wind others up, but when one of those others finally cracks and retaliates, they (the retaliator) get sanctioned. I don't know what else to tell him other than that from those who have been given much, much is expected.

Growing up is hard. So is parenting.

Returning to the story from the OP, I do find myself wondering what the right course of action is now for those celebrities who have got involved in good faith.

Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on :

Seems to me that the kid has been following his mother's lead and saying racist shit at school, then when he got the reprisals that he justly deserved he and his mom started crying about being bullied.

Just one more person to add to the growing list of "you're discriminating against me by not letting me discriminate against others" fuckwits.

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
Seems to me that the kid has been following his mother's lead and saying racist shit at school, then when he got the reprisals that he justly deserved he and his mom started crying about being bullied.

Just one more person to add to the growing list of "you're discriminating against me by not letting me discriminate against others" fuckwits.

Bollocks.

The initial video has him complaining about "having milk poured on him, having people make fun of his nose, people putting ham down his clothes and throwing bread at him."

None of that is remonstrating with a classmate for being racist.

Perhaps the kid is racist, and has been going around at school saying racist things. And if he has, then he absolutely needs correction and censure.

But "reprisals" do not form any part of justice. The appropriate response to a classmate calling someone "nigger" is not to stuff his clothing with ham, even if you are a middle school boy and therefore have all the social skills of a brick.

Posted by Doc Tor (# 9748) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
The initial video has him complaining about "having milk poured on him, having people make fun of his nose, people putting ham down his clothes and throwing bread at him."

Yes, yes it does.

And such claims ought to be looked into, especially as I understand the lunch hall is monitored by adults, as much as the claims that the boy concerned used racist language to classmates.

Really, we don't know anything, except the kid's mother decided to go to the internet rather than the school principal, whose name she doesn't apparently know.

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

Poor Keaton seems to have drawn the short straw when it comes to parents. His mother is so disengaged from his education that she doesn't know the name of his school principal. His father is a white supremacist who is currently in jail.

Some of the first responses to the video came from black athletes offering to meet him and give him tickets to games. I think something good could come out of this for young Keaton; he will meet some black sporting heroes and have positive experiences which his parents' lifestyle could not offer him.

Posted by Dark Knight (# 9415) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:

quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
The initial video has him complaining about "having milk poured on him, having people make fun of his nose, people putting ham down his clothes and throwing bread at him."
Yes, yes it does.

And such claims ought to be looked into, especially as I understand the lunch hall is monitored by adults, as much as the claims that the boy concerned used racist language to classmates.

Really, we don't know anything, except the kid's mother decided to go to the internet rather than the school principal, whose name she doesn't apparently know.

Yep.

The questions posed in the OP are framed as if this video was a properly investigated news story. When did we all become so credulous?

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Dark Knight:

quote:
Originally posted by Doc Tor:

quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
The initial video has him complaining about "having milk poured on him, having people make fun of his nose, people putting ham down his clothes and throwing bread at him."
Yes, yes it does.

And such claims ought to be looked into, especially as I understand the lunch hall is monitored by adults, as much as the claims that the boy concerned used racist language to classmates.

Really, we don't know anything, except the kid's mother decided to go to the internet rather than the school principal, whose name she doesn't apparently know.
Yep.

The questions posed in the OP are framed as if this video was a properly investigated news story. When did we all become so credulous?

When the slebs got involved. That was the mother's intention.

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

In any case, the story has disappeared from the TV news broadcasts. I haven't checked the Web lately.

Posted by Tubbs (# 440) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
In any case, the story has disappeared from the TV news broadcasts. I haven't checked the Web lately.

Last time I looked, the stories were focused on the utterly delightful sounding parents. The one I clicked on wondered whether all those celebs who'd offered to help were so keen now.

Thing is ... He may be being bullied. It may have nothing to do with the parents at all. It's possible. And I'm not entirely good with the idea that you only give help to people who deserve it. On that basis, we're pretty much all screwed.

Posted by simontoad (# 18096) on :

Amen to that last sentiment...

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0