In a shocking, horrifying incident at Shawnee Mission East High School, a Black student was hospitalized after being attacked by a white male student. Despite being the victim, she faces suspension in a case highlighting systemic racism and administrative negligence.
Zero discretion policies come home to roost.
Neutrality is oppression when oppression is the norm.
Bullies rarely get in trouble. Because if they do, their bully parents show up at the school up bully the faculty and drive them crazy for daring to discipline their little shit stain. That’s why it’s always the victim who gets in trouble.
Also because schools like to claim that they are bully free. Actually addressing bullying problems is hard, but sweeping incidents under the rug is extremely easy.
When my oldest son was in the third grade, a kid jumped in front of him in line (ironically going to an anti-bullying assembly). My son put his hands up to his face since the kid was so close to him. The kid then kicked my son in the side so hard that he left a shoe print on my son’s side.
The next day I had a meeting with the teacher, assistant teacher, and the principal about the incident. First, they told me that nobody saw what happened. Then, they told me that my son started it by putting his hands up to protect his face. Finally, the principal told me that my son “isn’t the type of kid to be bullied.”
At that point, I knew I wouldn’t get anywhere with them. They were trying to sweep the whole thing under the rug so they wouldn’t need to deal with it. I left the meeting and my wife and I pulled our child from that school. We contacted the superintendent and raised a fuss until they agreed to put our son in another school. (He did a lot better there and now is thriving in college.)
My daughter was bullied so badly by so many kids in her middle school that she woke up one day, broke down and told us she just couldn’t face going there anymore. We took her out that day and put her in online school. This was after begging and pleading with the administration to do something about the bullying. The best they did was lecture both the worst bully and her to not fight. This was the day after this bully doxxed her- and therefore our family- and started prank calling her. We don’t even know how she got that information. The school didn’t care.
Online school is going to be hard. I had to quit my job to help her. But we would rather go down to a single income than have her deal with one more day of that.
I’m happy for your son, but the fact that these people who are supposed to look after children are so systematically cruel makes my blood boil. Not only for the lack of justice, but because most likely there are children who were in your son’s situation in that school who have been suffering much worse.
I’m having trouble because my kids are huge. Someone punches or shoves them, they don’t move. We’ve managed to stop the reaction, but when they push back the other kid goes flying. Almost all instances corroborated by staff. My kids get punished.
That or the bully isn’t impacted because they don’t give a shit about school to begin with. A suspension is just get out of school pass. Meanwhile the kid who cares about school is actually put behind on their schooling.
As a big kid the short bullies wanted to start a fight with, my trick was to go bigger, louder, and be aggressively non-violent to a point. Get the attention of everyone in the room and make it clear what is going down. Psycho analyze the little shit and be loudly empathetic to their shitty home life. Make it clear that I have no ill will towards said bully despite the bullying because I pity them. Make it clear that I have no shame to use against me. Do all of this as loudly as possible. Speak from the belly to project without screeching. I never got reprimanded for being loud and weird.
This worked for the type of bullies I got, results may vary. I watched a lot of MacGuyver, Dr. Who, Star Trek, and animal documentaries as a kids. The through line of all of those was finding less violent solutions to your problems, especially avoiding guns and weapons. If you watch animal documentaries, there are two basic types of violent encounters between animals: predator/prey and same species mating/territorial stand offs. The thing to realize is that the same species disputes rarely do much damage. They’re all about making a show. Bullies aren’t predators, they’re hormonal teenagers. Give them a confusing show and they’re more likely to loose interest. Again, situations vary and different tactics may be required, but the main thing is to be get creatively non-violent.
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Yep. Bully parents show up with their bully attorneys to bully the district in court. Zero Tolerance exists to protect the school, not the students. That way, in court their lawyers can point to it and say, “Our hands are clean! We have a Zero Tolerance policy! Per district policy, we cannot take sides!”
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Yea. I know that’s their language.
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damn i didnt even notice until it was pointed out. they really call it that??? why not just call it “zero empathy”? they could stretch that to mean the same thing
zero
toleranceintelligence policy
Zero tolerance is where the both sides argument originates.
My wife is half Jamaican and half Iranian, she went to a school in a very working class part of a very ethnically diverse city in the UK, with most of the school having a familial origin in the middle east or India.
She was routinely bullied for being black and called the N word on a daily basis. She was made to feel like a troublemaker for reporting it to teachers and eventually snapped, her kickboxing lessons helped her break a boy’s nose with a kick to the face after years of abuse, and she got suspended for it while nobody ever faced any consequences for their racism.
People don’t want to punish wrongdoing, they want to keep things “simple” and not have to deal with anything they feel awkward about, so they ignore the repeated “small” incidents and only acted to punish the retaliation because it’s deemed disproportionate. Years of racism to the point of having no friends because people were scared of being seen to sympathise apparently isn’t as damaging as an afternoon in A+E and some minor discomfort for a week or so. Fuck that school and fuck this mentality.
This story seems like a worse version and we’re 20 years on. I’m sure it happens way more than we see in stories like these, they’re just swept under the rug and hope nobody calls them on it. Fuck this backwards ass world.
This is a great observation that explains so many ills with our society when the victim is punished. People collectively don’t care about justice. They only care about minimizing discomfort. Retaliation is only viewed as the original “source” of trouble making more trouble. I saw this same story play out for a coworker who was bullied by her male coworkers. The “guys” didn’t appreciate her around and made her life miserable, so of course she acted out. Thier boss tried to sympathize with her but ultimately didn’t protect her because she was one and they were many. Their boss started to view her as a pain in the ass because she would constantly report small injustices that on their own wouldn’t be considered harassment.
Lots of people showing up real fast to make excuses for white supremacists doing white supremacism… now why does that sound so familiar?
Oh, right… I’m South African!
You ain’t wrong. Went through the comments here and goddamn some of y’all need Jesus.
Also, Sawubona! Unjani?
Same thing happens here in South Africa every time white supremacists are caught on camera doing their thing… white liberals will fall over themselves to make up justifications and excuses for their behavior. It’s about as predictable as clockwork.
Sorry, I never learned isiZulu - I know a bit of Sesotho, but it’s about as good as my German (ie, crap).
y’all ever notice how “zero tolerance” only kicks in once the black girl tries to defend herself? It wasn’t zero tolerance when they were shouting racial slurs at her. That was simply tolerated. It wasn’t zero tolerance when the white boy beat the shit out of her. When she refused to just quietly take the abuse, however, then “we have zero tolerance for hate or violence of any kind and therefore we have no choice but to suspend both students”.
Rights for whites, no slack for blacks.
Conservatives should not be permitted to hold jobs related to children.
Should be protest held outside that school and the homes of the administration until they resign our removed and the student should be unsupended.
This is Amerikkka.
United States of Fascism
I’m glad this story is going viral. I was appalled when I heard about it last night.
School logic.
Defense against bullies is actually terrorism I’ll have you know.
Not even surprised
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Why would the obvious outcome need to be in the title? The problem being highlighted is punishing the victim.
I completely agree, but I don’t think there are any more schools in the US that won’t suspend the target of the harassment as well. I talked about this in another recent thread, but a kid in my school was punched in the back of the head when he had no idea it was coming and got the same suspension length as the one who threw the punch
And then they fucking wonder why kids are driven to become school shooters.
Schools are pro bullying. Abolish school
Any more? I got suspended for being bullied a few times in the 90s. Sometimes the bully also got in trouble, seems to have a high correlation with if their sport was in season. I guess when the whole team sucks you need the mediocre players more.
Because it’s a misrepresentation of the situation, a better title would be: “School Hate Crime: Racist Kid Yells “N Word” While Attacking Black Girl, Breaks Her Nose And Hospitalizes Her, but both get suspended”
Is this normal in lemmy now? The guys has a good point, but got more downpoints.
Yeah the rosy days of Lemmy that invited discourse only lasted a few months.
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Yeah bro, that title and description are definitely not trying to race bait folks 👍
He should be expelled. Maybe one day he’ll get his punishment. But those parents of hers I bet are talking to a expensive lawyer,
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Yes I know. But it confuses me as to how these schools let kids get away with this stuff.
They forgot that in the title.
Doesn’t belong in the title. No victim blaming.
Also that dude fights like a bitch.
How does “a bitch” fight? Doesn’t seem like you have much respect for women either.
Including the bull’s suspension as well in the title wouldn’t be victim blaming, it’s not even like victim blaming adjacent.
“student punches another student and gets suspended”
I don’t see any victim blame whatsoever here… Why is your comment in the negative? There’s something unspoken behind conversations like this and I have absolutely no clue what exactly that is…
I understand the downvotes for comments along the lines of “there’s two sides to any argument”… I understand the victim blaming aspect of that, but “the bully got suspended”? I’m missing something…
Anyone?
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What you talking about?
I don’t miss KC at fucking all.
Having to lock this post because you guys just can’t keep it civil
Hey Paul Rudd… your old school sucks.
She is not suspended for being a victim. I watched a video and while the guy pushed her first, she was clearly trying to hit him into his face first. Even if on personal level I think the guy well deserved it, I do not think school can have policy “it is ok to hit other people into face when they deserve it”.
Nah he put his hands on her first. I think she is well within reason to throw a punch at him for that, especially given that he came at her aggressively, calling her racial slurs.
I watch a lot of soccer, and to me if kind of looked like a yellow card offense, followed by an escalated red card offense, followed by a other red card offense. White kid definitely deserves a much more severe punishment and longer investigation. But I’m kind of thinking it makes sense for the girl to get a shorter suspension as well based on the video clips. I’m kind of curious what evidence the admin has access to when making the punishment. Was this video shared with them?
Fascinatingly, this isn’t a soccer game and if it wre, under FIFA rules there’s an investigation and severe penalties, up to and including a ban from the sport plus fines/restitution for racism. But in 2023, a person yelling slurs and coming at you with animosity in a school is an immediate and potential life a threatening issue. It’s not a game.
The point is there’s a difference between a closed fist punch and open hand shove. I think she was justified and throwing the punch. I think the administration probably has to take disciplinary action for it though against her for that though. I just hope she gets a day or two and the other kid gets something way more severe.
If there are plenty of eyes on what’s happening and you have somewhat solid guarantees that the yellow card offense is going to result in a yellow card, you have no reason to escalate. However, every adult who has ever gone through school knows that bullying is systematically ignored by the teachers.
- Both students walk towards each other calling each other out.
- Boy throws racial slur and shoved girl in chest. Boy stands ground.
- Girl recovers from shove and retaliates with punch towards face.
- Boy returns punch towards girl.
- Fight ensues.
I think the girl was totally justified in throwing a punch from a moral POV. Boy is a piece of shit. But from a rules POV I think there is some ambiguity of 3 is defense or escalation. And from an admin POV you probably suspend both since you don’t want either in school the next day or two until there is more time to review the situation and deal out discipline. I’m guessing part of the delay is that this happened right before a holiday. Curious if there is any update on the school review and disciplinary action for both students.
I’ve been pushed aggressively before, and guess what, I didn’t punch anyone or start a fight. I walked away
Is this the first time you realize that your life and experiences are not a template for anyone else’s life and experiences?
Ever heard of proportional response?
Yes, I have.
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White boy assaulted black girl. Black girl gets suspended.
I don’t think schools should be teaching kids to “turn the other cheek” when getting pummeled by a bully.
Unfortunately if you “fight” you get suspended. Hard stop.
You say that like it’s a law of nature and not a choice made by school administrators.
I don’t think it’s a law of nature. But within a school it’s as close as it gets. The rule is literally called “zero tolerance”.
Yeah and it is crap. The rule needs fuckin banned from school administrators being allowed to use it, it only exists to protect the school from liability at the expense of the safety of children, it is beyond stupid.
Yeah, that’s what a dumb person says.
I’m not suggesting it’s my opinion, I’m explaining the standing rule.
Yeah, I know, but the people still using this rule are dumb.
Did you actually read what I wrote? And the boy is suspended too.
Black girl threw the first punch, she escalated right up to it.
They’re both idiots.
Never mind the black girl is harassing multiple people over “he said she said” bullshit with aggressive claims of racism to kick the whole thing off.
What is the reasonable reaction if someone is calling black people ‘slaves’, according to you?
What’s a reasonable reaction when you’re loudly (and wrongly) accused of making such statements while being recorded and stood over by a person twice your size?
What’s reasonable when someone does that to your friend and then uses fighting words as you’re walking away?
Go try that outside any pub anywhere in the world and get your teeth knocked out for your trouble.
So you aren’t even willing to recognize the possibility that the other kids were being genuinely racist, got it, no need to waste my time with you.
Oh they were accused so they’re definitely guilty!
Starting a fight in a hallway was obviously the best way to handle this. You are clearly the genius we need to solve racism in schools.
If anyone is accused of racism you get out your phones and then publicly lynch the person.
It was so simple all along!
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Glad we’re on the same page, she clearly used fighting words to escalate into violence which was her original intent, as proven by her friends filming.
She just got the wrong opponent from the other group. She was obviously intending to beat down the white girl that was half her size.
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Oh no!
Please don’t downvote me sir they won’t let me post in c/worldstar if my karma goes negative
That doesn’t make him not a racist.
