this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
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I wrote about my brother. School ( and my parents ) failed him and over the decades I've had a lot of time to read up on schools and to think.
Schools aren't a democracy and they shouldn't be run like one. They are a place where the powerful, adult teachers and staff, look after the weak. Schools have a duty to protect the weak from the predations of those who are more powerful or stronger.
Schools have the power to act to protect the weak but the schools are too cowardly, letting themselves be intimidated by enablers and perpetrators of abuse.
Schools should not administer justice, if a crime happens they should call the police. Parents should call the police too. Too often schools don't want to involve the law but this only plays into the hands of perpetrators.
The DoE knows all this and has guidelines and rules but cowardly school admin don't follow laws and regs. School admin and teachers prefer that kids suffer, that perps get away with it than deal with hassles ie doing what has to be done to protect kids.
It's not just indifference, schools often create conditions that encourage bullying and perpetrate it themselves. Ranging from little things like letting kids pick teams and groups, to big things like dress up days - which I'm sure are great fun for kids who have creative parents that make them fabulous costumes to show off, but for the kids who don't have any support and are left trying to cobble together something on their own with no resources those sorts of things are a nightmare. It would be so simple to improve these things with a bit of thought. Change the way teams are selected. Don't allow any assignments or activities that rely on parental involvement or having any particular type of family. If schools want to do dress up days they can do it as a group activity, costumes can be a shared resource not platform for kids to see who has the best parents.
Free dress day was so embarrassing, I ended up just going in the uniform anyway (and was still bullied, wtf!)
This reminds me of a conversation with a colleague who was a seasoned ex teacher. They said that their options to address anti social behaviours in the classroom had been declining and as a result the behaviours increased, with some kids seeing the opportunity to dish out disruption and abuse with no consequences. Parents would always defend the kids. Parents of the victims forced to change schools rather than the bullying being addressed. Anyway they quit teaching. I imagine the stress for teachers is fuelling some of the teacher shortage. The bad behaviour affects them too.