wanting to create bill making bullying illegal

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It's a great idea, but of course it is kind of an ambiguous one. You have the issues of defining and proving bullying, and as someone said many, but certainly not all, places have laws covering most of these things. When I was a freshman in college, though, I testified in Maryland for a law to prohibit bullying in schools based on certain classes of people, and while I don't remember the specifics of the law an how it worked, I do remember that giving my three minute testimony was one of the most powerful and wonderful things I have ever done in my life.

I was bullied as a kid, it may have sucked then but nowadays I think it's made me a stronger person. And kids these days are complete wussies/idiots.

I know it's square to say "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" but if you just ignore the bullies they'll get bored and you REALLY shouldn't be hurt by words, they're JUST words, from people you don't give a damn about.

If your "friends" are picking on you, either you need new friends or you are doing something stupid/in a stupid way and thats thier way of letting you know.

I completely agree with the thought that bullying is a terrible thing, and that it should not happen. But with that said, I also know that it's not possible to legislate human nature. Making a law will do nothing but to create a new tool to sue schools and teachers, and many unscrupulous lawyers will cash in. It will not do anything to stop bullying. There are already all kinds of laws in place to prevent bullying, and it's not working.

The only way to stop a bully is to make him/her fail to get the pleasure out of it. That can be done by ignoring in SOME cases, and making them get bored of it and try somewhere else, or in other cases by planting their face into the cement with little bit of force; just once. I don't advocate violence at all, but humans are after all a form of animal life, and that's nature. Some of us are civilized, and some are not. Those who are not, may only understand the old-fashioned way of getting a point across, which I hate to think is the case with many bullies.

Fact: Bullying was not tolerated at my elementary school, but despite the rule, I was bullied all the way through, and I never tried to stop it by physical means.

Fact: My wife at age 12 or so, and at 4 feet-some tall and about 75 lbs, was bullied a few times by a boy twice her size. She gave him a black eye after it got to be a little too much, and she was never bullied again by boy nor girl, all the way through school.

Charles

Why do so many people exaggerate their alleged pain and suffering to get attention? What about people who have to deal with the results of someone else's manipulations and their inability to tell the difference between "a little fun" and "ruining someone else's life". That happens too, you know.

Really, is that why they persisted even when I did ignore them?......maybe not everyone is bothered by stuff like that, but when people make it obvious they don't like you because you're different and continuosly put you down it can do a lot of damage. Especially if you don't have a nice stable supportive family to fall back on.

I don't see how it makes someone stupid or a wussie if they are hurt by bullying, its not a good thing to do to people...maybe it made you stronger but it contributed to my already existing problems so speak for yourself.

I don't know...because some people crave attention, I do not support manipulation in general so I certainly do not think it is good to over-exagerate things for attention. Of course that happens, but you can't justify bulling on account of some people exagerate about being bullied for attention........sorry people do that I guess, but there are people who really are hurt by that sort of behavior and constantly accusing them of exagerating does not usually help.

Because it's something that doesn't get discussed as much. Also, it gets old after a while listening to the same old story, and it can be hard to tell the difference between someone who is actually being bullied and someone who just wants attention. Sure, if a person is not suffering at all they won't act like that, but there is only so much attention to go around, and the attention seekers seem to outnumber the attention givers. This is the inevitable backlash that occurs when you try to legislate human behavior, and for some reason we haven't learned our lesson from the past attempts. When bullying gets over-analyzed, all it does it divert the focus from the people that need it (those who are being bullied) and direct energy to the action itself, something that can't be changed. Bullying is bullying, no matter how you mold it, and it's unfortunate, but it happens, and adults need to stay the hell out of it because it doesn't concern them.

Bullying should be stopped, but I believe that legislation is not the best way to do it.

Strange how one group of three brothers bullied all the younger kids in the neighborhood until someone burned down their father's garage with his favorite car inside ...

So its easier to assume they just want attention then to consider maybe they really are having an issue with bullying? I mean I get that some people exageratte for attention but immediatly assuming that is what is going on probably does not do much to solve such problems.......Also sometimes adults do not need to stay the hell out of it, maybe if someone had freaking helped me as a child I might have had a chance for healthy development, but no it was more likely the teachers were in on it than staying out of it or doing anything to help. I mean I ended up beliving it was my fault people treated me badly and was always trying to figure out why specifically I deserved it.......no one bothered to let me know its not ok for people to treat me that way, it was always just justified.

So though I don't agree with severe penalties as a solution to bullying.......to completely ignore the issue and let kids get tormented by jerks who don't know when someones had enough is probably not a very good solution either.

Teach the child what real bullying is, and don't let them cry "bully" whenever someone disagrees with them, refuses to share with them, or or simply ignores them in favor of their less sensitive friends.

Currently, "bullying" has such a broad definition that being happy when someone else is sad could be considered bullying, even when one person's happiness or sadness has no causal connection with the sadness or happiness of another.

Sometimes, people are accused of bullying for no other reason than their accuser is having a bad day when the alleged bully is not.

The spirit of youth
eagerly reach out to peers
wanting to belong
group/individual identity not yet reached
the spirit of old fart's and curmudgeon's
has learn that
the gold of in-group

is fools gold

learn quickly to not join in
young Luke
and save yourself
the pain of difference amongst sameness

For some people, that seems to be very much the case. Victims of violence tend to get a lot of attention - comfort, affirmation, and encouragement - at least at first. But when "bullying" is used as an excuse for just about everything (homework not done, rides to and from school, staying at home, skipping class, tardiness, et cetera), AND when no bullies are ever identified and no evidence of bullying can be found or witnessed, then a child's 'victimhood' may be fabricated and must be looked into - possibly by a mental-health professional.

Of course, if the bullying is real, then steps can be taken; some simple (talk with the school administrators and police) to the drastic (confront the bullies yourself and risk jail time). But I would not recommend anything illegal. Not only could such activities get a person arrested, but someone could get hurt ... or worse.

Ok well I thought this thread was about actual bullying not people making things up and overexageratting things for attention. That is a different issue, and can certainly be adressed as well but I guess I just don't see how it ties into this particular topic.

One of the problems is that bullying is actually difficult to prove.

In many cases all you're going to get are witness statements... nothing really substantial. If there was a way to accurately identify bullying then I think it could be okay. As it stands though it would be far too easy for people to abuse any law. It's not a good idea.