Longfellow Bullying, etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very curious among those who had bullying issues at Longfellow. Is your kid male or female and is the bully male or female. Had heard at another middle school they are super tuned into mean girl stuff, but oblivious to boys bullying other boys.

In middle school, boys bullying boys tends to be one-on-one, while groups of girls often bully another girl. That was our experience at Kilmer MS, in any event.

Groups of boys bully in MS as well. Also boys do use relational aggression too, just not as often.

[Anonymous]

Longfellow is a fantastic school. The academics are great, lots of clubs, and the principal is very engaged and has won the state “principal of the year” award.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/cooper-longfellow-middle-schools-earn-2017-governors-award-educational-excellence-fcps-honored

[Anonymous]

http://m.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2014/sep/18/longfellow-principal-wins-state-award/?templates=mobile

[Anonymous]

Can't you just send an older kid to beat up the bully? I did that when I was in HS (in another country though). 7th grade. It was fun. I never got bullied again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Longfellow is a fantastic school. The academics are great, lots of clubs, and the principal is very engaged and has won the state “principal of the year” award.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/cooper-longfellow-middle-schools-earn-2017-governors-award-educational-excellence-fcps-honored

Yes, I've also heard reputation is everything there and they try to sweep issues under the rug.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Longfellow is a fantastic school. The academics are great, lots of clubs, and the principal is very engaged and has won the state “principal of the year” award.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/cooper-longfellow-middle-schools-earn-2017-governors-award-educational-excellence-fcps-honored

Yes, I've also heard reputation is everything there and they try to sweep issues under the rug.

That was our experience.

[Anonymous]

Not ours at all, and we'd lived in a community that actually was more concerned with image. People in other parts of the county would be lucky to have a school with a principal as dedicated as Carole Kihm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS was bullied at Longfellow. To fix the problem, the administration made him attend 'group meetings' for all the victims weekly. So the victims missed class time and the bullies got off scott free. So they punished the victims.

The school is a pressure cooker and obsessed with GPAs, lots of mean girls and boys that likely have bullies for parents.

We've seen this in Vienna too. The victim is the problem, not the bully. I actually like the idea of teaching more self advocacy. But what about the classes for the bullies to teach more empathy?

+1
It's always turned around on the victim. "What did you do to provoke this treatment? Did you tell the bully to stop? Have you "self-advocated"?" Such bullshit. Admin is too scared to simply take on the bully, bring in the parents, and suspend the kid. Or expel, depending on the severity of bullying. It's insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Longfellow is a fantastic school. The academics are great, lots of clubs, and the principal is very engaged and has won the state “principal of the year” award.

https://www.fcps.edu/news/cooper-longfellow-middle-schools-earn-2017-governors-award-educational-excellence-fcps-honored

We're not talking about any of the above. We're talking about the bullying there.

[Anonymous]

I can't understand what type of dad would let his son or daughter get bullied. If my son came home saying "Timmy punched me at lunch and shoves me in the hall" I'd be at Timmy's house that night, with my son, and make it 100% crystal clear that I will harm Timmy and his dad if I ever hear a whisper of bullying again. I don't give a fuck if the cops get called. I'll make as big a scene as needed. I'll embarrass the shit out of him in front of his neighbors.

And I would follow up with smacking the shit out of Timmy if he does it again. And when I get arrested I'll sue the school for letting it get to where it got.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't understand what type of dad would let his son or daughter get bullied. If my son came home saying "Timmy punched me at lunch and shoves me in the hall" I'd be at Timmy's house that night, with my son, and make it 100% crystal clear that I will harm Timmy and his dad if I ever hear a whisper of bullying again. I don't give a fuck if the cops get called. I'll make as big a scene as needed. I'll embarrass the shit out of him in front of his neighbors.

And I would follow up with smacking the shit out of Timmy if he does it again. And when I get arrested I'll sue the school for letting it get to where it got.

If you assault a minor or his parent based on your belief that your child has been bullied, you will be arrested and convicted, and your unsuccessful civil lawsuit against the school system will not expunge your criminal record.

I was physically bullied some in middle school and 9th grade. In retrospect, I can appreciate that the bullies were seeking attention and quite possibly in bad home situations where they were physically abused themselves. I think the approach the schools now follow is better than one in which a bullying middle school student is immediately suspended or expelled with no effort made to figure out why he or she is behaving that way. We are generally talking about 12-14 year old kids here.

[Anonymous]

This gets at a post I started in the general school section and people disagreed. Bullying is a RED FLAG IMO for emotional disturbance and the kid needs to be identified and sent for help. It could be the child is a victim too. It could be the child has poor sense of empathy or even is showing signs of a personality disorder. The victim may be the identified patient, but the truly disturbed person is the bully. It is not a sign of being strong, it is a sign of emotional disorder. It is beyond comprehension that you take victims out of class for a group. Maybe support the victims in a lunch group, but miss class? Meanwhile get on the case of the families of bullies until they get help and take it seriously. Society is changing and your little bully may no longer have the potential to be a CEO. Now he may end up like a shunned loser like all the people getting taken down recently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: This gets at a post I started in the general school section and people disagreed. Bullying is a RED FLAG IMO for emotional disturbance and the kid needs to be identified and sent for help. It could be the child is a victim too. It could be the child has poor sense of empathy or even is showing signs of a personality disorder. The victim may be the identified patient, but the truly disturbed person is the bully. It is not a sign of being strong, it is a sign of emotional disorder. It is beyond comprehension that you take victims out of class for a group. Maybe support the victims in a lunch group, but miss class? Meanwhile get on the case of the families of bullies until they get help and take it seriously. Society is changing and your little bully may no longer have the potential to be a CEO. Now he may end up like a shunned loser like all the people getting taken down recently.

Or.... he might just be a garden variety asshole. Plenty of those in the world. I have zero compassion for bullies. If you can't learn by 15 that it's not OK to touch other people then you deserve to get your ass beaten.

[Anonymous]

And one more thing that's always perplexed me.

Why do liberals wan't to 'help' the bully and understand his past trauma that 'forced' him to act out inappropriately, but when we're talking about a rapist they go for the throat? Where are the calls for compassion when it comes to a man touching a woman against her will? Aren't rapists just victims too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And one more thing that's always perplexed me.

Why do liberals wan't to 'help' the bully and understand his past trauma that 'forced' him to act out inappropriately, but when we're talking about a rapist they go for the throat? Where are the calls for compassion when it comes to a man touching a woman against her will? Aren't rapists just victims too?

You’re making quite a leap from middle school bullying to adult rapists, but in neither case would counseling accept the premise that the perpetrator was “forced” to be an aggressor.