The "Imbalance of Power": Dallas ISD Trustees Will Finally Vote Tonight on New Bullying Policy

• I guess our child was "spackled" in DISD, accused (along with 4 or 5 others) of bullying bc they were told to stay away from 2 girls with a history of problems, including tattling and attention-seeking behavior(like writing all over your child with a Sharpie marker). The girls accused our child of bullying by "not being friendly." A social-justice-activist teacher got involved and announced that it didn't matter what had actually happened. She literally said, "If the girls feel bullied, they have been bullied." Only when a school counselor stepped in and explained to the principal how the girls gamed the system frequently did the threat go away. The next week, however, the same teacher accused the same kids of different infractions, including racism unrelated to the bullied girls. She was upset, I guess, that they had "beaten" the bully rap. Look, I hate bullies. It is unacceptable. The problem with DISD, though, is that the system is so gigantic that once the ball gets rolling, your child is convicted and accused and permanently smeared before you can do a thing about it. We're now in private school. If problems arise, there aren't layers of ineffective bureaucrats too worried about their jobs to sort things out. DISD gets carried away and gives too much power to incompetent people. There is an outright bias against white and affluent kids in the district. I'm all for bullying policies, as long as there is a serious consequence for false accusations.

• LaceyB, Defining bullying is a good place to start. The policy puts everyone on notice that certain actions are just not acceptable. Will the policy eliminate bullying? Of course not. Will it provide some aid and comfort to victims? Yes, indeed. Will a few of the more absolutist teachers perhaps carry it too far from time to time? Yes, that's a possibility. But that risk comes with any policy on anything. Enforcement of laws -- and a policy is a kind of law -- is always difficult, always requires wisdom. But that's not a reason to not have laws.

• Couldn't Carraway's "Quit Smoking Dallas" be called bullying, since it fits under "unwanted purposeful gesture perceived as being motivated...because of one's association with a particular person/persons (smokers)"?

• I'd love to see them try and enforce these rules with students, much less, amongst themselves. I'd be willing to bet this "bullying" goes on at any given time, in any given office, on any day. It doesn't have to result in a bruise. But electronic bullying or whatnot--please. They are taking the pain and growth out of being a teenager. None of this will ever stop with some dopey meeting, much less, with people who can't do much more than define bullying.

• @stopDISDorg-- Too right! On observing the DISD and trustees and how they treat tax payers and parents....

• The only way to stop this outright spackling, the formal term for bullying others by accusing them of bullying, is to launch a district-wide Anti-Spackling Campaign at once, preferably one modeled on the popular Hugo's Challenge everyone is familiar with. If the district doesn't pick up the Anti-Spackling Campaign immediately itself, hopefully one of our local broadcast outlets in need of a civic theme might do so to goad them into it.

• DISD is the biggest bully in the school! DISD is bullying the residents of Jubilee Park forcing them out of their neighborhood for Parking lots/playgrounds! Learn more about how DISD is wasting tax dollars, not listening to the taxpayers and how Board Member Bruce Parrott was madder than an old wet hen! at http://www.stopdisd.org/ Click on the link below to view Satire video on DISD's twisted plans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ms3yWn-BkI

• Wow. It appears that they have opened the door for any student or faculty member to have an opportunity to accuse any other student of bullying. It's not always best to have the "most extensive" of anything. I think Miriam-Webster says all that needs to be said: "Definition of BULLY 1: to treat abusively 2: to affect by means of force or coercion (abstracts Lacksbut)

TotalComments: 8