Comments on: Bullying Billy

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:43:56 +0000

1. Fighting The “Gang Mentality”
By Anonymous (Male)
I bet the bullies that actually fight with Billy are actually being manipulated by their friends. This is how it works: the ring leader decides to demonstrate his power by manipulating his or her minions to harass a seemingly vulnerable student. The ring leader says “so-and so is x, y and Z”. If you minions want to be in my click you must punish so an so. Off the minions go to execute their masters bidding. Of course, the master (alpha male or female) does not use such direct language - his or her instructions are subtle, but well understood. Often the ring leader avoids punishment because they are smart enough to avoid direct involvement. Instead they sit back and enjoy the show - manipulating their simple minded minions and indirectly bulling those that they cannot affectively control.
Please do not encourage the victim to fight. The result can easily be devastating. Encourage the victim to use the law. Fights can go bad wrong. Lost teeth, death fro traumatic head injury, choking deaths, eye damage. The victim may not be willing to lose they may choke stab shoot hit with object ect…. the aggressor may be really mean - and or stupid he could do any of the above. Often the aggressor is just some stupid person that the real bully is using as a proxy
My fights didn’t end to bad - A good undercut cracked my molar - and the magnetic CB antenna base plate I was holding severely injured and attacker - he came close to death. He was a good person manipulated by rotten idiots - what if I killed him?? I like my teeth and would have liked to skip the gold crown. My hands are still scared from the teeth and bone of the attackers I have been forced to fight. And yes, I have run from many fights also. I am proud to say I have never fought some who did not first attack me. I have learned through the years and I am now better able to stay away from dangerous people. Being out of school helps because it is hard to stay away from them when you are in the same school.
Martial arts are great, but you don’t have to study them long to figure out how to kill someone - man its strange but 8 out of 10 fights I have been in were with some dummy that didn’t even realize he was fighting for someone else. Do you really want to kill someone like this. I don’t want to spend 20 years in jail. You don’t want your son or daughter going to reform school - I hear the fighting there is worse. They will be taught how to smoke crack.
The school system needs to be trained to circumvent the sub grouping that is taking place at this undisciplined school. The school is obviously slandering the victim. Blame the victim - is the best tactic to use - its great when you can convince your parents and teachers that your violent behavior is ok. And guess what - allot of the uninvolved students concur that Billy is the problem. But, the truth is - they may actually be the behind the scene manipulator. Some of the students are saying “ I just avoid Bill”. That’s great so half the kids are physically and verbally torturing Billy and the other half are isolating him socially. May as well shot him in the head. Look Dummies be nice to Billy show him by example how to act. Help him make friends. Show some compassion.

There is this great saying in this old book I looked in once. Goes something like “ Treat others as you would like to be treated” – I find when I am able to do this I sleep better. I’m not real good at it, but I am going to try to do better.

By: Deirdre Mundy

Deirdre Mundy — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:48:07 +0000

There are a fair number of teachers who really believe in the “They bring it on themselves” and “kids have to learn to work it out” memes.

What they forget is that 1. the “punishment” is usually way out of proportion to the crime (physical assaults in response to quirkiness/ADD/poor social skills) and 2. Kids don’t have the necessary tools to work these things out by themselves. You have to teach them.

It’s like if I left my two year old alone with my crying infant and figured that they’d “work it out themselves.” I’d come home to a dead baby.

Bullying is why 6th grade was the worst year of my life. How did it end? I went to a magnet school for junior high–so nerdiness and poor social skills were no longer a punishable offense.

The worst thing is that these days, the kid being bullied is often worse off then the bully.

When I taught school, there was a seventh grader (sweet, smart, kid but had some problems at home) who was being bullied. He pretty much kept to himself though. Then one of the bullies’ enablers asked him who he wished was dead. He named the bullies. The bullies reported the conversation to the admin and got the poor kid kicked out as a potential school shooter!

Basically, bullies know how to work the system. That’s why they’re so successful. And at any school there are a certain number of teachers who were bullies in their youth and actually sympathize with the bullies rather than their victims.

Hopefully cases like the one in Arkansas will get more attention, so people start realizing that this is NOT ok, and that when “harmless” behaviors (name-calling, crank calls, pinching aand poking, etc.) go unpunished they quickly escalate into violence.

Maybe it’s time for teachers to realize that there’s not too much difference between a 12 year old and a two year old… especially when the 12 year old has been in daycare since he was two…..

By: Margo/Mom

Margo/Mom — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:26:10 +0000

Calling the cops is an attractive option. In my experience, however, police are either prohibited or reluctant to take any action on anything that they do not see happen. They would likely refer the complaining party to take civil action–which is what is currently happening. Reality is, the schools have some legal obligation to respond to harassment of students and to take action to prevent reoccurance–just as an employer would.

By: Walter E. Wallis

Walter E. Wallis — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:19:31 +0000

Chris is right. Call the cops and sue the school, just as if you were assulted on the job and management did nothing. Kids will be kids, rapists will be rapists and mass murdereers will be mass murderers.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:43:10 +0000

Unfortunately this is not uncommon. I am the mother of a 16 year old girl that has been bullied since about the 2nd Grade. She has been in 5 different schools and the same things happens at them all. It seems to me that other children don’t seem to like anyone that likes themselves. Not only has she been bullied by the students but we had to pull her from one school because the TEACHER was bullying her…can you imagine. And the schools never do anything. We homeschooled her for about a half a year because of all this. We have done everything imaginable and still no resolution. She was even attached by another girl and had scratches on her hand and I was NEVER notified by the school. Best of luck to all that are experiencing this problem.

By: billy wolfe fayetteville

billy wolfe fayetteville — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:58:48 +0000

[...] ran this 1100-word article, by Pulitzer Prize winner Dan Barry, about an Arkansaswww.abovethelaw.comBullying Billy Billy Wolfe, 16, has been the favorite punching bag for bullies in Fayetteville, Arkansas since he [...]

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:28:54 +0000

Simple. Call the police each time there is an assault. We pay taxed for the poice to protect us. This doesn’t mean that they only protect us after we finish high school. If you were an adult, and somebody “knocked you out”, wouldn’t you call the police? So, CALL THE POLICE EACH TIME… even if you have to put call them yourself. Get a CELL PHONE. Come on.

By: Athena

Athena — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:17:49 +0000

I support Billy because my brother was picked on in school and I couldn’t stand it so anyone who decided to try I would step in and they would walk away. I think that if he keeps his friends around him at all times that he will be ok. But like he said in the video those kids get around him when his friends aren’t around, and that was the case with my brother when I wasn’t around. So he’s not going to be protected all the time. Maybe if he fights back with these kids that are picking on him they’ll leave him alone. I still agree that the parents should sue the school because they’re treating it as some kind of joke and it’s not. It’s like their giving them a slap on the hand and saying it’s ok to go out there and do it again because we won’t punish you if you do. I can’t stand schools like that. I went to Richland High school and that’s basically what they did too they didn’t suspend the kids that was picking on my brother; even the teachers picked on him which really pissed me off. If the threats go on it could very well lead to that kind of harassment and he could be found beaten to death. Until the school does something about it after the lawsuit I would put him in home school though just to be safe. And to the parents who kids are picking on this boy I would consider putting them in a detention center maybe they have anger issues that you don’t know about and they think that since Billy is a “easy target” they’ll take their aggression out on him.

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:09:15 +0000

Wouldn’t it be a rotten shame for these BULLIES to be exposed as the story progresses!? Their families would be exposed as well. Just a little embarrassing being on the national news front for getting pleasure out of beating somebody for their own self gratification.

The guys doing it are probably just miserable kids with little or no future to begin with…certainly if future employers, college admissions offices and their own CHILDREN in the future see what they did because it is all over the internet. Just a little embarrassing????

Let’s have some of these guys names out there…..

Any thoughts>

By: billy wolfe

billy wolfe — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:10:54 +0000

[...] Wolfe and acts of bullying that he has endured in and out of school during the past …nwanews.comBullying Billy Billy Wolfe, 16, has been the favorite punching bag for bullies in Fayetteville, Arkansas since he [...]