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Writer's pictureJoanne Jacobs

To stop bullying, bring back consequences -- and to hell with 'root causes'

AI-powered “nudification” apps are letting teenage boys turn real photos of their clothed classmates into "deepfake" porn to be shared online and at school, reports the New York Times. It's "extreme bullying," said Beverly Hills Superintendent Michael Bregy, whose district expelled five middle-schoolers. “It’s something we will absolutely not tolerate here.”


Schools finally have found a behavior they're unwilling to tolerate or excuse, writes Fordham's Mike Petrilli in a Hill column. But why did the boys think they could get away it?


The "push against traditional school discipline" has created a permissive environment, he writes. Progressive educators "have argued for a focus on 'root causes' and 'restorative justice' instead of personal responsibility and clear penalties for classroom disruption. . . . school officials look the other way when students cuss out their teachers, vape marijuana in the bathrooms and brawl in the hallways."


Students don't expect to face consequences for misbehavior, Petrilli concludes.


At least in this case, "no one is forcing the victimized girls to sit in a 'restorative' circle with the perverts who stole their dignity," he writes. "Maybe outrage over these despicable actions will lead some equity advocates to rethink things and return to zero tolerance for other forms of serious misbehavior."


A video posted online shows a girl with a spinal disease being attacked in a middle-school restroom.

A 12-year-old girl was pulled from her wheelchair and attacked in a restroom at her Orlando, Florida middle school, a video posted to Instagram shows. A second video shows her slapped several times in a school elevator.


School officials said it was "play fighting," reports Jessica Botelho for NBC News. The sheriff's office said "no one reported being a victim of any crime," and no charges were pending.

As one student appears to beat the girl, another records the incident while laughing. One student looks as if she tries to slam the girl's head into the floor and pulls her by the arms around the bathroom. In the elevator, the girl is repeatedly punched before stumbling back to her wheelchair.

The girl has a spinal condition that makes it hard for her to stand, said her mother, Myisha Hall, who told the Daily Mail her daughter had been bullied for weeks. She is small and frail.


Finally, she persuaded the principal and the sheriff's department that her disabled daughter was a victim of persistent bullying. In dozens of voice messages, one of the attackers told the disabled girl she was stupid, dumb and annoying and should die. "I'm gonna beat the brakes off this girl, I'm not playing," the attacker, also 12 years old, said in one message. In another, she said: "I hope you roll down the hill and die."


The principal said the primary attacker will be disciplined for bullying and harassment, but Hall fears she will be allowed to remain in school. Her daughter will not return unless her tormentor is expelled, and perhaps not then, the mother said. She will push the sheriff's department to file charges.

8 Comments


bkwormtoo
May 04

Bullying is an assertion of power. The first step toward learning for a bully is meaningful consequences (a greater, legitimate, power). In parallel, schools need to STOP punishing students who defend themselves, a tradition that goes back to the early 70s in my personal experience.

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Bill Parker
Bill Parker
May 01

How we used to handle this in my day is to give the bully a blanket party and beat the living crap out of them...a 10 minute beating usually prevented them from doing this again, and minor vs minor back then the police didn't care about...

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superdestroyer
May 02
Replying to

But in the 21st century, the victim of the blanket party shows up to school with a gun to settle the issue permanently.

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m_t_anderson
May 01

The principal said the primary attacker will be disciplined for bullying and harassment


If "disciplined" meant getting a solid ass-kicking, expulsion, and criminal charges of assault, that would be great. Otherwise, it's just the Old Wimp-Out.

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Richard Rider
Richard Rider
May 01

I know we all tire of hearing me say this, but let me point out that such blatant, hateful and/or violent bullying is seldom tolerated in a private school. Certainly nothing approaching this level. For those of us on social media, we see this violence repeated over and over in PUBLIC schools. The MSM seldom reports these RECORDED incidents.

Bring school choice into the mix. That improvement "changes the paradigm," as my Leftie friends like to say.

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rdiethrich
May 03
Replying to

Also at private schools the kids whose parents pay the full fee, have a much different discipline standard than the scholarship kids.

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