Does Phoebe Prince school bullying case in Massachusetts reflect political climate?

[BirminghamExaminer]

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-1172-Progressive-Politics-Examiner~y2010m3d30-Does-Phoebe-Prince-school-bullying-case-in-Massachusetts-reflect-political-climate#">Excerpt, read full article here.

When our elected leaders do nothing to condemn or prevent threats of violence and hate speech, in effect, they implicitly condone the behavior. The hate speech revved up very soon after the election of America's first black president and it hasn't slowed. The lack of respect, the hate speech, and the vitriol is the equivalent of adult bullying.

15 year old Phoebe Prince was tormented for months by 9 other students at her high school in Massachusetts. The victim's mother repeatedly asked school officials to intervene but the school failed to protect the girl. She was harassed verbally and through social networking site, Facebook, and sent hate text messages.

The culture of bullying isn't limited to school children, it has become a national pastime. During the 2008 Presidential campaign, crowds attending Sarah Palin rallies shouted, "Kill him" over and over again referring to President Obama. Neither Palin or any other GOP leaders condemned the vile shouts of their followers.

Tea party activists carry signs depicting the American president as the devil, the anti-Christ, Hitler and worse. They carry guns to rallies and their paranoiac fear of the government has turned into hate and aggression.

The hate speech and vitriol isn't limited to the Tea Party sect. Texas congressman Randy Neugebauer shouted "baby killer" at anti-abortionist, Bart Stupak because he signed the health care reform bill after being assured that no federal funds would be used to pay for abortion.

Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann (MN), along with other GOP colleagues egged on Tea-party protestors outside the White House as they shouted racial slurs and other hate speech at Democratic colleagues entering the White House to vote on health care reform.

At town hall meetings around the country set up to discuss health care reform, anecdotes had a common theme. A majority of the audience would be bused in from out of state to "gin up" (to borrow a favorite Sarah Palin phrase) the GOP's relentless determination to obstruct not just health care reform but any and everything the Democrats in office proposed. The few local people attending town hall meetings were often represented by chronically and seriously sick individuals along with health care professionals. In town after town, the large crowd of bused in supporters shouted at people toting oxygen tanks with tales of losing jobs and health insurance to "sit down and shut up."

This adult bullying by tea party sects, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann and other GOP officials, is protected by the First Amendment. The First Amendment gives every American the right to use hate speech. But if leaders of the GOP who have seemingly aligned themselves with the Tea party and whose own elected colleagues have participated in the violent rhetoric and oral bullying continue to ignore such antics, by their silence, they condone the behavior of people who attend their rallies as well as the colleagues who urge them on.

Is it any real surprise then, that children are emulating the current culture of bullying without recourse? Nine students bullied Massachusetts student Phoebe Prince, aged 15, for months through verbal insults, text messages and on the internet. Sound familiar? It should. The nine girls who relentlessly bullied Phoebe may simply be emulating the current political culture of hate and bullying. School officials were aware of the bullying and didn't intervene even though the girl's mother repeatedly asked school officials for help for her tormented daughter.

[xultar]

1. Way to myopic...it reflects America as a whole. We have become mean assholes.

[Warpy]

2. It certainly what happens to women who voice opinions online

DU is unusual in that it quickly deletes the sort of sexual slurs obviously female posters have to endure on most other sites, especially the social sites.

You're just fine if you're young and decorative and don't ever voice an opinion, although you'll get some offers you don't want.

Is it part of the climate of general political hate and bullying? Yeah, probably, in that bullying has somehow been accepted as part of the Republican party platform.

[Ian David]

3. I blame Elvis and his gyrating hips. n/t

[rox63]

4. There have been bullies since there have been people

The change is that now, because of technology, the bullying can follow you everywhere. There is no escape with cell phones, internet, video, etc. I was severely bullied as a kid, to the point where I actually considered taking my own life. I eventually got past it and was able to move on. But who knows what might have happened if today's technology had existed then, and had allowed for no escape from the tormenters.

[BirminghamExaminer]

6. My son was bullied while teachers stood by gossiping

When my son was in middle school, there was a mentally disturbed child who had been "mainstreamed" and who was twice the size of my son. Every afternoon while waiting in the line for the bus to pick them up from school, the big kid would take my son's clarinet and hit him on the head with it, etc. So I decided I would pick him up from school but the trouble was that he still had to wait with the same bully kid. As I drove up to pick him up, I could clearly see what was going on. The crowd of students was about 30 and there were two teachers who were standing there talking to each other and not paying any attention whatsoever to what was going on right next to them. This happened twice before I went to talk to school administrators. I was furious. The principal could see that and she was very apologetic. Her solution was to let me pick my son up from a different location at the school. While I was grateful my son didn't have to endure the bully any longer, I was still angry that teachers continued to look the other way while students are being bullied. This happened right around the time of the Columbine shootings and I pointed out to the principal that it was this sort of unchecked bullying that led those students in Colorado to do what they did.

When my son was in high school, another student was stabbed to death. The student who did the stabbing had been harrassed and bullied for years before he finally decided to do something about it.

I'm sorry to hear you were bullied in school. In my opinion, there is no excuse for it. The teachers and authorities at the school in Massachusetts should have taken a more active approach to the situation.

To dismiss bullying as kids being kids or having the attitude of 'that's just the way things are' is cavalier and ignorant in my opinion.

[JohnWxy]

5. I don't really think so. This incident of course causes revulsion in anyone who hears of it.

Frankly, it makes me wonder whether the perps should be dealt with in accordance with Solomonic traditions.

[Yehonala]

7. America as a moral voice? ................

Would someone please explain to me how America is supposed to be takne seriously as a voice for good and example of shining morality and virtue if we let stuff like this happen and go unpunished? If we ever debate Ireland over something, they will rightly stand up and then state that our own citizenry, teens no less, bullied one of their citizens to death and still let them roam the streets free as birds while Phoebe is dead and has no future.

[yurbud]

8. bullying in schools predates the Obama era, as does right wing political bullying

if anything, it reached a crescendo in the early Bush years after 9/11, when anyone who asked questions about the War on Terror was called a traitor and even Ted Kennedy was on the no-fly list.

Before that, Newt's reign in the House and the impeachment of Bill Clinton set the bar of civility so low, it would be tough to limbo below that--but Republicans consistently have.

[Tutonic]

9. Unfortunately, this case will eventually be dropped or reduced to

some sidebar misdemeanor. Its not a crime to bully a student--unless you place a gun in her school locker and suggest that she use it. Otherwise, half of New York City would be incarcerated. As saddened as I am by the behavior of the parents and educators to allow this type of bullying to take place, most students experience some form of bullying or harsh treatment. Perhaps the court would be better served by pulling the parents and educators in and focring them to rethink how they respond to bullying behavior and what they are doing to remove intolerance.

[Mopar151]

10. Some folks miss the point

That bullies are often the popular kids, the varsity jocks, the moneyed and well connected. They are trying to "put a person in their place", and enforce an existing social order. That is a lot of why, IMHO, that teachers "did'nt see anything" - because teachers and administrators are trying to join or maintain their position in the "popular crowd", too.
With our political right wing, you can see the same thing. Fools hate the President, because he does'nt need them to bolster his base. They have "lost their country" already - one where being a white, male, ass kisser to the rich meant something, dammit!
To draw a paralell to the infamous Columbine case, Eric Harris and accomplice Robyn Anderson played the role of today's "teabaggers" in politics - used because of their dissafection with society - while Dylan Klebold filled the Blankenship/Beck role of manipulation of the dissafected, and psychopathic disregard of consequences. Much like the radical militias of today, Klebold and Harris had grandiose views of their own importance, and a pathological affection for violence and revenge.