Bullying Must Become Illegal.

[Adon]

http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/22/lady-gaga-bullying-must-become-illegal/
This would be awesome if this comes through. All of those trashy trolls (that bully) could be punished for it!
Why didn't anyone think of this before?
I sure hope this does come through.
DISCUSS

[Strak]

Trolling will never stop, let's face it, but something should be done about this. This is unacceptable. And you may say "They could just ignore the bullies, and stand up for themselves," but anyone who has ever said that has never been in the situation that boy has been in. It's pretty damn hard to stand up to a brick wall of oppression. I think a law against bullying is too difficult to enforce, since bullying is so widespread and has many different forms, but SOMETHING should be done. I don't know what should be done, but it's not my job to think up things to do. Maybe you can think of something.

[Irock]

That would unconstitutionally abridge freedom of speech and punish non-violent citizens over something they said. Under no circumstances should the government be able to decide what you're not allowed to say. That's just frightening.

There's a very small minority of people who actually are scarred from bullying, and then there's an even smaller minority of people who actually kill themselves over it. Most people just move on or deal with it by either standing up for themselves or finding self-confidence from within. This is coming from someone who was really bullied in middle school.

The government isn't the solution to our problems. Just look at prohibition or the war on drugs.

[Adon]

A person who uses strength or power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker
That is bullying. I think it has to be more than once. And deliberate.
Or wait
repeated attacks on a person (verbal, physical, social or psychological) which cause distress at the time and also cause distress because of the possibility of future attacks.
Yeah.

And true, there is a small amount who do. I was just filled with false hope for that moment. Though many many many are bullied, but it can be easily solved. Yes, War and Drugs are far more damaging than simple child problems as bullying. This topic was created on false hope.

WAIT:
Cyberbullying is a criminal offense in my state.

[Strak]

I still think something should be done, but you're absolutely right. The government has enough power as it is. Limiting what we can say is... terrifying.

[Acolyte]

The government isn't the solution to our problems.

Agreed.
I think school systems need to step in more. I've seen a lot of teachers turn a blind eye to bullying out of favoritism for athletes and the like. It doesn't help that half the teachers at my school were coaches. :|

[Dwarra?]

If anyone got in my way of POUNDIN NERDS I would be so

[strike]

teachers need to actually do something about it instead of being cunts who say "we have a strict no bullying policy" and then turn the other way when they see it happening.

[tSwitch]

I hope you're all not clamoring for them to start handing out suspensions for calling some kid names.  That's a gross misuse of authority and resources.

Should physical bullying be punished?  Yes.  That's assault.
Should making fun of some kid be discouraged?  Yes.  It's stupid.

Will it stop? No.  Kids are brutal, it's not going to change.

And you may say "They could just ignore the bullies, and stand up for themselves," but anyone who has ever said that has never been in the situation that boy has been in. It's pretty damn hard to stand up to a brick wall of oppression.

I was bullied and mocked in highschool. 
I got suspended for punching one of them out.
Three day vacation, and they backed off.

So yeah, "man the fuck up and punch them in the teeth" is what I'd tell my kids if I had any.

[Acolyte]

I hope you're all not clamoring for them to start handing out suspensions for calling some kid names.  That's a gross misuse of authority and resources.

People have killed themselves over constant verbal harassment. I think giving a couple of asshole kids detentions for harassing others is a perfectly reasonable use of authority, especially compared with some of the retarded rules that *are* a waste of authority.

[Dwarra?]

Verbal harassment isn't the only reason. The media likes to make it seem that way, but there are a lot more factors.

[ForeverZero]

You could impose the death penalty on children for bullying, and it would not stop it. It would probably not even slow it down. Kids will be kids. Its as simple as that. The bullies in this situation are not responsible for this boys death as the media is portraying, either. The only one responsible is the boy who killed himself. Don't get me wrong, his death grieves me, and I sincerely feel for him, but lets not make him a martyr and crucify any one who ever called another name. You need to remember that these bullies are children themselves.

I am not condoning bullying by any means. My viewpoint is one close to NAMKOR's. While physical abuse should not be tolerated at all, you can't come down with the full force of the law on a child who is name calling. That is absurdity of the highest kind, and I bothers me that people even take such notions as anything more than the joke that they are.

The only thing one can hope for is that parents instill enough values in their child that they refrain from this behavior.  This is not saying that the parents are responsible, or that the government needs to step in and tell parents how to raise their child, but it is the logical best that can be hoped for.

[Holkeye]

Bullying is a term created by adults, whereas actual bullies most likely don't see what they're doing as bullying. I made fun of people when I was younger, but it doesn't mean I was hateful or anything.

[Zylos]

Why is it that almost every time there's an even remote connection to the government in a thread, Irock supports the government fully and takes almost the exact opposite stance of what sounds like the right thing to do? Mind you, banning bullying on a legal level won't really do any good in this situation, there would be too many instances of "debating" whether someone really was bullying someone or not and would STILL have all the same problems that most current school policies have (in that they really don't stop any bullying that's not seen or reported). Still, saying that the government shouldn't do anything and that people who get bullied should man up and whatnot isn't right at all. Cases of bullying have gone up in recent years, as have the number of suicides because of it, and teachers can only do so much when there are over 500 students in their schools.

The government doesn't have to "limit what we can say", but they can help. They can enforce schools to crack down on cases of bullying by looking into funding for better school counseling and better security. In my old schools, if there was ever anyone who got jumped, the students were smart enough to do so in hallways that had no security cameras, and our counselors were pretty unfeeling toward you unless you were black. When you think about it, many schools across the country didn't even have what my schools did; their security is a single security officer if that, and they might have one counselor who would remember your name if you got in trouble often enough for it.

[strike]

If even a FEW of the bullies I knew back in the day had been even SLIGHTLY reprimanded, the meeker kids would have felt infinitely better. the thing is these kids get bullied all the fucking time and the teachers don't do shit. it's not a matter of "they should punish all bullies all the time" it just needs to be enough to send a signal to those being abused that "hey that shit isn't right and these douchebags deserve to be reprimanded so don't feel so bad about them being assholes"

as it is most of these little shits don't see so much as a lunch detention for verbally assaulting and threatening harm to others.

sure kids will be kids, but when the kids getting picked on never see the assholes get even the slightest slap on the wrist it wears on them.

yes, you should stand up to bullies as a kid, I know I did, but some kids can't do it alone. i'll be fucked if i was going to let them bully the wussy kids without consequence in my grade back then and i'll be damned if i think any differently now.

[Holkeye]

Bullying and jumping someone are two different things.

[ForeverZero]

Rarely does a child verbally assault another in front of an authority figure. So how do you punish a child for it. If a child is told on? What that is going to lead to is a he-said, she-said situation that doesn't get anywhere. You can't be throwing out detentions to children every time a one kid says he was called a name. Obviously, in some situations where multiple "witnesses" were present, etc. teachers could enforce a little more on it, but short of that, there is nothing that can be done.

I think nearly everyone has been picked on at one point or another through out their lives, and 99.99999% (0.005% degree of error) have not committed suicide. You can't base government policy off of these few isolated incidents. The media loves to go up in arms every time one happens, which makes it seem like a more prevalent problem than it really is. I understand that even one suicide of a child is horrible thing, but lets not try to play mind-control on the other millions of children because of it.  Nothing is going to change anything.

[strike]

no shit they already avoid teachers when bullying. but 9 times out of 10 even if they get caught, fuckall happens to them. i could give you examples but i'm sure every single one of us has seen it first fucking hand.

[Acolyte]

Verbal harassment isn't the only reason. The media likes to make it seem that way, but there are a lot more factors.

It's a major factor though, in female cases at least. And it can be the one thing that pushes a person over the edge. I don't know how it is with guys, but girls like to ostracize others just because they can. It makes you feel freaking terrible.  You're suddenly labeled an undesirable. Worthless. Hopeless. Ugly. Pathetic. Like you don't belong and you might as well do the world a favor and off yourself now.

That's the kind of shit that needs to be stopped.

[Mushu]

   You can say bullying parallels happiness in some respects. It's different to certain people, and that's why the American constitution says "life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness." It's like one of my teachers said, "If I give one kid ice cream, he can be three scores of happy. If I give another kid ice cream, he still might want more." Like already stated, it's fairly ambiguous. Someone could break down into tears just because they take a funny look as bullying and then possibly lie to teachers about it to make it seem like more then it really was. Another problem is, the victim could hide what they feel about the bullying and the person causing it can't see how much it's damaging them. The same bully that finds it harmless and would easily back off if they knew it was bad would be put to the same punishment as one that would relentlessly persist. You rarely know how far you can push someone before they can snap.

[Acolyte]

I think nearly everyone has been picked on at one point or another through out their lives, and 99.99999% (0.005% degree of error) have not committed suicide.

Last I checked, suicide was the 3rd leading cause of death for teenagers. It's a lot more than .0005%.

[ForeverZero]

Don't be absurd by implying that we are in the midst of some epidemic of teenage suicides. Obviously the figures are made up, but they are fairly accurate. Less than 1% of people are killing themselves (teenagers are part of "everybody"), so I fail to see how your post is anything more than absolutely nothing. Please clarify if I am wrong, or if you are actually saying that more than 1% of all teenagers are dying of suicides.

EDIT:
BTW, nice of you to add another 0 to the decimal value from my post to make it even smaller.

[Mushu]

  Well, now abusing pills has taken a higher rank in deaths then car accidents, both of which are probably higher on the list then suicide for teens , unless they can't drive yet. I've had two kids at my high school commit suicide but one was because this guy got rejected, the other was because this kid got forced by his friends to go with them to smash someone's window. He killed himself because he was going to go to jail and because of life issues. Bullying is bad but there's a lot worse things they could all the same enforce more.

[Acolyte]

Don't be absurd by implying that we are in the midst of some epidemic of teenage suicides. Obviously the figures are made up, but they are fairly accurate. Less than 1% of people are killing themselves (teenagers are part of "everybody"), so I fail to see how your post is anything more than absolutely nothing. Please clarify if I am wrong, or if you are actually saying that more than 1% of all teenagers are dying of suicides.

EDIT:
BTW, nice of you to add another 0 to the decimal value from my post to make it even smaller.

Stop being an asshat. Less than 1% of kids die with cancer. Does that mean that juvenile cancer isn't a problem? Should we just ignore it?
Just because it hasn't affected you doesn't mean it hasn't affected other people, or that it isn't a problem. Even if a kid doesn't kill themselves, they can still develop severe depression or other psychological problems.

[Zylos]

@ForeverZero - I don't have the figures in front of me or anything, but from a single school alone I have heard of 6 suicides due to bullying over the course of one year alone. Now, I don't know about you, but even if there was a school that had no suicides at all, I would want to do anything I can to crack down on bullying. Maybe it won't change very much, but if we do nothing, then it's guaranteed that nothing will change.