New Law Would Require Texas Schools to Do More to Document and Prevent Bullying

UPDATE: For the record, I would be against any national regulations. This is a state level law. I would also be against any requirements to specifically target people who are bullied based on their sexual preference. I believe bullying is bullying and it should not be tolerated no matter what the reason for the bullying. Special treatment of gay bullying (which is only a percentage of all bullying) would open the door to promoting a homosexual agenda. Bullying should be dealt with and not just one type of bullying. There should also be special provisions to allow people to genuinely speak their beliefs against homosexuality. No homosexual deserves to get beat up, but there students should also be able to believe and civilly express their beliefs against that chosen lifestyle. Michigan passed an anti-bullying law recently with a great provision that protects religious beliefs. That section of the Michigan Law reads: (8) This section does not abridge the rights under the First Amendment of the constitution of the United States or under article I of the state constitution of 1963 of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil's parent or guardian. This section does not prohibit a statement of a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction of a school employee, school volunteer, pupil, or a pupil's parent or guardian.

The Texas Senate passed a bill that will require School Boards to develop specific methods for reporting and investigating bullying, including allowing school boards to transfer bullies to another classroom or campus.[1]

This is REAL reform.

No longer will a teacher at Seagoville High School in Dallas, TX be able to watch a kid get beat up by a bully and not even report the bully.[2]

No longer will a Principal at Lumberton ISD be able to tell a concerned parent that there is no bullying in his school and that it is “kids having fun.”[3]

With this new law, these schools will have to document and investigate every potential instance of bullying. Now parents will be informed about what is going on at school. Now schools can transfer bullies away from the kids they are bullying.

No more excuses, no more ineffective and politically correct policies that do nothing to prevent bullying. Now schools will actually have to start DOING something about bullying. A Lumberton High School Principal Mr. Bilberry (the same one who said bullying was “kids having fun”) did a play last year that was completely inappropriate.[4] It contained many vulgarities and sexually explicit jokes that had nothing to do with bullying. Even the principal in the play used vulgar language, as if that has to do with bullying. Mr. Bilberry defended the play because it had an “anti-bullying” theme. First of all, the anti-bullying theme was buried in the vulgar language and talking about putting an online ad up to get laid. Second of all, the play does not do anything to actually investigate, report and prevent bullying. Schools don’t need an inappropriate play to do something about bullying, especially since the play was completely ineffective. Schools need real policy to stop bullying. Not even a couple of days after the play a kid got beat up at the school and, over the last few month, students say bullying in Lumberton ISD has not gone down at all.

This law will force all Texas schools to start doing something real to PREVENT and INVESTIGATE bullying. No more talking the talk. It is time to walk the walk.


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[1] http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Texas-lawmakers-approve-anti-bullying-legislation-1392136.php

[2] http://texasgopvote.com/restore-families/security/shock-video-dallas-teacher-watches-and-does-nothing-bully-attacks-student-002846

[3] http://hardincountyconservatives.blogspot.com/2011/03/sexually-obscene-play-shown-lumberton.html

[4] http://hardincountyconservatives.blogspot.com/2011/03/lumberton-isd-lies-about-obscene-play.html

Second Video Emerges of Teacher Watching Seagoville School Fight – Also Lumberton School Fight Goes Unnoticed

Just yesterday I posted this article[1] about a Seagoville High School teacher watching a kid get beat up right in front of him and not even calling for help. I also pointed out problems with school policy that allows for kids to get beat up without being able to defend themselves.

It gets much worse!

A SECOND video has just surfaced which shows a different fight a couple of weeks ago and the same teacher just stands there and watched the fight and does not even say anything!

Thank you Teacher’s Union for wanting to keep this teacher in Texas Schools so he can allow kids to get beat up and fight each other.

This teacher finally got suspended while the school is reviewing these videos. The problem is that if these videos did not get posted online, and if there was not a public uproar about these videos, then I have a bad feeling that the administration would have never done anything about this teacher.

Lumberton Middle School Fight Last Week. Teachers Do Nothing and Parents have to Call Front Office to Tell School About Fight.

After posting this fight video yesterday, I got a call from a concerned parent right here in my hometown of Lumberton, TX. This parent said that, while she was waiting in line to pick up her child at Lumberton Middle School, she witnessed a huge fist fight break out with several students involved. She said she was waiting for a teacher to come break it up but that never happened. The parent said there were teachers out there and they had to have heard the fight because all the kids were yelling and chanting fight and the fight was enormous and involved several students. After it was clear that no teachers were stepping in, this parent called the front office of Lumberton Middle School and told them about the fight and asked them to break up the fight.

First, I am not accusing any Lumberton Teacher of standing and watching this fight like the teacher at Seagoville High School. I would hope they just were not out there to see it.

BUT…  even if they school did not break up the fight because they did not see it, we now have the issue of WHY DID NO ONE SEE IT. Why were there no teachers supervising the students outside getting picked up after school? How does that make you feel knowing the level of supervision your children are getting when a huge fight like this can go unnoticed until a parent calls the fight in to the front office.

We need to get back to the basics of protecting the children in school and we also need to focus on good teachers. We need to stop all this political correctness of punishing a victim if that victim fights back after getting attacked and we need to stop the unions from making it hard to fire bad teachers like at Seagoville High School in Dallas, Texas.

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[1] http://www.texasgopvote.com/restore-families/security/shock-video-dallas-teacher-watches-and-does-nothing-bully-attacks-student-002846

(Shock Video) Dallas Teacher Watches and does NOTHING as Bully Attacks Student. Texas School Policy Enables Violence and Bullying

               

Fights happen at schools, right? Well this fight is different than your normal school fight story. A Seagoville High School Student (Dallas, TX) gets attacked at school and the teacher just stands there and watches the whole thing. The teacher did nothing! Even if you buy the argument that the teacher did not want to get hurt, the teacher still did not even yell stop or call for help. This teacher even seems to enjoy the attack and just stands there watching until the boy who was attacked walks out of the room. This teacher is a disgrace. Even the granny in this video[1] has the guts to step in to try to break up an assault at McDonalds. It is interesting to note that the guy flipping burgers at this McDonalds was fired for watching and enjoying the fight instead of, I don’t know, calling the police! It is good to know we have a much lower standard of school employees trying to keep students safe in Texas Schools (sarcasm). The guy flipping burgers gets fired but the teacher gets a pat on the back.

Teacher Unions Enable Bullying…. And they even Support Cop Killers

The teacher’s union backs this teacher 100% because, well, that is what unions do. Most of a union sales pitch is centered on the idea that the union will represent you and protect you from the big bad supervisors who want to punish you when you do something wrong. This California teacher’s union is even supporting convicted cop killers for crying out loud![2] And I will be coming out with a story soon about a killer here in Texas who wants to be a police officer and, you guessed it, the union is backing this killer to get a badge.

Texas School Policy Enables Bullying and Assaults at Schools

A big problem in most Texas Schools is that school policy enables bullying, fights and violence. Yep, you heard me right. So how do they enable bullying? It is simple. Many Texas Schools have a policy that automatically and evenly disciplines both students involved in any fight (or assault). This enables bullying and victimizes the victim because the victims of assaults are not allowed to fight back, and if they do try to defend themselves they get the same punishment as the bully who attacked them. This allows for bullies to roam schools and attack students with little or no resistance because the good students do not want to fight back for fear of getting disciplined. But wait, you might say they don’t have to fight back because the teachers are there to protect them from fighting and discipline the student who attacks other students. WRONG! Apparently in Dallas the unions are telling the teachers to just stand by watching and do not even bother calling someone to come stop the fight or discipline the bad guy. The Dallas school system says they are “investigating” but I don’t know what there is to investigate because you have the darn video.

Lumberton ISD Principal Mr. Lynn Bilberry is Prime Example of Schools Enabling Bullying

 I am not just making this stuff up about schools in Texas enabling bullying. I write this based on personal knowledge of kids in my own hometown of Lumberton, TX who got assaulted at school and the principal tried to give the person who was attacked a suspension for trying to defend himself in the attack. And don’t bother reporting bullying to the High School Principal here at Lumberton ISD, Mr. Lynn Bilberry, because this principal told me once, when I reported bullying of a student, that there is no bullying at his school and when kids harass and make fun of other kids it is not bullying and instead it is just “kids having fun”. Principal Bilberry even tried to get a student arrested for attempting to record the verbal assaults of the other students so that there was proof of the bullying to show the principal who does not believe there is bullying at his school.

We need to do a better job of protecting children in schools from bullying. It starts with hiring decent teachers and goes all the way up to changing school policy.

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[1] http://newsone.com/nation/newsonestaff2/mcdonalds-girl-beat-up-seizure/

[2] http://www.theblaze.com/stories/calif-teachers-union-endorses-convicted-cop-killer/