Local: Did Manual High ingore bullies’ sex abuse of girl?
I’m reading Phil Luciano’s article about the girl who stabbed a classmate in the leg at Manual High School. Luciano talked to family and friends of the girl and came away with a sympathetic article about her. It seems she’s a decent kid who was being systematically bullied under the not-so-watchful eyes of teachers and administrators. I’m not going to dispute any of it.
At one point, a teacher was told that this boy and others were touching girls in the classroom. The teacher moved the boys to another side of the room. I can only hope that the girls’ complaints weren’t clear about what kind of “touching” was going on. State law requires teachers to report sexual abuse of children. The would include a gang of boys getting grabby with ANY part of a girl’s ananomy. It’s a form of sexual abuse.
And what kind of classroom is this in which a teacher doesn’t see this going on?
And the fact that the boys kept doing this meant they weren’t very worried about getting caught, let alone punished. Any why should they? When a complaint was made all that happened was that they were moved to another side of the room.
I suspect that there’s something in the culture at Manual High School that needs to be addressed.
And if this girl was in fact being systematically bullied, then her using a knife to defend herself seems perfectly justified, in my opinion. It’s easy to pontificate after the fact about how it’s a poor solution to the problem. Well, it beats the “no solution” being offered by a school district that does not or will not see what’s going on.
October 28th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Unfortunately this kind of behavior is NOTHING new. Happened in the small-town high school in rural MN where I grew up in the ’80’s. Happens now in schools all over.
October 28th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Uh… call the cops?
Bill and Phil in favor of vigilantism. Noted.
October 28th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
No not vigilantism, self defense. Big difference.
October 28th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Diane, there are some people who think if you shoot the guy who broke into your home, YOU are the criminal.
October 28th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
You are a criminal if you take a knife to school, lose your temper, and stab someone for calling you a bitch. That’s why she’s being charged criminally and the boys are not.
She lost her temper and stabbed someone. That makes her a criminal — probably a good kid and a criminal. Heck, she took a knife to school, that alone makes her a criminal. I got nothing against the kid. She just committed a couple of crimes is all.
Again, call the cops. What’s the problem with that?
October 28th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
As I made clear in my post, calling the cops was the legal responsibility of the teacher to whom the grabbing was reported.
Taking a knife to school may be a crime. But it should NEVER be illegal to defend yourself from an attacker.
As I said, some people refuse to grasp the concept that the Nanny State isn’t always there to defend itself. And sometimes, Nanny is standing there, but is pretending that it cannot see what is going on.
October 28th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
So without comment from the classroom teacher, the boys, or anyone at Manual, you’re willing to believe her, eh? That’s not good journalism Bill. I know you’ve covered more “My perfect angel would never do that” stories than I have.
I also like your endorsement of escalating violence and your assumption that what someone who was on the scene might consider harassment must be called abuse. As a teacher, I’m well aware of my reporting requirements, and boys getting pushy isn’t one of them. I would handle that by, hmm, separating the parties involved.
Am I minimizing the boys’ conduct as much as you are maximizing it? Yes, but neither of us was there. Authorities that investigated decided that she should be criminally charged and the boys should not. If that’s a cultural problem, it isn’t one that is of Manual’s making.
October 29th, 2008 at 9:38 am
I don’t believe the question in this case is whether it was legal for her to have a knife/stab someone in the leg. That’s for the courts to decide. What we ought to be asking ourselves is whether the girl’s actions were justified.
Based on the available evidence, I think they were.