Poll: Should Bullys be Prosecuted? (Poll)

[Zack Alklazaris]

(Suicide is the leading cause of death in children 14 and 8% of all teens bullied try to commit Suicide)

With bullying/suicide ratio rising more and more in recent years I wonder how many of us think there should be more done to prevent it. As in make it illegal (and prosecutable) to bully someone. With so many other laws protecting people from harassment, bullying seems to be a natural next step. While many schools are doing their best to combat this threat it seems that when it comes to day to day life nothing is done.

I am no stranger to bullying, 10 years ago I remember coming home almost daily and crying in my bed. I would go to my parents and beg them to transfer me to a different school. But that was it. We had to dial in to the internet and it took 30 minutes to download one MP3. There was no facebook, hell there wasn't even myspace. Whatever crap I dealt with in school was over at the end of the day. Now days kids can't get away from bullying even after school unless they choose to live the secluded life of being internetless. Why should they make a choice like that.

It seems like when people get online they detach themselves and no longer see other people as living beings. There was one 15 year old girl who was bullied on facebook to the point where even after she killed herself people were posting horrible messages on her memorial page.

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2010/01/phoebe_prince_15_commits_suici.php

Just seems like this shouldn't happen. Something that is caused by an outside source, not by the victims choice, shouldn't be allowed to continue so leisurely. The question for my fellow Escapists are what are your thoughts? Do you have any ideas on how to curve this? Should bullies be prosecuted? Have you had a similar experience? If so I would love to hear your thoughts.

EDIT: A few people may think I am talking about simple bullying. I am not talking your momma jokes or four eyes comments. I'm talking hardcore hatred. Your a fag, your a whore, kill yourself no one cares, etc. Getting beaten up after school for your beliefs.

Maybe kids do need to get a thicker skin, but when you deal with the same insults day after day wouldn't it cut deep after a while?

 

[Tazzy da Devil]

By prosecuted, what do you mean here? A fine, juvy time? Also, you make the point that a bullied child/teen wouldn't be able to escape bullying unless they didn't have internet. Couldn't they just block anyone they didn't like? Or even better, not accept them as a friend in the first place? It's not compulsory to accept every friend request you get.

 

[Sis]

Bullying someone in to suicide is a form of murder, and those bullies should be punished. Emotionally traumatizing someone for LIFE is a crime, and should be punished. But, it all needs to be put in perspective. If the kid is fine in the end, and grows up to be a fine, young adult, then the punishment should be a fine or something.

 

[Strazdas]

Depends on bullying. If its a random "hey jerk go jump off a bridge" bullying then that guy really just needs to grow thicker skin. if its a constant buggering physical or psichological with intention of causing suicide then yes.

 

[manic_depressive13]

No, that's absurd. It sucks that some people are assholes but you can't make being a douchebag against the law. It's just not feasible.

 

[Strazdas]

No, that's absurd. It sucks that some people are assholes but you can't make being a douchebag against the law. It's just not feasible.

why not, imagine Bush bin in jail instead of white house? wouldn't that serve to better humanity?

 

[krazykidd]

Nope , i have no sympathy for anyone that doesn't seek help under any circumstance . I don't mean to sound like a jerk but, if someone won't help thenselves then i don't care what happens to them it's their own fault. People talk about bullies like they are some unstoppable force or something . There are many options you have when deig with bullies , ranging from talking to an adult to defending yourself .

Now about suicide in general , now one can make you commit suicide , if they could it wouldn't be called suicide. I truly believe that no matter the circumstance, once you willfully for any reason you harm youself causing death , it is no longer murder.

Now because i know the escapists hate to hae people that don't agree with their opinion i will get quoted , i'm telling you guys right now , i will not respond to quotes.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

By prosecuted, what do you mean here? A fine, juvy time? Also, you make the point that a bullied child/teen wouldn't be able to escape bullying unless they didn't have internet. Couldn't they just block anyone they didn't like? Or even better, not accept them as a friend in the first place? It's not compulsory to accept every friend request you get.

Juvy time and fined would be prosecution to me.

Also you can't prevent people from posting on other peoples pages about you and spreading rumors like wild fire.

 

[Sporadic]

PLEASE! Everyone in this post go and watch the Cine Noveau movie, Carnage. It'll hit home and render this whole discussion moot.

 

[Jamash]

A lot of the methods used in bullying are already against the law (e.g. assault, harassment, slander, hate speech, inciting hatred) so I don't see why bullies can't be prosecuted under existing laws.

What does your concept of "prosecuting bullies" entail that isn't already covered by existing, long established laws?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Yes...though, as mentioned, in most places the sort of stuff you are talking about should be covered already in existing laws.

In that case, it's merely a matter of getting existing stuff to stick. Unfortunately, this is often seen as being massively unfair by people who aren't in the group the laws are failing to properly protect, and they'll fight tooth and nail to stop any progress in this area.

 

[Fappy]

This wouldn't fly I don't imagine. How about give public schools the funding they need in the areas that need it so they have the funds to help their students? Most schools don't really have much of a functioning councilor... at least ones that students are made aware of.

 

[Qitz]

Nope , i have no sympathy for anyone that doesn't seek help under any circumstance . I don't mean to sound like a jerk but, if someone won't help thenselves then i don't care what happens to them it's their own fault. People talk about bullies like they are some unstoppable force or something . There are many options you have when deig with bullies , ranging from talking to an adult to defending yourself .

Now about suicide in general , now one can make you commit suicide , if they could it wouldn't be called suicide. I truly believe that no matter the circumstance, once you willfully for any reason you harm youself causing death , it is no longer murder.

Now because i know the escapists hate to hae people that don't agree with their opinion i will get quoted , i'm telling you guys right now , i will not respond to quotes.

I have to agree with this. People sending you messages isn't an excuse to go and off yourself, especially when you can just ignore, delete and move on.

If someones getting physical with another person there's already a word for that, and it's assault. You can defend yourself right away or prosecute them.

A vast majority of people who get made fun of don't go on to kill themselves,

I don't see why special protection should be offered to those who do. Yeah, it's the whole "Imbalanced hormones of a teenager" thing but that's still not an excuse.

Besides that, you'll have to define what you consider to be bullying, which could take any shape or form to the point where saying you don't like a band someone else does could be considered insulting and bullying.

Personally, I'd rather people are given the tools to deal with someone, like laughing in someones face if they call you a no-life having virgin nerd.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

hmm....

First off, I don't think the situation should be allowed to get to the point where a kid feels they need to kill themselves to escape. Before it gets that bad, the administration needs to come down HARD on the bullies (talking about hardcore hatred "Go kill yourself you !@#$in fagballs, you're worthless, etc" kind of bullying that keeps going on and on and on all year). Teasing, and light mocking is...as much as I hate to say it, unavoidable. I'm not sure that can or should be punished. But constant demeaning and hateful put downs...yeah, that's not cool.

Oh, and if a bully or gang of them beats up another student, ties them up, or makes them fear for their safety, again you gotta come down hard on their asses. That's not accepted in adult society, so why should we let kids get away with it?

If that kind of reform actually happened, then I get the feeling there would be less suicides by bullied kids.

As to the prosecuting bullies that led to the victim killing themselves...I dunno. If they can PROVE that it was these bullies that were the primary and biggest cause for the person to off themselves, then yeah, they need to face some kind of legal penalty. I'm not sure what it should be, though. On one hand, it has to be serious enough for the kid to learn that this shit isn't acceptable in civilized society, but on the other hand you don't want to make it so that this bully can never turn his life around if he tries to change. It's a very tricky issue.

*was bullied a lot in high school. I STILL have mental issues stemming from a destroyed self-esteem 6 years later. Oh, sure, I have self esteem NOW, but I still have issues stemming from the time when it was destroyed*

BTW: I have no idea what to do about cyber bullying. I have never experienced it (thank God), so I don't know how bad it gets or how hard/easy it is to stop.

 

[FamoFunk]

Depends on the bullying. Physically attacking or beating the shit in to them should have more consequences than being suspended, like the bully gives a crap he's missing out on a week or two of school or being thrown out all together.

The same can be applied to emotional bullying, not just calling someone a dick and that's that, but really ruining someone's education and life over it.

 

[LilithSlave]

A lot of bullying is already illegal.

Unfortunately, bullying is also a loose term that includes a whole lot of behaviors we shouldn't worry ourselves over near as much.

We should do whatever we can to discourage bullying. If not illegal, bullying should at least have its own punishments. And grow more severe, the more severe the bullying.

Yeah, lets shelter kids even more.

Protecting kids from bullying is a good idea. Bullying is still a pervasive problem in most of the world. In the United States, in Canada, in Mexico, in the United Kingdom, in Germany, in Japan, in South Korea. Bullying is a HUGE problem. In fact bullying is one of the biggest problems in Japanese culture you often hear foreigners complaining about. There's no reason to suddenly "lighten up" about a problem that is still super huge.

There's sheltering children, but sheltering children is things like Conservative Christian parents trying to avoid their children seeing or hearing about anything sexual in nature, because that would "violate and harm them and steal their innocence", avoidance of them hearing about other religions, especially in a neutral, non-negative light. Avoidance of exposure to "politically inappropriate" subjects. Exposure to mature subjects and eventualities such as death. Exposure to politically or in any way controversial materials related to morals.

Being tough on bullying is nothing like those things, and NOT bullying. In fact, many people are both sheltered AND heavily bullied.

 

[Kair]

There are no clear distinction between those who harm others by conventional crime or by social alienation and harassment.