Teen faces expulsion after brining stun-gun to school to fend off bullies

[Dags90]

He should still be in trouble for bringing a weapon to school seeing as how it violates the school rules.

Of course, but he should be in less trouble than would be the case if it weren't for rather justifiable self defense.

 

[TotalerKrieger]

It is hilarious how so many seem to think that the victim arming himself is a greater offense than the intimidation and threats of physical violence perpetrated by the bullies. I guess our society has been conditioned to recoil in horror at a weapon but think bullying is just "how things are" for some people.

Everything aside, if security at that school was so poor that the victim could be surrounded and potentially beat to a bloody pulp without anyone intervening, then IMO nobody can argue that he wasn't justified to some form of protection.

It's like some people would rather that a minority of the population have their rights and well being trampled upon if that means that their comfort zone of absolute saftey is challenged. Selfish.

To the people saying that the tazer was a bad idea as they could overwhelm and torture him with the it, I agree. He should have brought lethal protection, it is far less likely that the gang would try to overwhelm him if they knew one or two of them would not survive.

 

[Leadfinger]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say bringing a stun-gun to school was not the best way to handle the situation.

Of course not...

There are easier, much more effective ways of getting the Media's attention to deal with a homophobic school board.

I agree. The issue was the homophobic school board, but by bringing the stun-gun to school, the victim unfortunately made it a bringing a weapon to school issue.

If he had just balled up on the ground and was lucky enough to survive they could have totally blown that whole "homophobic school board" thing wide open!

Though if he woke up from the coma, or had use of his legs, or lived to actually crawl away from a 6 on 1 beating motivated by homophobia and hate then I'm sure it all could have been resolved peaceably.

That's sarcasm btw, everyone of those six kids should be punished in the harshest criminal manner.

So you think bringing an illegal weapon to school was the best solution?

A stun gun is about as non-lethal as you can get. All weapons are forbidden on this school ground and the administrators were just willing to let the beatings happen. He had no choice but to defend himself.

Allow me to rephrase-The only options you are able to perceive in this situation are to allow oneself to be beaten, or to brandish a forbidden weapon at school?

He was surrounded by six people about to beat the living shit out of him. If he hadn't of had that weapon with him. What would you have done? Ball up? These are motivated homophobes who are not being discouraged by the school at all. He would have died.

No, he took the weapon in to school before the incident occurred, so his solution to bullying that had occurred previously was to bring in a forbidden weapon. But it's a stupid solution in that he was expelled and may face criminal charges. Was there not a better solution available? One that did not involve a potentially lethal weapon?
captcha-fancy pants

 

[senordesol]

Change the kids school and don't let the kid tell everyone he is gay, if he wants to tell everyone ask him if he wants a repeat of last time, which he wont. So no one will make fun of him for being a homosexual problem solved.

No, problem NOT fucking solved. 'Run and hide?' that's your solution? Live in fear everyday that a slip of the tongue might condemn him to a beatdown and -what?- change schools again?

Please calm down and there is no need for expletives.
Yes I suppose you are right Gay people are pretty easy to spot. But if his situation has become bad enough he has to resort to a weapon, I think a change of schools is the right option just this once.
Maybe he could change schools to a liberal church school or something. My school is a church one we have a gay guy who moved to avoid bullying, and no one really cares other than the odd chav. But he is fine and better off for the move.
Or he could take your suggestion and get the shit kicked out of him, or go on a campaign and get loads of negative attention and get known as the gay guy who is moaning about our school. You could argue he should take a stand but there is time for that, like when he is not in an anti homosexual environment. Where he is not in danger of being beaten up by his peers.

Why is 'taking a stand' not appropriate when he is about to be attacked?

Know what? That's not important. What's important is the fact that he was GOING to be attacked for simply being who he was. Nothing gets 'solved' when you try to run and hide from that. The problem gets solved, when the school decides it's going to get serious about protecting its students, and -honestly- perhaps the best way to do that are incidents of students being forced to protect themselves.

I do not want that. No sane person does. But the focus should be a hell of a lot less on 'OMG he brought a stun gun to school' and a hell of a lot more on 'How do six students gang up on one and no one sees or does anything about it?'

 

[Sandytimeman]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say bringing a stun-gun to school was not the best way to handle the situation.

Of course not...

There are easier, much more effective ways of getting the Media's attention to deal with a homophobic school board.

I agree. The issue was the homophobic school board, but by bringing the stun-gun to school, the victim unfortunately made it a bringing a weapon to school issue.

If he had just balled up on the ground and was lucky enough to survive they could have totally blown that whole "homophobic school board" thing wide open!

Though if he woke up from the coma, or had use of his legs, or lived to actually crawl away from a 6 on 1 beating motivated by homophobia and hate then I'm sure it all could have been resolved peaceably.

That's sarcasm btw, everyone of those six kids should be punished in the harshest criminal manner.

So you think bringing an illegal weapon to school was the best solution?

A stun gun is about as non-lethal as you can get. All weapons are forbidden on this school ground and the administrators were just willing to let the beatings happen. He had no choice but to defend himself.

Allow me to rephrase-The only options you are able to perceive in this situation are to allow oneself to be beaten, or to brandish a forbidden weapon at school?

He was surrounded by six people about to beat the living shit out of him. If he hadn't of had that weapon with him. What would you have done? Ball up? These are motivated homophobes who are not being discouraged by the school at all. He would have died.

And the next time he tries it? Suppose they bring their own weapons, because they know he has one. What then? See, you're not thinking long term. This is an action that could very easily have gotten him killed, not just hurt.

You are also overlooking the damage a group beating can do. He would not have walked away from a 6 on 1 gang up circle beating without a trip to the hospital.

A human fist or foot can do alot of damage this isn't the movies where you get punched and put a steak on your eye and your fine the next day.

His life was in danger at that time, if he didn't have the weapon he certainly wouldn't have been walking away.

No its not good for the long term, but at least he survived and now attention has been brought in and this kid can maybe get some help.

Yes he did survive, but it was a gamble ultimately, one thatp aid off. It could have just as easily gone the other way around. Personally, i'd take a beating that ends in hospitalization over a beating plus torture by tazer/blunt instrument that could end in death.

except that same "simple" beating with no tazer could have killed him. And just because he pulled a tazer doesn't mean they weren't willing to torture him anyway. Shit you can gouge someones eyes out with just your thumbs.

 

[Burst6]

And the next time he tries it? Suppose they bring their own weapons, because they know he has one. What then? See, you're not thinking long term. This is an action that could very easily have gotten him killed, not just hurt.

This is assuming that the 6 bullies are all brutal criminal psychopaths with no fear of injury, instead of 6 homophobic douches that are trying to make themselves feel superior.

What do you want the kid to do? Many people here have already said that a beating is more lethal than a civilian stun gun.

The schools tend to ignore this problem, and even if they do punish the bullies they'll just come after him even harder.

The way i see it there are 3 options.

1) Take the beating and risk injury, and add the decent chance the bullies will come back to beat you again.

2) Tell the authorities
a) They do nothing and nothing changes or
b) they punish the bullies and the bullies come back after you even harder because you snitched on them.

3) fight back and risk the small chance that the bullies will jeopardize their life to come after you with weapons.

 

[senordesol]

Change the kids school and don't let the kid tell everyone he is gay, if he wants to tell everyone ask him if he wants a repeat of last time, which he wont. So no one will make fun of him for being a homosexual problem solved.

No, problem NOT fucking solved. 'Run and hide?' that's your solution? Live in fear everyday that a slip of the tongue might condemn him to a beatdown and -what?- change schools again?

yes, yes exactly. Because life isn't a damn movie. The bad guy does NOT ALWAYS GET WHAT IS COMING TO HIM.

So bend over and take it. Is that it? Watch your children either become predators or prey in institutions that are supposed to be safe.

No, this isn't a damn movie. This is real life, these are our children ruining the lives of each other -if not outright taking them- while the "adults" stand by and watch. It is fucking sickening, it is fucking maddening, and it's made all the more worse when we treat those who decide to have the audacity to protect themselves like sociopaths.

Why is this a nut of wisdom spoken the most frequently but somehow heard the least often? Life isn't fair. Get used to it, adjust and adapt. Sometimes people are going to put you in a life threatening situation, and nothing will ever happen to them, they will never rue the day they bullied this kid. Ever. Nothing will ever come of it. because that's how life is. Life doesn't favor the good or the innocent, life favors the strong and cunning, regardless of their moral compass. Oh, and this isn't about to change. So yes, run, and never look back, your bullies won and will never suffer the consequences. Because that's how life is, now be thankful you didn't die, and look on to days ahead.

And what happens when you've nowhere left to run? No place left to hide?

 

[ElPatron]

It was a joke, but it's far from ignorant. The NRA had largely this response to the Virginia Tech shootings by saying that 'gun free zones are safety free zones'. [footnote]http://www.nraila.org/138264[/footnote] The NRA wants guns to be as accessible as possible, and it should come as no surprise that they receive substantial funds from the gun industry. They're a corporate interest group operating under the cloak of popular support.

They said it because it makes complete sense.

If I am a goddamned criminal, I won't just stop because there is a sign I can't carry guns into a place. It wasn't exactly legal to bring bombs onto planes, but the Taliban did it, right?

The NRA is mostly backed by old farts whose companies make "fudd" guns. If for some idiotic reason politicians were able to pass gun laws similar to UK the NRA would say "Who needs semi-automatics and handguns anyway?"

Not even kidding, a lot of people in the NRA are just fudds who don't like handguns or AR15s.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

And here in the US we have enough people shooting up schools as is, we don't need to give people more justification to bring weapons to school. As I said before, I sympathized with the kid until I found out he brought a weapon to school.

And that would be a relevant critique IF the kid had actually brought a gun to school. He didn't. He brought a stun-gun. Those are two very different things.

What if he had threatened them with an improvised weapon instead (like a key, which can be used as a weapon). Would it then be totally okay then, because keys aren't forbidden? )

Labeling a stun-gun on the level as a gun is stupid. It's less lethal/dangerous than fists (or improvised weapons like keys) which you ARE allowed to bring - or forced to, unless you are born without limbs.

Again, it doesn't have to be a gun, a stun gun isn't allowed in school with good reason. The kid was wrong to bring a stun gun to school.

He should still be in trouble for bringing a weapon to school seeing as how it violates the school rules.

Of course, but he should be in less trouble than would be the case if it weren't for rather justifiable self defense.

Fair enough, the kids situation should be taken into account.

 

[Ginger768]

And the next time he tries it? Suppose they bring their own weapons, because they know he has one. What then? See, you're not thinking long term. This is an action that could very easily have gotten him killed, not just hurt.

This is assuming that the 6 bullies are all brutal criminal psychopaths with no fear of injury, instead of 6 homophobic douches that are trying to make themselves feel superior.

What do you want the kid to do? Many people here have already said that a beating is more lethal than a civilian stun gun.

The schools tend to ignore this problem, and even if they do punish the bullies they'll just come after him even harder.

The way i see it there are 3 options.

1) Take the beating and risk injury, and add the decent chance the bullies will come back to beat you again.

2) Tell the authorities
a) They do nothing and nothing changes or
b) the bullies come back after you even harder because you snitched on them.

3) fight back and risk the small chance that the bullies will jeopardize their life to come after you with weapons.

I find this assertion of only three option possible to be rather disingenuous. Why couldn't he just switch schools? Yeah it's a pain in the ass but i'd imagine it's less of a pain in the ass than taking a boot up your rear end.

Bullies could be at the other school is a flaw i could see with that option.

 

[Slayer_2]

What we seem to have here is a cross dressing boy who wasn't smart enough to talk down agressors, tone down his dress, or simply have friends. He must have demonstrated lack of confidence or they wouldn't have picked on him for any length of time. Through the absense of the father in the story, he was probably without a father and thus didn't know how to handle himself as a man in that situation. So what did he do? Pulled a weapon? A cowardly response that will only make his life worse. He's lucky, for example, that they fled. He pulled a weapon first, at that point they could have taken him out and reasonably claimed self defence.

Spoken like a person that has never been bullied. Sure I haven't either, but you seem to essentially be saying it's his fault for being gay and flamboyant, with is just an ignorant and outdated view.

As for them taking him down, I doubt it. Bullies are a bunch of pussies, pull a tiny pocketknife and a group of ten will run away from a kid half their size. You have the gall to call him cowardly, but his aggressors had undoubtedly larger numbers, and were likely stronger, too. There is nothing "manly" or brave about getting the shit kicked out of you because you thought settling it with your fists would do anything. Takes a real hard manly man to gang up and beat up a kid half your size.

Personally, I'm just glad it wasn't the real fucking thing, it is America, and these things tend to spiral out of control really quickly. At least with the stun gun he'd really have to go at it to kill one of them, and I doubt he could have even tagged one of them before they would bolt, bunch of wimps they likely are.

 

[Sandytimeman]

No, he took the weapon in to school before the incident occurred, so his solution to bullying that had occurred previously was to bring in a forbidden weapon. But it's a stupid solution in that he was expelled and may face criminal charges. Was there not a better solution available? One that did not involve a potentially lethal weapon?
captcha-fancy pants

Alright, so perhaps I'm getting worked up here because I'm gay. And I see people getting beat to death, lit on fire, and etc all the time in the news.

I'm willing to listen to reason. So lets go over the steps here.

They already talked to the school about the problem. The schools said that he needed to dress less homosexually. Well how was he dressed? I wear jeans and a t-shirt and I'm gay, is that dressing homosexually?

So lets say that even after they have him pegged for abuse, he changes his clothes. Do you think that would stop the bullying?

If they surrounded this kid and his mom didn't send him to school with a tazer, and he had been beaten so bad, he had to go to the hospital.

What would the school of done? Would that have solved the problem? Would they have just blamed it on him being different?

 

[senordesol]

Are we implying that he had nowhere to run or hide? That these bullies would follow him to his new school for the single purpose of bullying him further?

'We' are implying that there are assholes wherever you go. That he may just as well be exchanging one set for another.

We are implying that giving all the power to the predators and tormentors is not a viable strategy.

 

[TotalerKrieger]

Ignoring all other solutions, why should HE have to switch schools? It is HIS rights that are being infringed upon. If anything the bullies should be forced to relocate, preferably with each one going to separate schools so as to limit the potential of this gang behavior occuring again.