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

[Substitute Troll]

It's all fun and games until someone gets shocked into cardiac arrest.

Back in my day, when we had to deal with bullies, we performed a musical number that showed the bullies why they wrong to do such nasty things. They would then join in with our song, proclaiming their lives changed.

The more you know.

You could say you pulled a...

*puts on glasses*

High School Musical on their asses.

*YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!*

 

[Skrag The Summoner]

funny thing. i always thought that it was a schools legal responsibility to protect their students, otherwise they could be sued for negligence.

Edit: wait did he say, and i quote
"I didn?t know what to do and I thought about suicide,? Young said. ?I hate saying that word because God blessed me with this life."
A gay AND religious person living in america getting persecuted......well thats new isn't it?

 

[Thetwistedendgame]

If overdefensive women can use stun guns, so can bullied kids. It's not like a stun gun is illegal(in America), and no one makes a fuss about the 50th guy who gets zapped after sexually harassing a gal. Of course you can't compare sexual harassment and bullying, (although bullying someone for being gay is a form of sexual harassment) but self-defense is quite justifiable.

As for the matter of the "tell an adult" method, it does not work. It's not effective, most teachers are massive derps when it comes to bullying. I am especially disgusted by the fact that most schools will suspend you for throwing a punch at someone who is attacking you. Apparently, teachers think that if someone is hitting you, you should just stand there and take the punishment, or else you're not a functional human being.

Funny thing is i bet if it had been a teenage girl being harrased by large groups of boys a stun gun would have been more tolerated by the district.

Agreed.

 

[Loki_Blackaria]

Schools are designed in such a way that this sort of thing happens.
I'm not 100% sure that this is an unintended side-effect.

 

[Blow_Pop]

My my, all these people who have no concept of reality and would rather use a weapon than their head.

Using your head is overrated. It's harder to hide the injuries afterwards. Plus, your neck hurts afterwards, as well as restricting the swing area required to make a good hit. Most people tend to protect their heads in these situations as one's fists, feet or carried object typically makes a better blunt weapon. Alternatively, a static stun gun or pepper spray. Those are the most effective and are more likely to doscourage the bully from trying again.

Unless you're referring to Macgyvering a shield out of the air, walls and floor as six brutes bear down on you. In which case, go ahead.

(Generally, people who tell bullied kids to "use your head" are simply too lazy and aloof and don't care enough to come up with an actual solution.)

Fortunately I'm from a country where both stun guns and pepper spray are illegal to use. Somehow kids manage to deal with bullies without that.Plus by finding solutions that don't involve a weapon they don't escalate the matter into a weapons battle that eventually they will lose, they don't break laws, and they actually find ways to stop problems that build their confidence and discourage future bullies by generating respect.

And I did supply a series of answers above to alternatives.

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.

Yes because not having friends means you aren't smart enough for that. Some people have a very hard time making friends. My brother never made any friends through school and was bullied constantly. I was bullied constantly. Hell in second grade I got the shit beat out of me for going to the bathroom at recess. Not all of the "options" you listed are available to everyone. Switching schools is HARD. I volunteer with the school district here that my mum works for. I know how hard it is to switch schools. Hell just to enroll your child in school requires jumping through a lot of hoops. Self defence classes cost money. Money that not everyone has. Some families are barely scraping by and getting their children new clothes when they need them causes a huge financial strain. My father is very active in mine and my brothers lives. Always has been. My brother has NEVER known how to handle a situation like that. And it isn't that my dad never taught him. It is that my brother is just THAT socially awkward. When you have no other options, pulling a weapon is NOT cowardly. I legally carry at least one knife on me whenever I go out. We have a lot of men out here that think it is ok to prey on women. I would prefer to never have to use said knife. But I know in a fight I'm fairly useless. The men who like to do that out here are the "body builder types". I can't compete physically with them. Even if I was in the gym every day building up muscle and learned to fight I wouldn't stand a chance. Talking your bullies down is great in theory however it requires a)being able to KNOW how to do so and b) them being reasonable enough to listen. Most bullies aren't. I tried talking down a lot of my bullies through school and I know how to talk them down. It NEVER worked. Rumours are terrible things. Because of some of the ones that went around in school, I can't get jobs at certain places in my city because people out here are stupid enough to continue spreading them. I'm adult enough now to ignore them. Hell in school most of the time I tried ignoring them and would come home and cry from how much I was hurt. A lot of people who offer "simple non violent solutions" have usually never been in a really serious bullying situation. Hell, the schools I went to had zero tolerance policies AND a portion of the teachers would also bully some of the kids. And because of how their tenure works, nothing can be done about them.

OT: I applaud the woman for her decision and if it came down to it I would do the same damn thing. No child deserves to be bullied for any reason. Saying a child deserves it or brings it on themselves for dressing a certain way is bullshit abelist behaviour and should never be encouraged. In an ideal society, yes people can dress how they're most comfortable but we'll never get to that ideal society unless people start standing up and saying "hey this is wrong we need to change it" and actually fucking putting forth the effort to change it.

I am especially disgusted by the fact that most schools will suspend you for throwing a punch at someone who is attacking you. Apparently, teachers think that if someone is hitting you, you should just stand there and take the punishment, or else you're not a functional human being.

Also, they'll suspend you for putting your arms over your head to protect your head when you're lying on the ground and someone is kicking the shit out of you. Happened to one of my friends. I saw the whole damn fight. My friend didn't throw a punch back. He got kicked to the ground and at that point covered the back of his head and he got suspended. Not the guy who started the fight. School policies suck sometimes. Oh and when I went to the principal about it they wouldn't listen to shit I said.

 

[samaugsch]

People can spout all the legal/moral/ethical/empirically logical fucking bullshit they want but that is because they have never been in a situation where THEY FEARED/FOUGHT FOR THEIR LIFE. I have had multiple attempts on my life by youth street gangs be it with knives, knuckle dusters, or hammers.

The system (school, cops) did nothing for months until a cop stopped a knife from gutting me (actually had his gun out, safety off). I had a lead pipe in my hand and I was ready to kill, you do not think in those situations, you do. I know what I am talking about, until you are put into a situation where you fear for your life, how well do you know how you will react?

You could argue this kid hand hindsight and he made the choice to take the weapon or not but until you have been in a situation where you believe that you may one day never come home after God knows how much abuse, how well do you know what you would do?

As told from the survivor of multiple murder attempts as a thirteen year old.

Personally, I think what should be done depends on where you live. Obviously in your case, you're forced to deal with these situations personally. Even though I happen to be lucky enough to live in a place where that isn't the case, I try to sympathize with those that aren't. Not to be rude, but couldn't you keep a taser or mace or some other nonlethal deterent so you don't risk getting arrested yourself (I'm guessing you didn't have the option at the moment, but I'm just giving a suggestion for future scenarios.) or do people somehow get away with murder from where you live?

 

[samaugsch]

Plus, if the situation does not require you to kill someone, you don't use weapons. Therefore, using a less-than-lethal weapon is a retarded idea anyway - it makes you look like you just want to cause pain and not defend yourself. Specially if the shock actually causes a cardiac arrest and you are charged with murder because of the implications of "malicious intent".

If you are under 18 just let the shit be kicked out of you.

Yeah, kind of like your avatar.

 

[samaugsch]

Most of the thread here saddens me. The holier than thou responses that he shouldn't take a weapon no matter what even though he fears for his life are easy to make when you sit at your computer and not in his shoes.

I wonder though.... if it had been a girl and the six guys threatened to rape or kill her and she pulls out a stun gun, who would all of you be supporting then?

As a girl, let me say no, I wouldn't have supported her. I would have supported her calling the police.

As a girl, in a self defense class, she would have learned hold breaks, escape techniques, the use of keys as deadly weapons, and more. She also would have gained the knowledge and confidence so that 6 guys in a schoolyard couldn't put her in that situation of fear - all without ever being touched.

One day, I want to see a situation where 1 or more guys try to rape a girl, only to have said girl kick the shit out of said guy(s).

 

[Heronblade]

No, he used a less lethal WEAPON in the face of name calling and intimidation. We have no indication I see of extreme violence being indicated, although it is possible he genuinely felt the reasonable fear of violence when surrounded. However, my main point from the beginning was him ever BRINGING the weapon. What would have happened if one of those kids also had a weapon? Dead 17 year old bullying victim.

In terms of actually being able to cause physical harm, which is the primary definition of a weapon, a civilian stun gun is useless and frankly should not qualify for the term, six bullies with fists are not.

If there was any danger of someone ending up dead or hospitalized, the bullies were already more than capable of doing it, on purpose or on accident, without bringing anything extra.

 

[Bazaalmon]

I was bullied a lot in school as well, to the point where I was getting beaten up on a near-daily basis. I was suspended for "damaging school property" by having my face smashed into a locker door so hard that it bent and broke off its hinges. The kid who smashed my head into it got off with a slap on the wrist until my family threatened to sue the kid, his parents, the school, the county we lived in, the principal, and a bunch of other school officials. We never planned on actually going through with the lawsuits because it's really time consuming and a huge pain in the ass, but just the mention of them was enough to get their "zero-tolerance" asses up and actually DO SOMETHING. The kid was suspended, and several years later, he was thrown in jail for trying to rob a liquor store at gunpoint. So happy ending for me I guess.

I totally agree with the mother's decision to give the kid a stun gun, and if his situation was anything like mine, he would be perfectly justified in sending 100,000 volts straight through the bully/bullies. (Remember: Volts cause pain, Amps kill. 100,000 volts sounds like a lot, but without the amps, it doesn't do any real physical harm. )

Bullies use force and fear to dominate others. If they had brains or charisma or anything else, they wouldn't need to be bullies. But no, all they have is force. The only thing they relate to is force. The only thing their tiny peanut brains can even UNDERSTAND is force and fear. If you're being bullied, the only way to make it stop FOR REAL is to respond with even more force and/or fear.

If you can show the bullies that you can bring the hurt, they will leave you alone. When you strip them of their force by matching it in kind, they realize there is nothing they can do to you anymore.

That's why I wasn't bullied after 10th grade. When the lead bully tried to bully me again I beat his ass with my backpack full of giant textbooks. Nobody bullied me after that, because I took down the "ringleader" if you will.

To those who think I was just being a bully back, I say this: Batman isn't afraid to beat the shit out of people, they just need to deserve it first. I've never hit anyone who hasn't first hit me - a lot.

The kid from the article didn't even use the stun gun on anyone, but just by virtue of it being a "weapon" he's in trouble. That's why you gotta improvise. Like a backpack full of giant textbooks. It's not a weapon, it's homework!

 

[Leadfinger]

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?

OK, you're with me about the getting expelled and facing charges issue related to brandishing a stun-gun, right? Before it got to that point, if mom didn't get satisfaction from the school, she should have retained a lawyer and taken the school to court. The school has a legal obligation to ensure that school is a safe place, and they don't seem to have fulfilled that obligation. Mom might have also pressed charges against the bullies.

 

[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?

I don't. I would have walked into the school, filmed it and threataned a media shitstorm on all involved and their parents and their parents businesses etc etc. Its not blackmail as blackmail is for financial gain... but basically I would "legally blackmail" all the fuckers involved.

That said I am a devious schemer. Most people aren't and a stun gun is the best logical conclusion that they could think of. I mean... what else can you do... pad you kid up in body armor? Its possible that you could put a wire on him but that's not as good as having the fuckers faces exposed on YouTube... if they don't stop...

A Stun Gun while certainly not the best solution I don't fucking blame his mother.

Yes, Operation Media Shitstorm would be a better option than bringing a weapon to school. It's just smarter.

 

[Snotnarok]

Schools never take action, kids just get bullied, shoved around and then when it comes down to a fight both the bully and the victim get suspended. I know someone that got ambushed and punched into a glass display case recessed into the wall. The guy was knocked out in 1 hit and cut up from all the glass and got taken out on a stretcher.

He was suspended as well as the attacker despite not even having the chance to defend himself

 

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

A man must stand up for himself, there is no getting around that. A young gay man (or young cross dressing man, the article isn't super clear) is likely to be the target of harrassment and abuse. Now, he's gonna need to learn to take a bit, we all get a serve now and then. However, when its getting to the point where 6 vs. 1 is a possibility you either keep taking shit, or you fight.

Fighting is not inherently bad, nor has it ever been. Force has no intentions beyond that which the user places behind them. Whether this young man broke the rules isn't the issue, the issue is why he did in the first place. He was given a tool to defend himself, because at 17 or so, beyond moral support we're supposed to be starting to look out for ourselves. So, with tool in hand, he sought to take control of how he was treated. Escalation, with or without a weapon, has few possible outcomes when packs are involved so you may as well take the chance to hurt them too.

I can't blame teachers, this is hardly their fault. I can only imagine what it must be like for any teacher who sees this kind of insanity and cannot help.

I'm now going to repeat a sentiment that I agree with: When in doubt, it is better the be judged by twelve, than to be carried by six".

 

[Karadalis]

I have to say... the amount of victim blaming thats going on here is mind blowing... keep it up guys.

 

[McMullen]

The kid brought a weapon to school. The instant someone does that, you absolutely have to expel the kid, no matter what the circumstances were. I'm not sure that there was a good option for the kid if the administration genuinely wasn't doing enough, but worst-case scenario, the stun gun could kill someone, and you only use something like that in a genuinely life-threatening situation, one that I doubt was really ever a possibility. If there was a real threat to the kid's life, he wouldn't have been going to school. At least he didn't actually use it on anyone, so he probably won't end up with a criminal record.

This^. I feel sympathy for the kid, but it doesn't change the fact that he brought a weapon to school. This time he might not kill somebody, but you never know if the next time if he will bring a gun to school.

Don't even need that. Stun guns can still kill, and I imagine they're far more dangerous to kids than they are to the adults they're designed for.