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

[That One Six]

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.

I remember those days... I also remember that anyone who was unable to keep up with the choreography was shunned, and had penguins thrown at them. >.> Fun times, right?

OT - I don't ever know how to feel about this sort of thing. On one hand, I was bullied a lot in school, so I know what it's like to be pushed around and feel helpless, but on the other hand, there has to be a better way - one that doesn't get the poor kid in trouble, but still electrocutes the bullies.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

I'd have given him a knife, but I guess that'd be one of the many many reasons I'd be a horrible parent.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Way to start a playground arms-race. -_-'

 

[Hipster Chick]

Also, except in a few backward places, you can't shoot someone just for being in your home, self defense is required to be appropriate to the situation and not excessive. Automatically assuming you should put a bullet in someone because they are in your house will get you jailed in civilized places.

Where are you from exactly? Because I'm from a relatively metropolitan area of the United States and I would be well within my rights to shoot anyone who enters my home uninvited and refuses to leave?

And the kids would beat him to death after he tazers one of them, really? I never met a single teenager who, upon seeing one of his friends writhing on the ground, screaming in pain, would decide that continuing the fight would be a good idea? Hell, the fact that the all turned tail and ran the moment he pulled it in the first place totally disproves your paranoid, misinformed, and I'm going to assume European theory.

 

[Leethe1Girl]

Lol, I'd give the kid a piece of broken glass. It can be excused as weekend recon gone wrong. Stab the little fuckers in the eye. That should at least keep them from hitting you... due to lack if depth perception.

See? Thaaaaat's using your head.

 

[Hipster Chick]

Also, to anyone who said he should've acted "less gay" to avoid being bullied, that's like telling a black kid to act whiter so racists won't pick on him.

....okay, while I fully agree that it's awful for kids of any sort to be bullied....what are you talking about?

The kids only knew about his sexual preferences because he came to school dressed as a woman. That's....rather easy to disguise. Just stop coming to school in female "accessories".

It's nothing at all like the analogy you're describing. Let's not make stuff up.

Let's not make stuff up?

The article said he was dressed "flamboyantly" and identified as gay, not a cross-dresser or anything close to trans*. Of course, your think that means he was dressed like a woman: if you knew the first thing about queer or trans* issues, you'd know how ignorant that assumption is. He was being bullied because he looked gay, which the article never really qualifies in a meaningful way.

But I'll concede the point. It's like telling a girl who's being bullied because she dresses like a tomboy that she should rectify the situation by wearing dresses and makeup. That's appropriate, right?

Or is it only alright to tell a gay child being beaten up because people think he looks like a ****** not to look so much like a ******?

 

[Leethe1Girl]

Also, except in a few backward places, you can't shoot someone just for being in your home, self defense is required to be appropriate to the situation and not excessive. Automatically assuming you should put a bullet in someone because they are in your house will get you jailed in civilized places.

Where are you from exactly? Because I'm from a relatively metropolitan area of the United States and I would be well within my rights to shoot anyone who enters my home uninvited and refuses to leave?

And the kids would beat him to death after he tazers one of them, really? I never met a single teenager who, upon seeing one of his friends writhing on the ground, screaming in pain, would decide that continuing the fight would be a good idea? Hell, the fact that the all turned tail and ran the moment he pulled it in the first place totally disproves your paranoid, misinformed, and I'm going to assume European theory.

Yeah I really do prefer the concept of being able to shoot someone if they enter your home. Srsly, what are you supposed to do if they "don't mean you harm"? Stand there, smiling, waiting for the cops to come along while they take your shit? No... I think that any situation in which you are INVADED it should be assumed the invaders mean you harm.

You should be able to fuck them up. I promise you no idiot would ever want to try to steal from me.

 

[Leethe1Girl]

Also, to anyone who said he should've acted "less gay" to avoid being bullied, that's like telling a black kid to act whiter so racists won't pick on him.

....okay, while I fully agree that it's awful for kids of any sort to be bullied....what are you talking about?

The kids only knew about his sexual preferences because he came to school dressed as a woman. That's....rather easy to disguise. Just stop coming to school in female "accessories".

It's nothing at all like the analogy you're describing. Let's not make stuff up.

Err, no. That's a little something called discrimination.

Little fuckers known as bullies will find some sort of detail to pick on someone for no matter what. Even if the kid was not dressed in a funny way it wouldn't matter. They'd pick on someone for their hairstyle, the way their nose sits on their face, if they have freckles, etc.

 

[CATS FTW]

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.

This is not at all the situation, Helmholtz. He was given a stun gun by his mother because the school refused to take action against discrimination. Yeah, you can't bring weapons to school but from what I've read he isn't the kind of kid to feck around with deadly weapons just for kicks. A person like this would never bring a gun to school, maybe a hockey stick though to do a bit of head boppin'.
OT: I surely hope he's not expelled although that IS what tends to happen when you have a potentially dangerous item even for the most noble of causes. I'm also impressed that he didn't just shock them immediately he did a warning shot first, smart move.

 

[Uber Evil]

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.

And this is why you are pretty much my favorite person on here.
OT: Assholes are gonna be assholes. May not like it, but it is true.

 

[Torrasque]

Seems I am very late to this discussion and have nothing to add that hasn't been said already.

Yes, the kid shouldn't have brought a weapon to school, that is the wrong way to deal with any kind of bullying.
Yes, the school failed him in many ways, most notably in it's failure to allow a kid to learn in a environment free from bullying.
No, I don't think he should be expelled. He should go through a bunch of counseling so he can learn some strategies to deal with bullying and ways to avoid bullying, as well as help him manage that fear of schooling that he has probably developed which made him bring a stun gun to school...

All in all, this whole situation has a lot of people to blame and a lot of people trying to avoid blame by blaming other people who may or may not have more blame than they have. All the while, avoiding the biggest--and only real--issue: the fact that a kid felt the need to bring a stun gun to school to deal with bullies.

 

[Moromillas]

This is how I read it:
School does nothing about the bullying.
Someone takes precautions in order to protect themselves.
School punishes said person.

That's pretty fucked up. It's the principal that should be removed, not the student. This business of students having a looming threat of injury etc shouldn't be happening in the first place.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

To be frank? I kind of wish I'd thought of this.

Then again, it most likely would have reinforced the collective opinion that I was off my rocker.

I swear, you make one decision in 7th grade to act a bit off so folks will leave you alone and you spend the next five years wishing you hadn't.

 

[GeneralFungi]

After you stun the first one and the other five tackle you, use the stun gun on you, and then beat you to death...

You pretty much countered your own argument when you said that using a stun gun in that situation isn't self defense, because the bullies are capable and are willing to beat you to death in your example. I understand that it's under slightly different circumstances if the kid uses a stun gun on one of them, but they would not need to do more then restrain the kid to avoid getting stunned themselves.

If I knew there were a group of kids that would beat me to death when given provacation I wouldn't feel safe unless I had some sort of weapon myself. Preferably a samurai sword.

 

[texanarob]

Day 1) Kid gets threatened. Mum gives his stun gun
Day 2) Bullies approach kid. Kid pulls stun gun and fires defensive shot. Bullies retreat.

He got lucky. I would have expected either

Day 2 cont...) Bullies pull a knife, kid gets destroyed
or
Day 3) Bullies get their own weapons.

Whether in the form of bats/clubs, knives or guns, 6 bullies are more likely to have access to and knowledge to use weaponry that one bullied kid. The kid will end up hurt.

In reality, the kid should have worked out why he was being picked on. If it's anything he can change, its better to conform than to get pummelled/expelled. If not, it is up to him to stay within sight of teachers/friends/parents/reasonable adults. The mother should have picked him up from school, not given him a weapon. If this was at lunch time, I highly doubt the teachers would object to him remaining inside if he felt threatened.

Defend his rights all you want. I fought bullies in school myself. It was once I realised that its up to me to change, rather than hope they will, that things got better.

 

[runic knight]

I am curious how this would be viewed with a pepper spray instead of a tazer. Same ideal, a non-lethally used aggressor deterrent meant for self defense, though the spray no where near as overly glamorized as a "weapon"

Anything you pick up is a weapon, people. All a weapon is is a tool used as a means of force. If the kid had a pencil in his hand and threw a punch or stabbed a kid with it, it is a weapon. Thus zero tolerance is flawed in concept, to say nothing of the issues it can have in execution.

I mention the pepper spray earlier because I recall the cop at my school carrying that around everywhere. They might have had a tazer, never looked that closely, but I don't see why they wouldn't as a means to avoid using a gun. The whole zero tolerance thing again about guns on campus. Of course the history of police abusing tazers in unwarranted situations can be ignored, but civilians can't protect themselves?

Lets try some thought experiments. What if the kid trained in a martial arts? His hands and feet are weapons. What does zero tolerance say about that. If he kicked the other kids asses instead of scaring them off with his skill? If he accidentally killed one?

What if he picked up a broken stick or a mop from nearby to defend himself? Again, how about if he beat them down or killed one with that?


This is rediculous. The kid tried the proper channels and got the shaft so his mom worked within the means she knew while following the law to keep her kid safe. Tazers are legal tools for deterring aggressors and her son was quite likely to be on the receiving end of a beating because of bigotry and bullying. I say the tool did it's job and the school, who should be damn well ashamed for letting shit get that far in the first place, should start looking at the personnel and if their personal feelings in the matter of his lifestyle had affected how they treated the kid's concerns, as well as exactly what their reaction here is saying. To me, it tells me that kids are at the mercy of those who abuse the system to be the top dog in the school, using apathetic administrators and denial of any means to defend themselves to prey on the weaker.