Such great responces everyone...very thoughtful, and thought provoking as well.
Do I think the School District was wrong in outing the student...If the outing did not include bringing in the parents of the children doing the harrassing, then yes I think they were wrong. Maybe school wasn't the best place for this boy to come out, but with the attention being put soley on him as "the problem", I believe the the School District is sending the wrong message to the parents, school, community, and to the child himself.
He "agreed" to the school telling his folks? At 14 I did everything I was told to do by those in "authority"; that was the way I was raised. So did he agree because he thought it was the best option, or was it given as his only option to stop the harrassing?
I am also a parent, so I want to know everything happening with my child...but I was a safe person for my daughter to tell that she thought she was bi-sexual...did the School know what they could have done? The child is out of school this week...being "re-educated" by the parents and Church? I had a friend that was dragged from therapist to therapist in search of a "cure" when she was young; she tried to kill herself several times because her Mom said it was better to have a dead daughter than a gay daughter.
At what point, and in what circumstances should our children expect to be protected without feeling as though they have caused the bullying and harrassing?
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