An ounce of prevention

roamcare
Jun 4
3 min read

Summer vacation time is here. That makes it a great time to clean out those old files that have been cluttering up the “things that might make interesting blog topics” files. There is one from a dozen or so years ago the piqued our interest. In a summer with news breaking daily calling out bad behavior and poor decision making, there is old news of the same but with a happy ending. It’s a tale of the bad, the good, and the uniquely American.

Four middle schoolers, 11 and 12 year olds, decided it was going to be not only a good day to taunt their bus monitor but to record and post it to the Internet. They hurled insult after insult, poked and pointed, swore at and about a 68 year old grandmother, former bus driver, and guardian of the children on the bus. It wasn’t the first time that they aimed their low sights at her, and it wasn’t the first time that she sat stoically taking it. It was a horrible example of how poorly some American youth treat others and how much of their behavior is tolerated.

One of the four children decided they should share their offensive conduct with the rest of the world and posted the recording on the Internet. Instead of the thousands of likes and comments acknowledging the miscreants for a bullying job well done as they expected, hundreds of thousands instead sent sympathy to the abused woman. Tangible sympathy. Someone set up an online fund raiser for her pain and suffering and raised five hundred thousand dollars worth of sympathy.

Perhaps it was the world’s way of providing one of those auto corrections that our planet does without our knowledge. If so, even though one abused bus monitor was seen and recognized as a person of value for a few short days, that was as long as the recognition lasted. Perhaps that is why we held on to this old story for so long, hoping to find a series of similar examples of people when being made targets are seen as the victims they truly are.

Instead, we continue to see people being singled out and attacked too often for no better reason that because the attacker had nothing better to do at the time. More unfortunately, even though reports of similar attacks continue, there is not a corresponding continuance of victims being compensated, or even recognized, for being the target of bullies.

We called this a tale of the bad, the good, and the uniquely American. The bad is obvious. People were, are, and unfortunately will be bullies and did, do, and unfortunately will continue to target those they perceive to be weak. The good is just as obvious. Even when it is unpopular to do, the least among us have their heroes who will stand up for them, but maybe not as consistently as they really should. And the uniquely American? We still haven’t learned and continue to make the same mistakes.

It’s an unfortunate occurrence that happened 12 years ago. What can we do about it? As with most community spread diseases, finding a prevention is easier than a cure. A look at today’s social media sites shows us that there is no shortage of bullying. Unfortunately, the behavior is no longer limited to children. It is our responsibility to make ourselves examples of proper behavior to counter the poor behavior that children see in their lives and social media feeds. Be the hero that the victims so desparately need. We would also do well to acknowledge when we see others behaving well and comment positively.

There is a battle cry that has been used for a variety of causes and has been successful. Just say no. Say no to bullying behavior. The trick is to say it with kindness and respect. Be a positive example so the next time a bus monitor is the focus of children’s words and actions is when they are thanking her for her service. Amybe it might even trickle up to the adults.