Posts by Vicki:

    Suing the School Board

    April 7th, 2009

    Jan and Bill Mohat, of Mentor, Ohio are suing the school district. Their son, Eric, committed suicide one day after a bully taunted him in class. The Mohat’s believe that the school district was responsible for his death.

    A bully taunted Eric many days. He looks to be a skinny kid, affectionately called “twiggy” who his mother described as a “kind soul”. He was bullied in school, and was often found crying by administrators. The lawsuit not only names the school district, but the teacher that overheard the supposed statement that drove Eric to his death, the school principal, and the superintendent of schools.

    Ahh, bullying. “The act of intimidating a weaker person to make them do something”. Everyone in their life has been bullied. Your parents bullied you into behaving, lest you lose your television privileges, your teachers bully you to do your homework, otherwise you will fail the test, won’t get into college, and end up on the street. Maybe that is a stretch. But, everyone has been bullied, for one reason or another. They can be too skinny, too fat, too geeky, too dumb, etc.

    What exactly is the root of bullying? A bully can be someone who has low self esteem and picks on someone else to make themselves feel better. They might be stronger or bigger or smarter. However, they are doing this to make their own self worth more than that of the person they are taunting.

    How do we fix this bullying problem? Have an open door policy for the bullied kids to come in to talk to a mentor? Oh, then the mentor goes to the bully and tells them to stop because it makes “skinny” feel bad. That never solves problems-it makes it worse. Have a course on bullying for every kid, define it, explain it, and tell every kid that everyone is special in their own unique way? Oh, yes, that goes far with high school students. That hasn’t worked either. Or, we can tell teachers that they have to interfere in the bullying, stop it, and mediate the situation between the kids. Yes, the teachers have nothing else to do but manage behavior in their classrooms.

    I say-give the parents the responsibility of monitoring their child. The schools can offer seminars for the PARENTS to go to, to understand bullying. Parents can see if their child seems upset, anxious, withdrawn. And the parents! The parents of bullies are usually bullies themselves! A learned behavior! The parent puts the child down, makes fun of them, and the child continues this behavior because they think it is a natural way to relate to others. It gets them attention, after all.

    So, the Mohat’s are suing the school to make their point. What point that is, I’m not sure. Do they realize that by suing the school, they are taking tax payer dollars away from a fund that is probably minimal? That by suing the school district, they are taking money away from 1) Hiring more teachers, 2) Hiring more guidance counselors, and 3) Taking away programs for kids, among others. Suing the school district is only going to make a bad situation worse.

    I do feel bad for the Mohat’s for their loss. I’m sure it is never easy to lose a child. However, I wonder if they ever brought their child to see a psychologist/therapist. Although the bullying might not have stopped, Eric might have been able to develop strategies for dealing with it. Did they intervene-speak with him, take him places to make him feel better, work with him on dealing with his feelings?

    Was the school responsible for putting the gun in Eric’s hands? Did they put it in his house, give him access to it? Did they teach him how to shoot the gun? No, it was his father’s gun, in his parent’s home. So, I say to the Mohat’s-use your time to build up the school district and help them prevent another senseless death, instead of tearing down an educational institution that is already at its knees. I’m sure your son, the “kind soul” that he was, would rather have you fighting for other kids health, than trying to avenge his death.

    See more

    Bookmark and Share
    Blog Traffic Exchange Related Posts From Conservative Posts Blog Traffic Exchange Related Websites Not Affiliated With Conservative Posts

    No Comments "

    End Marriage? I Think Not!

    March 22nd, 2009

    This post is in regards to the article “A Gay-Marriage Solution: End Marriage?”

    Marriage has been defined for thousands of years as the union between two people-a man and a woman. This has been defined in Churches, Synagogues, Temples, many other religious venues, and in the government.Just within the past few years “a man and a woman” have been cut out of this definition so those unions not having a man and a woman would not feel excluded.

    However, I am a woman. I am married to a man. I chose to love, honor and cherish him to the end of my days. I want to bear his children. I want to grow old with him.

    I wear two rings on my left ring finger-one is an engagement ring, and one is our wedding band. When people see me walking down the street, writing a check, walking my dog-they can see I am married. They know that I have a best friend in the world-although he might not be with me, he is in my heart.

    I have many symbols of our marriage in our home. Pictures of our wedding, our wedding gifts scattered throughout, a nice cozy bed to share especially on the cold nights, laundry to do, dinner to make and things to shop for.

    But I hate feeling that I have to define my marriage as being married to a man. I feel I should say that I am married, very easily and simply, without having to explain myself. Twenty years ago, if a woman said she were married, it was obviously to a man, and vice versa. Why should I constantly have to say “my husband” or “him” and “he” in a conversation so people know that I have a straight marriage.

    All of my symbols-the change in name, my rings, our wedding document, can now be used for people of the same sex to get married to each other. Why should I have to define my position?

    I am not a homophobic. I am fine with men and men and women and women having civil unions, having families and sharing each other’s lives. They can get the tax breaks (what there are left of them are few!), they can be in each other’s wills, they can have every right that a man and woman in a marriage have. However, they can call it something other than a civil union, but something other than “marriage”.

    “Marriage” has a historical, religious, and symbolic meaning to me, and many others. While there are many people who might argue that marriage has become mired down with a 50% divorce rate-I say-”What about the 50% that stay together?”. No one ever compliments them for their enduring the struggles that are necessary for a healthy marriage. These aggregators of marriage just highlight the fact that 50% did not make it. So, because 50% of marriage end up in divorce, we should change the definition or obliterate the word? Because people are offended by the definition being exclusive, we should change marriage?

    Marriage does define me. I am married to a man, one man, and no one else. I like being a Mrs., not a Ms. I want marriage to stay as it is. Don’t allow people to strip titles and rights from you.

    Bookmark and Share
    Blog Traffic Exchange Related Posts From Conservative Posts Blog Traffic Exchange Related Websites Not Affiliated With Conservative Posts

    No Comments "