posted something on Facebook about his mother

The more things change...

Reverse Zero Tolerance, I love it!

A lawsuit should clear all this right up.

FTA: Wolfe was a special education student. His records say he has above-average intelligence, but has trouble with reading comprehension and has to be reminded to stay on task.

Assburgers.

At least he didn't go full retard. Then he'd really get his ass kicked.

parents. Do your precious little snowflake a favor and drop this lawsuit.

Vice principals were born to be sued. I haven't met one yet that wasn't just a little bit drunk with power.

Marcus Aurelius: Vice principals were born to be sued. I haven't met one yet that wasn't just a little bit drunk with power.

Mine was just drunk. All the time.

Tr0mBoNe: FTA: Wolfe was a special education student. His records say he has above-average intelligence, but has trouble with reading comprehension and has to be reminded to stay on task.

Assburgers.

Are you saying he should have his rump roasted?

Snarfangel: Are you saying he should have his rump roasted?

That's a good start.

FTA: Lawsuit Targets Fayetteville High School Vice Principal

Read Fayetteville as Fattyville initially.

Not sure what that says about me.

Tr0mBoNe: FTA: Wolfe was a special education student. His records say he has above-average intelligence, but has trouble with reading comprehension and has to be reminded to stay on task.

Assburgers.

You meanie
/No but that shiat was funny

I really do think bullying would be less of a problem in schools if teachers and hall monitors were encouraged to be just a little slow breaking up fights.

SilentStrider: parents. Do your precious little snowflake a favor and drop this lawsuit.

While I'm not really a fan of nuisance lawsuits, it sounds like this guy committed perjury in a criminal case to cover his own ass. Fry 'em.

ferioritycomplex: FTA: Lawsuit Targets Fayetteville High School Vice Principal

Read Fayetteville as Fattyville initially.

Not sure what that says about me.

Lysdexics Untie!

Mugato: At least he didn't go full retard. Then he'd really get his ass kicked.

You kidding? The last person you want to mess with is someone with Retard Strength!

/cue up the creepy Down's kid in the superhero(?) get-up.

Was bullied often in school. I heard that more often than not: "Well, you must have done something to antagonize them!"

/because it's always the victim's fault *sigh*

I saw this story on Dateline or one of those shows. Honestly I gotta feel bad for the kid.

The link won't load for me. Summary please.

Tr0mBoNe: FTA: Wolfe was a special education student. His records say he has above-average intelligence, but has trouble with reading comprehension and has to be reminded to stay on task.

Assburgers.

I see what you did there...

/nicely played!

Scutter: Was bullied often in school. I heard that more often than not: "Well, you must have done something to antagonize them!"

/because it's always the victim's fault *sigh*

People aren't going to agree with me, but I am all in favor of taking a hard line, zero tolerance stance on bullying. If a student is identified as a bully, they should be sent off to a military camp or something for a year.

The concept of bullying in school is absolutely absurd. Repeat after me: Praise the nerd, not the turds.

/sorry, was bullied a lot in school
//obviously my solution is hyperbole, but we need to seriously address it with significant consequences for teachers who promote it and students who engage it. It degrades our society.

I don't get it. Why is a vice principal so invested in taking down some kid that he has to lie to police?

Yup, gotta be Asparagus syndrome.

Doc Batarang: I don't get it. Why is a vice principal so invested in taking down some kid that he has to lie to police?

Maybe his favorite movies are Ferris Beuller's Day Off and Election.

Sim Tree: While I'm not really a fan of nuisance lawsuits, it sounds like this guy committed perjury in a criminal case to cover his own ass. Fry 'em.

Exactly:

"Billy's official records are 180 degrees from what Zeagler reported to the police officer," Doss said. "He lied to that officer. He gave the officer documents that are not the controlling documents for Billy in that school."

Sounds like vice-principal Zeagler has some explaining to do...

Tr0mBoNe: FTA: Wolfe was a special education student. His records say he has above-average intelligence, but has trouble with reading comprehension and has to be reminded to stay on task.

Assburgers.

Why is it that so many people have a problem with Aspergers? These people are, most likely, the same kind of people who would torment a kid like Billy Wolfe, simply because he was socially different.

Maybe, if instead of looking down on these individuals and mocking them, you instead got to know them, you might find both an interesting person and a good friend.

Sure, maybe they find it difficult to "look you in the eye", and maybe they can't remember faces that well (which might be why the can't "look you in the eye" - it's called face-blindness for a reason), but if these are your criteria on what makes a good human or not, then I sincerely pity your loss. You also must be a blast around blind and deaf people as well.

Miss Smartass: The link won't load for me. Summary please.

Kid's record: "Wolfe's behavior would be managed by clearly defined limits, rules and consequences; frequent reminders of the rules; and intervention and immediate redirection of inappropriate behavior. Both plans and previous ones say Wolfe has the ability to follow discipline policies.

There are no mentions of fights instigated by Wolfe, but the plan does note continuing problems with social skills and the need for more interaction with peers who are not disabled. An earlier plan notes Wolfe had some problems with peer relationships but had made close friends with others."

Snowflake's lawyer: The record say he was a perfect angel.

Snowflake "confronted" another student and was pushed to the ground.

Snowflake's lawyer files suit which "seeks damages for medical expenses, mutilation, impaired physical and mental abilities, pain and suffering, mental anguish and punitive damages.

cr0sh: Sounds like vice-principal Zeagler has some explaining to do...

Sounds more to me like the kid had a history of problems, but they were either lax in updating the formal records, or put them in a more positive light to not screw him over later in life.

Miss Smartass: The link won't load for me. Summary please.

here you go:

Parents sue high school for not protecting their son from being bullied and for telling police he initiated most of the harassment himself, despite his spotless record

Link (new window) Interview with the kid - /not a rickroll

I was the kid in junior high that was told by the teachers that I "instigated harassment"... By that, the redneck teachers meant that I was different and did not do anything to conform to the other redneck students, hence I instigated it.

So for that reason I may be biased when I say that I can't really blame the family in the article for suing. It seems that a lot of teachers and school officials pick on the "losers" as well... bullies come in all ages and develop a pack mentality.

Poor kid.

Scutter: Was bullied often in school. I heard that more often than not: "Well, you must have done something to antagonize them!"

I came in to say that. The last time that I heard it, I told the principal that since I was going to get the blame, I might as well do something about it. The bullies learned to never turn their backs on me. Every time that they hit me and got away with it, I cold-cocked one of them in front of teacher later. You can do a lot more damage against someone who isn't prepared and the teacher would break it up before I got hurt.

I don't know enough from RTFA to judge the specific case, but my personal experience and observation of grade school and junior high and high school bullying is that schools are two-faced liars. They are all talk about zero tolerance and protecting every kid, that's all for show.

When actual incidents happen, the schools seem to bend over backwards in favor of the aggressors every time, sometimes, as in this case it seems, they try to paint the victim as "asking for it". Like they used to do to rape victims.

It takes the threat of filing police reports and private lawsuits to get the teachers and administrators to pay farking attention and treat a long-established ongoing situation as a real problem. All every point along the line, the complainant gets the pariah treatment from the adults, because in their mind, the victim is the problem by inconveniencing teachers and admins who then have to take time out to admit to problems and deal with actual parents and children face to face.

Admins and teachers also IMO give parents of the offenders way too much leeway due to perceived "hardships". "Oh, she's a single mother; we can't POSSIBLY ask her to hold her kid to generally accepted standards of behavior, poor thing. She's lucky the kid still comes home to sleep overnight after a hard night's gang-banging. better we let the more civilized victim conform to new behaviors of avoidance and cowering until they both age out of our system and become someone else's problem. Meanwhile, make sure the little miscreant is still getting free breakfasts and hot lunches."

I don't give a shiat that you're a single parent: BE the farking parent, not their friend, not their enabler, be the farking authority figure that demands a certain compliance with an easy-to-follow code of expectations, responsibilities, and FARKING CONSEQUENCES!!! Or don't be the parent, give the child to the state instead, or to someone else more willing to do what's right, because you are not helping that child grow up, you're holding them back. And punishing the rest of us and society with your bad judgement. Your socio-economic status has ZERO to do with teaching your kids right and wrong. Poverty does not always equal "born criminal"; you ALLOW that to happen, mom.

/ Hm, b.p. up a little after thinking about the topic. Yours would be too if you had to go thru the same shiat we did, with unresponsive schools. Took the threat of civil action to get the little punk expelled.

Finger51: Miss Smartass: The link won't load for me. Summary please.

here you go:

Parents sue high school for not protecting their son from being bullied and for telling police he initiated most of the harassment himself, despite his spotless record

Hahah... Miss Smartass, meet Mr. Smartass.

/Nancy, this is Susan. Susan, this is Nancy.
//an "8" on the Obscurity Scale

I picked fights after my mother told me that "if they're picking on you, you need to get them first." My mom taught me to fight, and my dad was on the city council, and they both stood up for me like I was an angel, even though I told them how I had to manuever fights and conflicts in order to stop ending up the rat on the bottom.

Finally my parents put me in catholic school to protect me. Then I got into an even more selective school and the bullying decreased from everyone, to a handful of people, to one person, resepectively. They need to stop farking aroudn with this kids mental and social development and switch him into a school where he can start new.

The school system failed me, and it's failing him. The parents aren't working hard enough to focus on the kid, they're tryign to "do the right thing" in society - the best thing would be for them all to move.

Fnord:
Sounds more to me like the kid had a history of problems, but they were either lax in updating the formal records, or put them in a more positive light to not screw him over later in life.

Then again, a older NY Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/us/24land.html) paints things in a different light too... So... Who knows.

Possibility 1: The kid is actually a troublemaker.

Possibility 2: The kid gets picked on a lot, and the teachers and principal believe the other kids' lies about who started it.

Possibility 3: The kid gets picked on a lot, and the principal knows it and lied to cover his ass.

It's impossible to say based on TFA which of these is the case. #2 seems most likely based on my experiences, but all are believable. If it's #3, the lawsuit is more than justified.

cr0sh: Assburgers.

Why is it that so many people have a problem with Aspergers? These people are, most likely, the same kind of people who would torment a kid like Billy Wolfe, simply because he was socially different.

Maybe, if instead of looking down on these individuals and mocking them, you instead got to know them, you might find both an interesting person and a good friend.

Sure, maybe they find it difficult to "look you in the eye", and maybe they can't remember faces that well (which might be why the can't "look you in the eye" - it's called face-blindness for a reason), but if these are your criteria on what makes a good human or not, then I sincerely pity your loss. You also must be a blast around blind and deaf people as well.

It's an excuse. Suck it up and grow up.

So the VP specifically picked out this kid to lie about? this one child?

/Sounds bogus.

I once got locker checked in middle school so hard my bottom lip was split. Why? Because I'd had the audacity to ask the chick to leave me be. So when I stagger to class and the teacher asks me what happened, and I tell them, both me and the girl who checked me get a trip to the principal's office. I was taken off the honor roll the rest of the year, as near as I can tell because I had the gall to tell the teacher what happened. The biatch that checked me? Yup, got off scott free (though she also wasn't allowed to make honor roll).

I also experienced an odd selective picking on because if I dared walk around before class started with a diskman, the Vice Principal would yell at me and take it. The reason this was selective is I could walk with a group of people with headphones on, and only mine would get taken.

That said, if the school employees lied, fry them.

The folks I've met/worked with that have Asperger's wouldn't typically make a "good friend." Their inability to interact socially in a normal way can be a barrier to a serious and solid friendship. It's unfortunate, but fairly accurate. I've watched a guy with Asperger's make one insensitive and damaging comment after another toward a sensitive girl in a sensitive moment, and he was totally unable to stop himself. It's sad.

Jefepato: Possibility 1: The kid is actually a troublemaker.

Possibility 2: The kid gets picked on a lot, and the teachers and principal believe the other kids' lies about who started it.

Possibility 3: The kid gets picked on a lot, and the principal knows it and lied to cover his ass.

It's impossible to say based on TFA which of these is the case. #2 seems most likely based on my experiences, but all are believable. If it's #3, the lawsuit is more than justified.

The fact that it seems like the VP lied to the cops seems that #3 seems to be the winner

While I don't say kick the bully out on the first offense I do say go with a 3strikes rule and ENFORCE it, that and tell the damn parents right away, so they know, it seems that that they never tell the parents so there is no responsibility at home about it

Laz Long: Scutter: Was bullied often in school. I heard that more often than not: "Well, you must have done something to antagonize them!"

I came in to say that. The last time that I heard it, I told the principal that since I was going to get the blame, I might as well do something about it. The bullies learned to never turn their backs on me. Every time that they hit me and got away with it, I cold-cocked one of them in front of teacher later. You can do a lot more damage against someone who isn't prepared and the teacher would break it up before I got hurt.

I think there is a great piece of business advice to be learned from this guy's comment. I'm not sure what yet, but I'm certain there is a huge underlying lesson. Maybe the way North Korean government behaves? I dunno yet. I'm going to think about this.

It's so good it belongs in a strategy book somewhere.

SilentStrider: parents. Do your precious little snowflake a favor and drop this lawsuit.

I usually don't condone the coddling of precious little snowflakes but the schools label kids which stick year after year. F*(@ the school.

I'd like to add the the sweet little blonde girl in pigtails is usually the biggest bully.

I'm a mother of 7yr old on the spectrum who the girls love to bully. My son is socially stigmatized at school. He's not capable of telling his side of the story in school yard altercations and often takes the blame. Again...@#%$ the school.

/DRFA

sloppy shoes: Was bull

Your revenge should be more subtle ...

I Say ...
That's right asshat, bag my groceries! (new window)

On the issue of documentation:

The parents argued that the documentation supplied by the VP was not the "controlling" documents regarding their child. That can be entirely true and entirely irrelevant at the same time. A lot of school professionals are cautious about documenting negative incidents that can reflect poorly on a student later in life. Part of it is naivete regarding the rehabilitation of the seriously personality-disordered bullies that do exist in school. Teachers fear that if the bully seems too awful on paper, they might not go to college or get some other experience later on that might help them to reform and become good people.

The problem is, when you pad your documentation with a positive bias, when serious shiat happens, your documentation doesn't accurately support it.

Document accurately.

Fnord: cr0sh: Sounds like vice-principal Zeagler has some explaining to do...

Sounds more to me like the kid had a history of problems, but they were either lax in updating the formal records, or put them in a more positive light to not screw him over later in life.

Isn't the latter exactly the situation here? The kid got written up on criminal charges? So the record is going to beused to "not screw him over".

Hoist on their own petard, seems like. OR, the vice principal did indeed stretch the truth (or outright lie) to cover himself. Either way, the school screwed up.

Does anybody else recognize an attorney being made here? I feel as though in 15 years or so, this little "angel" will be a talking head on Greta VanSustren's (now really old) show talking about protecting the innocent after becoming famous by writing a book...

/Sorry for the double post, this is what I came into the conversation to say originally, before I read that guy's great post above.

Basically the kid should have just claimed to be gay and claimed that people were gay bashing him. If that were the case then the school would have acted MUCH differently.

Note that it's the NEA's official position that teachers should work to end anti-gay harassment, but there seems to be no special emphasis on ending harassment of anyone else who's the least bit different.

I heard about this already. I have all my sympathy with the kid. Though someone really needs to teach him how to stand up for himself. And I don't mean by fighting, I just mean by telling the harassers he doesn't farking care what they think of him. After a while, they'll get bored and leave him alone. Bullies love to get a reaction, they love to cause pain. The trick is not to give them the satisfaction.

I am glad the parents first pressed civil charges against the bullies and their families. If I had heard my kid was bullying someone, I'd let the court string them up for all they deserved. Community service, jail time if they deserved it. There's no excuse for bullying. Ever.

/not a parent, it should be noted...

If you don't make yourself a target, the a-holes don't usually target you. Basically, don't draw unwanted attention to yourself.