I live in this shithole gang town, Santa Maria, CA. The kids around here are pretty much shitheads. I've seen teenage girls in stores calling their mother sluts and whores, because???? Well, I don't know why, but if I had done that, I would have been knocked out within a second or two by my old man. I've seen both boys and girls, probably about 14 or so, cussing out the cops and screaming that they can't do shit because they are under 18. And they were right. Where are the parents? Who knows, but they aren't parenting. Plus, every one here thinks they are tough little gangsters. They aren't shit, but their parents are letting this become a major problem. A hundred years or so ago (it seems like it anyway), when I went to school, this shit didn't happen. Well, not as much, anyway. We are raising a generation of assholes, I don't see how they are going to be able to run things without smartening up a great deal. I don't think the little assholes in this town, mostly illegal aliens, are going to be up to it.

Shit like this leads to situations that killed Phoebe Prince.

This should not have happened.

Here's another article of this. Reading this story - just angers you - that such stuff would happen and the tragedy of it. Stark tragedy.
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S. Hadley school officials say more students disciplined in Prince case
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/03/s_hadley_school_1.html
Scheibel faulted officials at the high school in her announcement Monday, saying her probe had determined the harassment of Prince had been "common knowledge," contrary to administrators' previous assertions that they had been unaware of problems until her death.

Scheibel said a three-month campaign of "verbally assaultive behavior and threats of physical harm" culminated Jan. 14 in a day in which the Irish immigrant was taunted in the hallways and bombarded with vulgar insults. As she studied in the library during lunch, the accused students allegedly hounded her openly while other students and a teacher looked on.

Later that day, she hanged herself in a stairwell at her home.

When I was a kid I brought a giant knife to school to show the bully what's up cause I saw Rambo once. I hope when i have kids my kids aren't like me.

You would think that after several high profile suicides and several school shootings that schools would take bullying much more seriously.

The schools are negligent. As soon as a kid goes to the office and complains of being harrassed or bullied then all the parents need to be called in for a meeting TOGETHER in the same room. At the very least this makes all the parents aware of what's going on and it "humanizes" the victims in the eyes of the bullies so that its not quite so easy to be cruel to them. 99 percent of the time all the bullying is done without anyone really knowing whats happening. Its hard to be a bully if every time you harrass someone it results in an hour long after school therapy session WITH your parents. Bullies can only exist in the shadows and the schools have been enablers of the bullies by refusing to deal with them publically and forcefully. The policy should be that any student who threatens, stalks or harrasses another student is in violation of school policy and this should extend to cyber bullying to. Fuck free speech. Free speech ends where harrassment begins. You don't thnk its fair? Quit and go to another school. The student who feels their freedom to call people names is being "stifled" is free to leave if they don't like the rules. It shouldn't always be the victim that is obligated to move in order to escape. Let's flip it around so that the bullies are the ones that should feel free to move if they don't like following the rules. Let's stop pampering these assholes.

And what fear of lawsuits are there? What kid is seriously going to sue and want to go public because they feel they have a "Constituional right" to cyber-stalk someone and call them a whore? if some idiot 15 year old girl really wants to draw that line in the sand and go to court and humiliate her family...I say go for it. We all know no family on earth would ever allow a kid to do that. Too embarrassing.

We need more zero tolerance policies. And jail time or FINES for parents who can't control their kids. If you were a parent who got a $100 FINE because you're kid was acting like an asshole...pretty sure they'd make that kid NEVER acted like an asshole again.

Right now we all know a lot of parents just shrug their shoulders and say, "I don'care if my kids an asshole."

They start getting BILLS in the mail and threats of jail time and suddenly these asshole parents will definitely start caring and taking action.

Everyone has a limit the challenge is to avoid crossing the line. Are children and teens practice more cruelty or the older generations were tougher?