Bullying. Though our emotional shock is focused on the attack(s) may we remember that failure to provide, failure to act is an equal atrocity under terms of child abuse laws. Multiple attacks (events to document), progressive violence (pattern), children reporting and demonstrating symptoms (victim voices), adults knowing (witness), policies written (criteria). What proof of circumstance do we look for or who's voice are we waiting to hear before action can lead towards a path to peaceful resolution?  

With tax dollars and school budgets always in the news, number of school days strategically calculated to collect Monies, have we fallen into the psychological trap of previous Institution failures? Are we still viewing children as property? If Mandatory Reporting Laws hold Professionals accountable to be the watchdogs of family violence and abuse, does not the same spirit of the law apply when violence has been discovered or reported within their Halls or on property?

We live during the information age yet fail to communicate at basic core levels and fail to read current events beyond the front page. Before communities engage in the old divisive battle, the traditional taking up of sides with efforts to victimize the victim and block learning, structure, support and assistance to all victim(s), could we see clearly that children on both sides of this conflict are victims with needs. In our attempts to come to a place of mental acceptance and clarity or to find our comfort distance the question always surfaces just before our judgment: why this child? The answer: because one was in crisis and needed to be heard and the other child was the only one listening.  

It is time to ask questions and to seek answers. Are we in a situation of "good" people caught too late asking the "right" questions? Has the common sense management and education of children lost its place buried within the collection of statistics? Did denial set-in? Denial will not reach truth, yet truth will rise. It is time for adult ears to listen. Children are screaming "ENOUGH!" Paper programs and flush money will not solve this. One Institution cannot do this alone.

Grow we must for the seed that has been planted is the seed of self-contempt, isolated and vulnerable pathways, self-defeating choices, and could at any moment manifest to retaliatory-justice seeking explosions. It is the seed of destruction of the good works we do, the means to the end once again out of balance with false promises to those investing in our education missions and believing in the foundation stones laid by family. If we open our hearts this can be a time to reflect, to see the contrast reality between light and shadow. It is time to choose wiser the seed we plant.   

While communities sleep, the Supreme Court has already spoken. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor provides perspective under Title IX and defines the burden of responsibility to provide safe and equal access to our publicly supported Institutions and Programs. How will communities meet this challenge?

Before we drift back to sleep dreams may we open our eyes and ears to realize that this is not an isolated event reported one day in a newspaper. Bullying is real and children are unprepared to face this alone or to resolve what society creates on pathways where justice is denied. We all are invested in the outcome. By what higher standards will we each hold ourselves accountable? Time will tell the story. While time passes may we reflect upon this question: Are we so concerned with how our Institutions look to a community that we fail to wonder how we appear to our children?     

Jane Marla Ver Dow
Author, Dear Daisy, Rising Sparrow Press
Editorial as written by Author July, 2004

Excerpt from Rising Sparrow scheduled for release 2007

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens  can change the World.  Indeed it is the only way that ever has.” 
                                                                              -  Margaret Mead

                                          Return Home