A hypothetical question

[Boris]

Let's say you have descendants who are in... let's say middle school or high school, and they're getting bullied and harassed by another student at school. If your child kept going to the teachers and principal, but they do nothing, and then they go to you and you go to the school, and they still don't do anything, would you sue the school if they expel your student from fighting their bully when the bully started to physically assault them but the bully doesn't get expelled?

I watched a judge show (yes, a judge show) and a mom sued the principal because her son was expelled for hitting another student who bullied him when the school staff didn't do much but didn't expel the bully. The principal even said there were no witnesses even though the mom had a witness who had a daughter go to the school. The judge pointed to the witness and said "There's a witness right there!" The principal lost, but still, I wanna know if anyone else would sue like the mom did.

I'm not saying that the case was real, but if that happened to my child, and the school didn't expel the gressor, I would sue too.

[galled]

Harassment and assault are two different things. The latter is much easier to prove due to physical evidence and due to its nature, more likely to have witnesses. Assault is not the same as harassment. Getting physical crosses the line, at least here where I am.

However, when there are extenuating circumstances (the child has no choice, fear of life and limb, etc.), I can see when getting physical is justified. I think a lot of problems like you describe happen when those in charge stick to the letter of the law rather than the intent.

Harassment is very real, but really difficult to police. I mean look how many "adults" behave!

[Gingerale]

If I tried to get the school to monitor and to do something with the parents of the child/ren that were bullying and they did not I would report it to the school district who monitor the schools. I would also look for another school to take my child to if the bullies were not suspended. If my child was defending themselves that would be ok for me. School policies generally expel both parties as they look into the issue. Would I sue the school? Only if the school and school district were not resolving the problem and if it meant suing the school would put rules in place that would benefit the students by changing policies to protect the students.
There was a news report where a student apparently was being bullied at school, some of it caught on security cameras at the school and the student ended up committing suicide. To me that is tragic, more so if the staff saw the footage and did not act on it so that the bullies knew they could get away with it.

[Boris]

Galled While it's true that assault and harassment are different, throwing someone else's property in a trash can, sending text messages and what not it still pretty, and vandalising someone else's property/belongings is still pretty bad.

Gingerale You do have a valid point about getting the school district involved. Perhaps that would be best before suing. As for the student committing suicide because of being bullied, I wonder how the bully felt... was he called up to the office and dealt with? What happened to the bully afterwards? I do feel bad for the student who committed suicide.

[galled]

Vandalism crosses a line too. Sending threatening texts does also (and people tend to get threats and insults confused--insults are protected speech, but not sure if that applies to private communications). Both also contain evidence. I don't believe either falls in the hard to prove area. Both are pretty bad too (although not to the level of assault, but either or both will exasperate the penalties for assault when present).

Anyway, I doubt that true bullies feel anything like regret (other than regret getting caught). What's sad is there are many "followers" who are influenced by bullies and just follow the group or leader and may not have the heart of the bully themselves. I wouldn't call it being weak minded as that would be too simple an explanation (I think fear of not fitting in/becoming a social outcast, etc., are all factors in such behavior).

Anyway, back to the solutions--the best way is to try and work through official channels. Gather evidence, and keep moving up the chain of command until one gets action. If that doesn't work, getting the news involved and lawyers involved usually gets people to take notice.