Morning Edition's interview with two teachers (one from Oregon) regarding their relationshiops with students following the Littleton (and Springfield) school shootings included a brief consideration of the occasional expression of sympathy for the shooters. The interviewer and the teachers tipi - toed around the issue of provocation by jocks, cheerleaders, etc. who exhibit disrespect for particular students.
I must take exception to all the tipi-toeing around the issue of harassment. The Morning Edition interview characterized such contacts as "kidding." NOT! The jocks insult, push, spit, and punch. They tear clothes and damage papers and books with water balloons, etc., and the preps and cheerleaders are no more civilized. Administrators and many teachers and most coaches downplay the cruelty of these provocations, just as the Morning Edition teachers did.
Minimizing the harassment, which students who by choice, appearance, behavior, etc. are identified as outside the mainstream of the student body, must endure every single schoolday of their lives, is a serious mistake. There is a vast overreaction underway just now after the Columbine High shootings with respect to non-serious remarks made by students. It is absurd that the widespread harassment by mainstream students is downplayed as though it is non-threatening.
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