Thursday, November 7, 2013

Florida teen punished after disarming gunman on bus for reacting badly under high pressure questioning after the incident.

March 2013:

FORT MYERS, Fla. - UPDATE: A teen who wrestled a loaded revolver away from a gun wielding 15-year-old, potentially saving a life, was suspended because he was "uncooperative" with school officials and law enforcement during their investigation, according to a new referral sent to the family.

Read more: Cypress HS student suspended for disarming gunman?

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Canadian Student Briar MacLean Scolded For Intervening to Stop Knife-Wielding Bully



March 2013:

So, when a conscientious student saw a scuffle, heard the switchblade click, and the bully state that he had a knife, for intervening and pushing the bully away (thus finally attracting the notice of the teacher), he is summoned to the office later that day, subjected to a locker search and made to feel like he had done something wrong for stopping a stabbing because, according to the vice principal, the members of the administration "don’t condone heroics in this school" even though they admit the original victims throat could have been cut before the teacher could have intervened. 

Ultimately, he was scolded for making the school look bad by acting effectively when the teacher had not noticed a scuffle that had turned into a headlock and a pulled knife until after Briar acted and it was no longer possible to quietly ignore the bullying going on in the classroom. 

Read More:
Principal issues statement after sending Calgary boy who tackled knife-wielder home

No heroes allowed: Calgary student, 13, reprimanded for defending his classmate against a knife-wielding bully

Briar MacLean, Canadian Student Who Stopped Knife-Wielding Bully, Scolded For Intervening: Family

Who else knew that a student objecting to being assigned the number 666 for a race would have to explain carefully for religious reasons to be accepted?

November 2013: Whitley Co. teen refuses to run race because of '666' number

Codie Thacker of Kentucky ended up sitting out her race at her high school regional cross country meet because race officials were apparently too dense to draw the connection between her stating a religious exception to the number she was assigned and that "666" is widely considered to be the mark of the beast in Christian circles.

From WKYT.com:
A representative for KHSAA claims meet officials were not told Thacker objected to the number for religious reasons. Joe Angolia with the Kentucky High School Athletic Association said, “We've made adjustments to uniform codes and things like that in the past when it's known that religious reasons are in play. Maybe had that been made more clear to meet officials, they would have made that decision.”

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Student suspended for anti-bullying video done as a class project.



From May 2012: Jessica Barba was suspended for a video and Facebook page (both clearly marked as fictional) depicting a fictional student for a class project on persuasive speech where her topic was against bullying  because a parent saw them and called the school with her concerns about the student depicted, yet neither the concerned parent or the principal paid enough attention to notice the multiple places the profiles and video filmed were fictional or that they (the administrators) were the only ones who were not "getting" why the video was attracting so much attention. Though the suspension was lifted at a hearing and expunged from her record,  it appears the district still justified the initial overreaction and only backed down as far and as quickly as they did because the attention her story generated was correctly calling into question their own reading comprehension skills.  Purging the suspension was indeed the correct resolution once that penalty had been handed down,there should not have been a suspension in the first place.  I can't help but thinking that a student getting a lot of positive attention to an important issue was perceived as a threat to a school administration that reacted in a way proving their own incompetence..

Read more:
Long Island high schooler suspended for anti-bullying video featuring fake suicide returns to school

The Lesson of Jessica Barba and Her Bullying Video | TIME.com