A bullying fine?

[GMDino]

So at my son's school there was a bullying incident caught on video.  A girl punched and pushed a "special needs" student while walking from the vo-tech to the high school.  Other kids can be heard saying "hit him again" and no one stopped it.

Both people walked away after the incident.

The girl was suspended as soon as it was reported.  Then the video got posted and the news got hold of it.

We talked to our son about it and he knew the boy that got hit.  He is on the autism spectrum but is fully capable of taking care of himself and what our son heard was he was wanting fight everybody and he got hit and pushed.

Still wrong, but not as wrong as the news made it out.

So we asked him what he would have done if he had seen it happen and he said he'd probably walk away to avoid getting in a fight himself...unless it was a situation where someone was being beaten then he would get help.

I was a little disappointed.

As someone who who people wanted to bully I wanted him to say he'd at least yell to get the bully to stop.

When I was younger I had a bad temper so the few bullies who actually tried to get physical with me learned that short fat kid would swing whatever he had and wasn't going to just get pushed around.  I learned that that wasn't the best way to deal with them...but it left me with a desire to keep others from being bullied also whenever I could.

I don't know how many times I'm gone up to someone and talked them out of harassing someone.  Guess in some eyes that makes me a "lefty".  I just think it makes me a good person who cares about other people.

I can honestly say I don't know anyone who wasn't bullied who turned out any worse than anyone who WAS bullied.

Bullying happens.  That doesn't mean it is acceptable or that it is "needed".  

Last thought:  I might have shared this in another bullying thread.  Our son got picked on once on the bus.  It was the son of a friend.  A year older and twice his size.  Kid had him by the neck for some dumb reason and that was all that happened.  So I told our son if he ever tried that again to kick his squarely in the groin as hard as he could.  (Asked to make sure he knew where the groin was...lol.)  And then to tell the bully while he was puking on the floor of the bus to never let it happen again.  i didn't want him starting fights but he certainly allowed to end them.  

And hopefully in the future he will stick up for others too.  Not because people being bullied are somehow less or weaker, but because standing for each other is the right thing to do.