Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Kansas: Bullying isn't a joke

The need for an anti-bully law was illustrated last night at the Lawrence School Board's meeting. While discussing its own policy on bullying, the board heard about the horrifying tale of Dylan Theno -- a Tonganoxie student who was harrassed into dropping out. Theno eventually won a $440,000 setttlement from the school district.

The story of Dylan's trial was recounted by his father, Alan.

Theno said the bullying of his son started in February 2000 when a boy in his son’s seventh-grade class announced loudly in the school cafeteria that he had seen Dylan Theno masturbating in a boy’s restroom.

“It wasn’t true, but he said it and it was heard by a large group of boys,” Theno said. “My son’s name went from Dylan to ‘jerkoff,’ ‘jack-off boy,’ ‘masturbator,’ ‘fag,’ ‘queer,’ ‘flamer’ and many other filthy names. My son complained about it to the principal, but the principal forgot about it.”

Dylan Theno is not a homosexual.

The names became worse as the boys found they wouldn’t be punished, Alan Theno said. He said he and his wife went to the school 40 times to complain.

2 comments:

Blue Girl, Red State said...

I taught high-school science for two years way back when the last century still had a decade-plus on the clock.

I loved the kids, but too many parents wanted me to do my job and theirs, and the administrators? The best ones deserved stocks in the public square and over-ripe produce.

Diane Silver said...

I've never taught high school, but as the parent of a one-time high school student, I can certainly see what you're saying. Do you think the parents should have intervened with the bullies? My experience was that the parents of bullies were, at times, bigger bullies than the kids.