Should School Administrators be held legally responsible for bullying?

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by Astorian31

No, because nowadays, if a teacher or any school staff says anything or does anything that hurts the delicate sensibilities of a parent's little angel(the bully,) the school gets sued to kingdom come.

That's true. It's not the way we think it is--schools have very little power these days. Teachers are walking on eggshells if they try to discipline one of these little angels. I don't know about administrators but maybe there isn't much they can do either.

Ideally, these troublemakers would be removed from school and placed elsewhere for rehab of some sort but I don't think that happens much, if at all, anymore. There used to be places called Reform Schools and that's where they were sent.

[thedwightguy]

Here's what amazed me in grade ten and STILL amazes me over fifty years later. School counsellors in my high school, and school principals usually had a Master Degree's in Something. For the counsellors it was usually in some kind of clinical psychology. And yet they seemed to be incapable of using their degree to come up with solutions or think out the problem.

So we were both suspended equally. It became a paperwork game. And a covering rear ends game. At the end of the day nothing had been deliberately done!

To answer the question posed: Yes, there should be a process of discovery to hold the Principal accountable, and a smartening up program.

[soanchorless]

Originally Posted by thedwightguy

Here's what amazed me in grade ten and STILL amazes me over fifty years later. School counsellors in my high school, and school principals usually had a Master Degree's in Something. For the counsellors it was usually in some kind of clinical psychology. And yet they seemed to be incapable of using their degree to come up with solutions or think out the problem.

This amazes me as well. I worked in special ed, but only as a measly, uneducated para. I was astounded how little the people with master degrees, including the school psychologist, knew about anything. Everyone was stuck on one form of behaviorism, which obviously doesn't work on all kids. When behaviorism failed, they had nothing else. It was ridiculous, and the main reason I got out of that job. I couldn't watch us fail so many kids...and I had no authority/education to do anything about it.