Teen
yobs and playground bullies should be named and
shamed in the media – but we need a legislative
Assembly to make this a legal reality.
This
month saw Anti-Bullying Week across the North
when a lot of well-meaning people and groups mouthed
off about all the wonderful things they were doing
to make our schools safe from classroom thugs.
But
the real core of the problem is that many of these
teen thugs think they are untouchable physically
because the cane has been banned, and above the
law because of their age.
A
severe ticking off, detention, suspension and
even Anti Social Behaviour Orders are seen as
badges of honour by these scum.
In
the North, a number of young people have already
committed suicide – or have threatened suicide
– because they saw death as the only real
escape from pea-brained bullies, many of whom
are beyond the control of their parents.
How
many more deaths or nervous breakdowns will it
take before our politicians decide to focus on
the human rights of the bullies' victims?
MLAs
and MPs should build on Anti-Bullying Week by
pledging a future legislative parliament will
give the two fingers to human rights bureaucrats
and bring back the birch in schools specifically
for thug pupils.
Urgent
action is needed against these classroom yobs
before a vigilante culture is established with
groups such as the rumoured Dads Against Bullies
stalking and threatening known teen bullies.
Already
there are allegations some bullies from Co Armagh
have had £2,000 bounties put on their heads
with the cash going to the first person to leave
each bully permanently confined to a wheelchair
for the remainder of his life.
There
have even been suggestions the mother of one known
Co Antrim bully is being followed by vigilantes
reportedly claiming she will be given the kicking
every time her early teens son picks on a child.
British
Home Secretary and potential Deputy Prime Minister
John Reid, the first Catholic Northern Secretary,
has already confirmed parents could be hit with
heavy fines for their kids' yobbish behaviour.
This
so-called yob culture in schools must include
bullying. Society has got to be seen to be taking
more than a firm hand with the teen thugs –
the parents must feel the clout of the courts'
iron fist. When the bullies hit children, the
courts hit the mums and dads in the pocket.
Parents
who have to cough up £5,000 every time their
supposedly uncontrollable brat bullies an innocent
child at school will soon learn to exercise some
efficient discipline in the home. And if the parents
refuse to pay the fine, there should either be
compulsory docking of wages, or a mandatory six-month
jail term.
And
the law must be changed to allow the media to
name and shame both convicted bullies and their
parents – no matter what the age of the young
brats.
Likewise,
tough borstal regimes must be introduced to house
repeated bullying offenders who are even beyond
the control of heavily-fined parents.
Hopefully,
in the weeks to come following Anti-Bullying Week,
we will not have to endure a load of pious rhetoric
and slogans about the need to face down the social
cancer of bullying. The parents and families of
bullied children demand their democratic rights
for positive action.
The
message is simple – use an iron gauntlet
policy to drive bullying out of our schools before
more victims kill themselves, or perhaps even
worse, vigilante mobs lynch either the bullies
or their parents from a lamp post.
Politicians
ignore this message at their peril because its
only a matter of time before these same lamp posts
carry Wild West-style posters proclaiming –
Wanted for Bullying, Dead or Maimed, £2,000
in cash.
