Matthew Danton
Contributor
Bullying is something that is bound to happen in a school environment, but its effects can reach much further than the classroom, as shown by the suicides in 2011 of gay 15-year-old Jamie Hubley and disabled 11-year-old Mitchell Wilson.
Obviously this is unacceptable, but what is not obvious is how to stop it.
Premier Dalton McGuinty proposed an anti-bullying law in December of last year that would have aggressive bullies expelled from school if they were caught discriminating and taunting others. Schools would thereby be pressed to detect bullying before it is able to escalate into a dangerous situation.
A learning environment free of discrimination is an ideal situation, but simply removing bullies does nothing to correct the problem—it displaces it. Their expulsion can even put the victims in more danger, as there would surely be increased animosity towards the person who caused their expulsion in addition to an increase in bullying off school property.
After their removal, the bully still remains, only now they will likely carry their attitude into adulthood—where things are more serious—potentially endangering even more people.
These expelled students still have to function in society, and removing them from an educational environment with their attitudes still unchanged does nothing to help them or our province. Something should be done to remove their prejudice, not their presence if we want to continue our progression towards equality.
The teenage years are a time of development and self-realization. It is a time when we begin to discover our likes as well as our dislikes. Often the ideas we have in our teenage years, when we are more likely to be easily influenced, are not fully our own, and we end up abandoning them as we get older and begin to think independently. By no means am I justifying hateful actions towards any group of people, but to remove a person from school during that age of confusion for something they could grow out of may compromise their futures.
Bullying can be very dangerous and it is tragic to hear people take their lives as a result of it. As a society we need to support those who are being victimized for being themselves. We also have to support those who are plagued with malicious mentalities, not by expelling them, but by working with them to alleviate their hatred. Society is a whole and though it is effortless to disregard certain pieces, it is not effective.
