Should bullying at schools be a criminal offence?

[tenofspades]

France has made it a potential criminal offense:

https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/03...nishing-school-bullying-with-prison-sentences

French MPs have approved a new law that will criminalise school bullying and provide further training for teachers to prevent harassment.

The proposed legislation will make school bullying a specific criminal offence, which either students or school staff can be held liable for.

Those found guilty could face fines of up to €45,000 and three years in prison if the bullying forces a victim to miss school or work for up to eight days.


But sentences can increase to ten years' imprisonment and a fine of €150,000 if the victim commits suicide or attempts to do so.

 

[Yaayuh!]

Cram it, you nerd.

 

[Moley]

AS someone who was bullied relentlessly for years at school - absolutely NOT. No. Just no.

Bullying is a horrible thing to deal with but life is full of horrible things and you have to learn to cope with them or end up being a feeble adult who needs a safe space everytime someone says a hurty word.

The only action that should be taken, is for schools to deal with bullies better.

 

[Bear]

How do they propose a school kid pays 45k Euros? Also putting school kids in prison for 3 years

 

[Efour]

Western Europe will be speaking Mandarin and Cantonese in less than 50 years.....Our children's, children will be incapable of making important decisions or be able to defend themselves or their country

Is the threat of fines and prison time going to stop " natural" child behaviour.

all it will do at best is make every teacher insanely paranoid about every students interactions. Probably CCTV in every class and hallway.

What a delicious can of worms to open.

I was bullied and bullied im the double *******

 

[uber soldat]

French nerds are the worst nerds, with their stripey shirts, onions around their necks and garlic breath, they deserved to be bullied harder than last time.

 

[Zefan]

How do they propose a school kid pays 45k Euros? Also putting school kids in prison for 3 years

I imagine that's where the part where "schools can be held liable" part comes in. I'm not overly familiar with the history behind this, is this perhaps a reaction to a specific instance/run of bullying being ignored (and as a result, rightly or wrongly perceived as being endorsed) by schools? I can understand the feeling that "someone must be held accountable" but without further information I find it hard to agree with it really, we're infantilising our population enough as it is.

 

[200sols]

Surely it depends how far it goes as to whether it is a crime.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

I was bullied and bullied im the double *******

Good news.

 

[theone8181]

Surely the obvious response it to take the child doing the bullying somewhere out the way and "sort him out" to show him the errors of his ways.

 

[Efour]

Good news.

Well in my defence my bullying was as the appointed class joker, using my wit to my advantage at a couple of other kids misfortune.
They didn't enjoy it and 1 cried to their mum after a few months of psychological torture, i guess...
1 Stern telling off my my head of year, and a half assed apology and i was off the hook.
Valuable life lesson learned. All you have to do to succeed is lie and pretend to care for 5 mins....

Its part of growing up. It always will be and always should be. Im not advocating battle royal in the class room, more its bettter to be taught to cope and overcome, than outlaw.

This was written tongue in cheek btw in case faux outrage takes over.

 

[IceBear]

In the Monty Python version of the Dark Ages the French bullied King Arthur so its been going on for quiet some time.
Surprised nothings been done sooner.

 

[chroniclard]

Yes sounds fine, schools/authority need more disciplinary measures.

 

[potatolord]

France has made it a potential criminal offense:

https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/03...nishing-school-bullying-with-prison-sentences

Bring back hanging.

Or the guillotine in France.

 

[R.P.L]

Oh look, a government overstepping its boundaries again. What a surprise!

 

[Bar]

The problem with bullying in schools is multifaceted and much worse than when I was a kid:

Social media and technology make bullying a 24/7 activity and can be significantly more cruel - no longer is humiliation limited to those that saw something.
Schools seem to have their hands tied - a number of kids have been caught assaulting others but because they are in care, nothing seems to be done to them - the school have admitted their hands are tied.
Education no longer caters for those who are vocational and would do much better in a non-academic setting. This then results in boredem, disengagement and general bad behaviour.
Quality of parenting - far too many parents just dont care anymore, if the school calls to ask for a meeting - the parents take it as though the school are attacking them personally.

 

[Burnsy2023]

I believe that our current approach of trying to avoid criminalising children is the right one. Schools already have the authority to deal with this as a discipline issue, and putting children through the courts does not help solve the root causes.

We need to treat children as children.

 

[dlockers]

I believe that our current approach of trying to avoid criminalising children is the right one. Schools already have the authority to deal with this as a discipline issue, and putting children through the courts does not help solve the root causes.

99% agree.

I think when the bullies get to an age of clarity of what they're doing (you know the type, Sergio Tacchini wearing, backwards cap, fag smoking ***** who are already stealing cars etc) then better interventions need to be invented. No idea what those are. Boot camp maybe.

 

[Chris Wilson]

All a bully understands is a good beating that brings them to, or near to, hospitalisation. Quick, cheap and very efficient. They are usually cowards that have had the luxury of living off an ill founded reputation of being invincible.

 

[Nasher]

Whats the point, anything you do under 16 gets wiped from your record.

Sending them to prison or dishing out large fines would turn them in to real criminals.