by Izzy Kalman February 11, 2009 Psychology Today Blog, A Psychological Solution to Bullying
The entire educational world agrees that children have a right to a good education. For most people, a good education is necessary for success in life. A good education is so important that our country has passed a No Child Left Behind Law. It is now the school’s responsibility to make sure that every child gets a decent education.
So if you are not doing as well financially as you should because you failed to get a good education, is that your fault? Of course not! The school failed you. Sue the school. So what if you got your education a long time ago. Why should that matter? It should never be too late to have justice done. You deserve to be compensated for the negligence of your school in providing you with the basis for a good living.
Do you think this idea is crazy? Do you think the government would never allow such lawsuits because it is ridiculous to expect that a school could guarantee academic success for all its students? After all, every school has students that do poorly academically. Where is the students’ own responsibility for their school achievement? Wouldn’t lawsuits for poor academic performance quickly bankrupt the school system? And wouldn’t the knowledge that our taxpayer dollars go to pay small fortunes to lousy students enrage the pubic?
But a similar phenomenon is already happening, and there is no government resistance. It is happening in the area of bullying. Virtually every class has at least one or two victims of bullying. Even though no social organization can guarantee that everyone in the organization will get along with everyone else and have nothing but pleasant relationships–even most experts at human relations have people in their lives who make them miserable–anti-bully laws are making it possible for people to sue schools if they had lousy relationships with with other students. Judges have awarded parents millions of dollars in individual lawsuits because the schools failed to stop their children from being bullied. In Australia, a 30 year old man, David Gregory, is currently suing the State of New South Wales (NSW) for $2 million dollars for suffering he experienced over a decade-and-a-half ago in high school. You can read the article here: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,27574,24996785-5006…
NSW is trying to defend itself. But amazingly, the defense is not claiming that the lawsuit is absurd because no school can make bullying disappear, and even the research shows that most anti-bully programs have no benefit or make the problem worse. No, it’s not making this logical case. The defense is only claiming that the man’s psychological difficulties were pre-existing conditions that did not result from the bullying, and that he may be exaggerating the degree to which he is suffering. The State of NSW does fully accept the premise that the school is, indeed, legally responsible for the bullying that goes on between students. They are only haggling about the amount they need to pay Mr. Gregory.
So, what the heck! If you can sue your school because of your lousy relationships with other students–and good relationships is not even the purpose of school–you should certainly be able to sue your school for failing in its true mission of providing you with a solid education. So, lousy students of the world, it is time to get compensated. Go to your lawyers, inform them about the No Child Left Behind law, and sue for millions. You know you deserve it! You were the innocent victim of a system that left you behind! Don’t let that incompetent system get away with it! It’s about time you got rich!
[I have written in the past about the insanity of anti-bully laws. You can read the articles here:]
If your school is being sued for a bullying incident, what can you do? I have information on my website on how schools can defend themselves in court. Read it here: https://bullies2buddies.com/who-we-help/message-to-school-principals-administrators/
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