Beating Teenagers and Bullying

I've come to the conclusion that people are, in fact, retarded.

I'm watching "Nancy Grace" on CNN right now. She's talking about this beating that happened in Florida, where one girl had posted some unkind things about another group of girls on her MySpace or whatever. So the group of girls lured the first girl into a home and basically beat the crap out of her, knocking her unconscious, blackening an eye, and breaking a tooth. She was beaten so badly that her parents had difficulty recognizing her.

While I'm not condoning "bashing" others online, there is NO excuse for what this group of girls did. AT ALL. EVER. And these "children," some of who were on probation, are being released on a couple thousand dollars bail, which is chump change to their folks, I'm sure. And THEN, we have Dr. Phil bailing one of them out.

I teach. And at our school, we've really been focusing on what bullying is and how kids should go about dealing with bullies. We're teaching them that they need to tell a bully "NO!" and that they do NOT like what is happening. We're telling them that they need to stick up for kids who are being bullied OR witness bullying to tell an adult at school and at home. Honestly, I wish more parents would make a stink about this stuff. It shouldn't be tolerate anywhere. Kids need to know that we don't need to be everyone's friend, but we do need to be KIND to every one.

These kids that were involved in this need to be treated like adults. I'm sorry, but the punishment needs to fit the crime. There need to be SEVERE legal consequences for these morons AND their parents. Maybe a public flogging to be broadcast online so THEY can be humiliated as the victim was? Something to think about.