Punishing the Victim

I find it disturbing when I hear that the ones that are being punished are the ones reporting the bullying.

This afternoon, I was walking to pick up my son from school. I got a text message from my sister's friend, Colleen. She was distraught because of an incident that happened in class today.

Someone that she thought was her friend, began calling her names in class. They were calling her a "man" and using vulgar language to describe what body parts a doctor should have removed for her. My sister was also in this class when this took place. A fellow student in the classroom proceeded to call my sister and her friend lesbians. When Colleen notified the teacher in the classroom, the teacher moved HER. The teacher simply told the students involved to stop calling them names. The teacher let the kids that were causing problems to continue to sit together while the kids being tortured are separated.

How does that solve the problem? When teachers ignore the problem, they are contributing to the epidemic. We need to stop punishing the victim and start showing these kids that there are consequences for their actions.