Talk About Town: When Should Schools Step in During Cases of Bullying?
A small town has rallied around a bullied girl elected to Homecoming Court turning a negative into a positive, but should the school have stepped in sooner?
In the small Michigan town of West Branch, a community has come together to support Whitney Kropp, a sophomore at Ogemaw Heights High School who was nominated by the students as a prank for the school's Homecoming Court, according to a story from The Detroit News.
Support for the 16-year-old came swiftly across the state and nation as a Facebook page, Support Whitney Kropp, was created offering encouragement and words of support for the young woman. The page currently has more than 87,000 "likes" and continues to grow as Whitney prepares for her big night at her school's Homecoming this Friday.
With local businesses footing the bill, Whitney will show up in front of her classmates wearing a new dress and her hair and makeup done. Family, friends and other community members have also shown their support, according to the Detroit News story and Facebook postings, and the school says they will investigate the incident.
Is it a little too late, however, for the schools to be stepping in now? Even though this situation has turned into a positive moment for Whitney, the outcome could have been drastically different.
If the teachers or administration were aware of this "prank" on another student that was meant to cause public humilation on a large high school scale, is it the school's responsibilty to step in somehow and prevent it?
Hartland Patch wants to know: Should the schools have stopped this "prank" sooner by stepping during the voting period - before the court was announced- or let it play out?
Should some of the students be punished for voting for a student as a mean prank?
In this Thursday morning feature, we want to hear your opinions about certain topics making headlines. We'll be looking for your feedback in the comment section weekly. And we want to know what the Talk About Town is in your circles. Email Tatum at tatum.ryan@patch.com and it could be a topic of a future Talk About Town.
Paddle the Mitten & SUP MI
7:32 am on Thursday, September 27, 2012
Kids are cruel- this sort of thing happened when I went to Hartland 26 years ago. Kids being mean. I remember seeing it in writing and was embarrassed & appalled then, but totally disgusted by what I've seen now- as a teacher & with my friend's kids.
Paddle the Mitten, a Hartland based company, has contacted Whitney offering to teach her a new sport & invite her closest friends to join her next summer in her hometown. Stand up paddling is a healing, fun and social sport that I hope that it will give her the feeling of reward- for doing the right thing and overcoming this event. She has become a positive ambassador and this is what PTM is about. Being positive and happy.
Tatum Ryan
8:46 am on Thursday, September 27, 2012
How wonderful! That is so awesome, Linda! Please let me know if Whitney and her friends do the lesson- would love to hear about that! What a great way to show support! I also remember kids in my school doing this- one girl was selected to the court and walked around school with her Homecoming corsage that all the girls were wearing and I remember the kids teasing her and snickering about it behind her back cause she was so happy about it. Made me feel guilty that somehow we were all part of that and no one stood up for her. She also had a sister in the school who was also so embarrassed. She knew what was happening- I don't know if she ever told her sister though. It was very sad and very cruel how people laughed at her happiness. I always wondered if the school considered doing something about it though?