The Bully List

At the Wire Village School in Spencer, MA, teachers asked the kids to write down the names of students who had bullied them, pulling together a master “bully list.”

The top offenders, including 11-year-old Tom Gebo, were given a new set of rules to follow. “I had to stay in for two weeks — morning recess, lunch recess. I had to report to a teacher after I did anything. If I went to the bathroom, I’d have to report to my homeroom teacher,” Tom told local station WHDH.

That’s when the tables turned, and bully became the bullied. Tom says kids teased him for being on the list and told him that they wouldn’t be his friend anymore. “I know how it feels now… I think bullying is a bad thing and being bullied is an even badder thing,” Tom said.

A little schoolyard justice went a long way in teaching Tom some empathy. But did school officials go to far? Gebo’s mom, Danielle, is furious, and is demanding that the principal of the school be fired. Instead, Superintendent Dr. Ralph Hicks says that teachers have been asked to “cease and desist” with the bully list, and that training and discipline guidelines are being developed.

Absolutely last on my new-ish parental sympathy list, right behind school-yard bullies, are parents who allow or inadvertently encourage their kids to become bullies.

I’m generally against gestapo-like offender lists. But am I surprised to see the admitted bully’s mom requesting someone get fired? Nope. That’s how a bully’s parents are. Their children can do no wrong. Their loving children are surrounded by a sea of lesser beings, including teachers.

I can tell you what my dad’s reaction would have been if I had ended up on a bully list. “You got your self on the list. Now get yourself off it.” The man never once took my side against a teacher or principal. And in 99% of the cases, that was how it should have been.