Lately there has been an increase in children getting bullied by their peers at school. I’m not talking about the old school sh*t and giggles, or the dozens. In 2010, bullying has gone to a more personal level. Now students don’t necessarily escape bullying when they go home. With the help of the cyber world, kids can harass their classmates at school and at home. They can easily jump online, post hateful Facebook statuses attacking other students, send out mass emails with derogatory emails against other students, then go to school and do this habitual harassment face to face. Offering the victims no escape from their attackers and taking bullying to a new inescapable level. Bullying is now causing more than a few tears, it is leading to suicide and depression. Five teen suicides have occurred in less than three weeks. All five were victims of bullies.

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At what point should the parents step in? A few weeks ago a video surfaced of a man jumping on the school bus and verbally threatening the students who were harassing his young disabled daughter. Some were shocked and appalled by his reaction but I cheered him on. You see, I have a younger sister who has cerebral palsy and if someone dared harassed her in any way, I would hit the roof. My parents would as well. In that way, I empathized with his frustrations. No parent wants to sit back and allow their child to be bullied.

So, although the man’s methods may not have been the most mature, I can comprehend his frustrations. In the recent months there have been a few different cases of kids killing themselves because they were being harassed by their peers for either being gay, or simply being different. I can’t help but to think that maybe if their parents were more forceful with the school administrators about preventing their child from being harassed that maybe, they could have gotten the harassment under control.

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In an idealistic world, a parent telling the school to do their job and get the school bullies under control would make the school respond and thus the bullies would as well. Unfortunately things do not always work in this order. What is a parent to do? Their child comes home in tears and in fear from being harassed persistently by bullies at school for being themselves and has no idea how to stop it. What makes it even worse it that now there is no guarantee that they can escape it once they come home. The place that is supposed to be their solace. I’m not even a parent yet but I can see why a parent would become so frustrated with the bullies and the school not being able to put an end to the situation and decide to handle things for themselves.

Unfortunately like the man who threatened the bullies of his handicap daughter, sometimes, a parent can go too far in protecting their kids. Parents don’t allow your kids to be a**holes. Don’t allow them to go to school and terrorize other students. If you become aware of it then it is your job to put an end to it, not to ignore it because you don’t want to be bothered with the situation. It is your responsibility as well to make sure that your child is not being a tyrant while he is in school. Get involved. It is not the school’s sole responsibility to prevent bullying, it is yours as well.

I’m going to piss some parents off but I think that it should go as far as the parents of the bully facing a possible fine when their child is consistently harassing another child in school. Perhaps a 3 strikes limit and then a letter in the mail to the parents with their fee amount. This may sound steep to some, but money is usually the way to gain the attention of people and make them react. It is all good until you affect their wallet.

Can parents becoming more involved in preventing their kids from being bullied actually control the bullying? How far should a parent go in confronting the bullies?