Heroics Verboten

Tuesday 4 June 2013 - Filed under Uncategorized

Punished. For protecting a fellow student from a knife-wielding bully. Wait, what? Yes, you read that right. A bully was in an altercation with a kid in middle school. A third student stepped in and assisted by pushing the bully out of the way. He was called in to the principal’s office and . . .

That’s when Leah O’Donnell, Briar’s mother, received a call from the vice-principal.

“They phoned me and said, ‘Briar was involved in an incident today,’” she said. “That he decided to ‘play hero’ and jump in.”

Ms. O’Donnell was politely informed the school did not “condone heroics,” she said. Instead, Briar should have found a teacher to handle the situation.

“I asked: ‘In the time it would have taken him to go get a teacher, could that kid’s throat have been slit?’ She said yes, but that’s beside the point. That we ‘don’t condone heroics in this school.’ ”

Instead of getting a pat on the back for his bravery, Briar was made to feel as if he had done something terribly wrong. The police were called, the teen filed a statement and his locker was searched.

A child was punished for helping another, perhaps saving him from grave injury, because they don’t condone his heroics not using the official, state sanctioned authority. They openly admit that it’s better to risk injury and use the official apparatus than to protect oneself. I hope these people are attacked one day, and suffer painfully as they await the police. We wouldn’t want them being a hero or anything.

2013-06-04  »  madlibertarianguy