Medicine Hat Media

Bullying – Alert

It sounds kind of far fetched to hear it, but without naming names, I have recently heard some stories about bullying going on at a local high school in Medicine Hat.

Most high school’s these days claim zero tolerance, dress codes to some extent and safe learning environments, but what about bullying? Personally, I cannot relate, because as far as I know, bullying never went on in my high school, or at least never to such an extent as to cause much emotional or physical harm. Still, I guess it happens every now and then these days by super tough teenagers that think they are all that.

The story I heard is that a kid in high school, after being a victim of prolonged bullying, finally had his arm broken by said bully and the school cannot (or will not?) do anything about it because it took place inside the gymnasium’s change room, where teachers apparently are not allowed to go while students are changing. In this case, the bully seems to have not even received a temporary suspension from school, but probably should have received an expulsion.

The natural instinct is for a parent to call the school and ask why their child was bullied and what is to be the repercussion for the actions of the bully, but if nothing is to be done, what then?

One alternative is to talk to the school Resource Officer, which according to the outline on the Medicine Hat Police website, will: “Identify and resolve problems involving student, school and the community.”and “Maintain open lines of communication with staff, students and parents, the community and police members.”

The second alternative is that as high school is the preparation for real life, give the bully a potent dosage of reality and call the Police.

No one wants to be a victim, so if victimized, why not stop it in its tracks?

The Medicine Hat Police: 403-529-8400
http://www.medicinehatpolice.com/

User Comments

7 Responses to “Bullying – Alert”

  1. October 28th, 2009 at 9:22 AM


    Dusty says:

    What about all this cyber-bullying hootenanny that’s going on?

    Well I guess it’s not really relevant, just another form of bullying – but a geeky one.

  2. October 28th, 2009 at 8:03 PM


    gary says:

    I guarantee you that at whatever school you went to, there was bullying that caused emotional harm.

    I am really glad you mentioned the police contact info. There is absolutely no reason to avoid calling the police. Why does the school even consider an assault like this their business? The teacher should have called an ambulance and the police.

    If you got assaulted at the YMCA, would you tell the towel boy?

  3. October 29th, 2009 at 8:45 AM


    Taylor says:

    I’m sure bullying went on in your school, Sean, you just weren’t aware of it. Bullying is pretty much universal. In the junior high I attended there was once a huge anti-bullying campaign: seminars, “increased” supervision etc. However, as far as noticed absolutely nothing changed. Even in high school I noticed bullying, one of my friends actually transferred to another school because of it. But again, there was little teacher intervention.

    There is little a teacher can do to actually prevent bullying and really the only way I see that it can be done is to have a serious enough punishment to deter. To be honest an out-of-school suspension hardly seems like a punishment unless the kid has parents that turn it into a punishment. What kid wants to be in school anyway? An in-school suspension in an isolated room would be much more effective and of course the police should be involved in bullying of older students in serious cases.

  4. October 29th, 2009 at 2:21 PM


    Vaughn says:

    I went to the same school as Sean and personally witnessed several bullying attempts; however, Sean may be thinking of the word bully in a different way. I’m sure Sean, that you remember like 1000 after school fights going down on in off school property, wouldn’t that be bullying in some form because one kids wants to fight with the other one? That’s just the bigger stuff that I recall; however, I also remember kids being shoved into lockers and all that fun stuff – so it definitely was around, you might just not remember it or did not see it.

    You were probably thinking about Diablo II too much to even pay attention you your surroundings.

  5. October 29th, 2009 at 2:36 PM


    Sean says:

    I know it went on in our high school, Von, but I never saw it being that severe (aside from some after school fights and a few other times). I meant it more in terms of like locker room beatings or throwing things at people or more than just single incidents really. Who got shoved into lockers? Our lockers were tiny… I didn’t play Diablo 2 after grade 9 either, that’s when you got me into UO and BR. 😛

    If I got beat up at the YMCA, I’d probably just let the person beat me up, congratulate him and call the cops for assault, but of course being in high school, it is a lot different since they are under age.

    I guess most bullies probably have bad parents anyway who don’t care, so a suspension wouldn’t really be a punishment to them.

  6. October 29th, 2009 at 3:33 PM


    Vaughn says:

    Hahahaha, just realized what you thought I meant by “shoved into lockers”. I never meant literally shoved inside them, just into them.

  7. October 30th, 2009 at 3:33 PM


    Dusty says:

    I’m pretty sure a good system for a school is that if a kid is causing enough trouble just kick them out, like the first time is a warning, this behavior is no good.

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