daprdan on 14/5/2007 at 16:33
I pulled this from the Wiki;
The inability of Japanese parents to recognize and act upon the youth's slide into isolation, soft parenting, or even a codependent collusion between mother and son known as amae in Japanese. When a youth withdraws from life, parents can act or respond in such a way that causes the child to become even more seclusionary.
The mother enableing the boy?sure.But chronic bullying can be pretty bad,and it looks like the lad got a lot,from an early age.He may be pre-disposed toward isolationism,and lazy to boot,but I am in favor of the ruling,as it will help to keep school admins honest.
Zero tolerance is a good rule.
User123abc on 14/5/2007 at 18:32
I think the words in this article are superfluous. You can tell everything you need to know just by looking at the picture.
On one hand its hard not to feel sympathy for someone so vulnerable.
On the other hand, I have trouble understanding it. You have to ask: does he just want to die? What would he do if, to survive, he needed to make an active choice to somehow fend for himself?
It's like Hamlet if he was 80 pounds overweight.
I think that with bullying there should only be either full tolerance or no tolerance. Either totally prevent any violence, or let such things play out. Those doing the bullying don't care about a slap on the wrist, but Pointdexter with his head in the toilet can't respond because he doesn't want to break the rules and jeopardize his chances at Yale.
(the notable exception being Timmy "I'LL CUT YOUR THROAT OUT" Gorgonseye - and in the end even he learned that it was 'best' to not fight back).
Kolya on 14/5/2007 at 19:05
He should switch to PC gaming and meet online virgins and assorted ne'er-do-wells on TTLG. That'll thaw the big boy.
Gorgonseye on 14/5/2007 at 19:24
Shoot, even I sympathize for the fella when there's constant bullying, but I'm not really asking for any money here. The guy obviously had it bad, but I think that both sides had some screw ups. The School Department kind of said "Fuck off, your problem not ours." And the mom only encouraged this behavior by simply letting the boy feel sorry for himself and stick to whatever. Obviously the kid is also quite lazy for ALSO having issues with the work in general, as he seemed to lack a physical ability with being so easily scared, and pushed around, but also a simple intelligence issue. The kid obviously needed extra attention, and some lessons on how to stick up for himself as well though.
Of course, I'm not saying he should go on a stabbing spree, but this was an ongoing problem that could have been halted, and now we just have one more screwed up individual just being payed off, doomed only to get worse mentally.
mopgoblin on 14/5/2007 at 20:43
Quote Posted by daprdan
Zero tolerance is a good rule.
Actually, it's a pretty bad rule. Genuine bullies are pretty good at not getting caught, so the first time "bullying" is detected could well be when one of the victims (who generally won't be thinking about not getting caught, but rather about self-defence) finally does a decent job of fighting back.
Gestalt on 14/5/2007 at 20:56
Zero tolerance is a way for the staff to look like they're cracking down on something while simultaneously divesting themselves of the responsibility to examine each case on its own merits and figure out what's going on.
Most of the times I got in trouble during elementary school were either for fighting back or sneaking out the wrong door to avoid being ambushed.
Kolya on 14/5/2007 at 21:22
Maybe we could invite him and he could become sort of the ttlg mascot. Then we'd also have something to put on the front page.
And every time some newbies says something bad to big boy the whole community would stand up on their legs and howl.
God that would be so cool.
aguywhoplaysthief on 15/5/2007 at 02:41
While I'm generally not a fan of suing over things "like this", I think that in this case it is probably warranted.
The government must provide a safe learning environment for their students, and clearly they weren't doing so for this kid (and many others I am sure). Unfortunately, the only thing you can do in these sorts of situations is go for the wallet, and that's what this family did.
I don't think that they necessarily has such noble motives, but that doesn't really matter. Schools can provide a safe environment, and if they aren't, and all the proper channels haven't worked, then the school system must be held accountable for such failures.
Shug on 15/5/2007 at 04:11
Pretty ordinary situation for him regardless; even if he has enough money to swim in, it'll only be going towards a game collection anyway
aguywhoplaysthief on 15/5/2007 at 04:30
Come on mang, game developers gotst to eat 2.