Bullied vs bullies: Who’s to blame when things get out of hand? (The answer might surprise you)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you’re probably well aware of the viral video about a bullied kid who fights back. (If you have indeed been living under a rock, welcome back! But you might want to have a look at the video first here).

Not only the internet, but virtually every media outlet has been ablaze with discussion about this video, trying to find out what really happened and who’s to blame.

The bullied kid (Casey) has been receiving phenomenal amounts of support from around the globe. The bully (Richard) seems to be the epitome of ridicule.

However, despite the strong support for Casey, most agree that violence is not the way to solve problems especially considering Casey was much larger. (Apparently being larger, makes you more “tough” and less susceptible to bullies).

Here’s what you don’t see in the video: Casey has been the victim of bullying for the majority of his school life, what started as a small trickle of jests soon blew out of proportion to a relentless attack from bullies. (Not just verbal assaults, the attacks were quite frequently physical as well!) It got to such a degree that Casey contemplated taking his life. Luckily for Casey he had the support of his caring sister, who became a source of strength.

Quite obviously, Casey had tried walking away, many many times over a number of years. It has also been reported that Casey lodged as many as 30 official complaints with his school, but still remained the target of abuse.

So who is really to blame in this saga? The school!

I’m not just an opinionated bystander on this one, from year 8 until I left my school, I was also the victim of relentless bully attacks. (Mind you, I didn’t have the courage then to fight back like Casey did). Quite often, teachers and those in a position of influence within the school would stand idly by while this went on. (Normally only intervening if one party used profanity), but aside from that, under their apparent watchful and nurturing gaze, my school years, were torn to shreds – as were Caseys and thousands of other silent victims (I’m not sure if all schools are like this, but Casey’s certainly was and mine, Kirrawee High School also was).

What would I do if I had my time over? While I do strongly admire Casey for defending himself, I’m personally not a fan of using violence to solve a situation. After lodging official complaints with my school to no avail, I would immediately work my way up the chain. Starting with Department of Education, shaming in the media and involving the police if I had to.

The only issue is, children don’t have knowledge or life experience to know there are other places to turn. They are taught from the early years at school that teachers and principals lay down the rules and have the final say, they are taught to obey and not to question. So when those same teachers and principals turn a blind eye to what is happening, the children (like I did) start to blame themselves and assume there is something wrong with them.

I think it’s time teachers and principals stepped up to the plate and took their positions seriously otherwise we are going to have to start teaching kids some real world lessons.