Wisconsin town fines parents for school bullies

Skanky Vamp

Skanky Vamp

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As part of a new ordinance in Shawano, Wisconsin, parents will face fines if their child bullies others. According to WLUK, Shawano’s city council passed the anti-bullying ordinance two weeks ago.

Under the new ordinance, parents will be warned if police determine their child bullied another child. Parents have 90 days to address their child’s behavior.

If their child continues to exhibit bullying behavior, the parents will be issued a $366 fine. If the child receives another bullying offense, parents will be fined $681.

The anti-bullying ordinance prohibits bullying or harassment of any kind, including cyber-bullying. The ordinance applies to anyone under the age of 18.

“This isn’t generated towards the kids being kids, some playground banter,” Chief Mark Kohl of the Shawano Police Department told WLUK. “This is the person that is meticulously using social media or saying things that are vulgar in an attempt to hurt, discredit and really demean a person.”

I think holding the parents responsible might help the situation some, but it just depends on how frequently bullying is actually reported. If I recall correctly I was reading something in the news about Wisconsin being really bad for/about school bullying and or suicides related to bullying.
 
How did they come up with the number for the fine? That's seems awfully steep.
 
Whilst I believe the onus is on parents to raise respectful children, I cant help but wonder what good this will do to parents/a child who simply doesn't care, or to a child with wealthy parents who can afford the fines.

Bullying should be tackled head on, I don't think fining the parents goes deep enough....
 
Athena said:
Bullying should be tackled head on, I don't think fining the parents goes deep enough....
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I think it's a good start though. It will be interesting to see what happens when it does start to affect the parents.
 
I think that's a good thing. At the source, a lot of bullying starts at home due to the parent not teaching their kids proper behavior. And let my tell you money is always a big incentive, I'm willing to bed that those same parents that always say "kids will be kids" will suddenly have a big attitude change.
 
I found the OP being much more serious in The Bronze subforum. Who else has the same feelings?😛
 
What are parents going to do about psychopathic children who refuse to be stopped and stand a chance of doing harm to the parents? These people do exist.
 
ILLYRIAN
ILLYRIAN
It's obvious isn't it, the parents will have to bully the kids to stop them from bullying. Simple.
Ethan Reigns said:
What are parents going to do about psychopathic children who refuse to be stopped and stand a chance of doing harm to the parents? These people do exist.
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Maybe an insurance company can pay?

An insurance for all parents: 2 dollar or something per year. If your children are proved to be psychopathic, it pays the fines for you.🙂
 
vellavu said:
Maybe an insurance company can pay?

An insurance for all parents: 2 dollar or something per year. If your children are proved to be psychopathic, it pays the fines for you.🙂
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Meaning there is no incentive for parents to do anything. And two dollars wouldn't begin to cover it.
 
Ethan Reigns said:
Meaning there is no incentive for parents to do anything. And two dollars wouldn't begin to cover it.
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Proving their own children to be psychopathic and putting it into their records that can be seen 20 years later by employers is a price to pay if they cheat.
 
Keep in mind, above all else, no one in school boards cares and school is usually where bullying starts. If a teacher tries to break up a fight, four things can be guaranteed:

1. He will be injured
2. He will be charged
3. He will be sued
4. He will be fired

Schools have been pressured into "doing something" about bullying and the result has been "anti-bullying policies" that are meaningless and have zero effect. Some don't even provide a definition of what they consider bullying to be. Maybe a short jail term is more in order.

There is another consideration: freedom of speech has almost disappeared. What about students being taught to be tougher? So someone doesn't like you. If bullying is just verbal or just online, let's not treat this like a case of swarming where a kid is left fighting for his life.
 
Ethan Reigns said:
What are parents going to do about psychopathic children who refuse to be stopped and stand a chance of doing harm to the parents? These people do exist.
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Then it's an incentive for the parents to make an appointment for the kid to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist, and it helps in detecting conditions in children, therefore helping with providing early treatments in such conditions. It's a win win.

Ethan Reigns said:
There is another consideration: freedom of speech has almost disappeared.
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Yes, freedom of speech should exist, but when it is discriminatory, it should not be considered as such. If that were the case, racism and homophobia would still be rampant because people would be allowed to discriminate based on the idea that you should be allowed to say whatever you want. For example, using racial slurs is not using the power of freedom of speech, it is being blatantly racist and discriminatory, and it should be illegal. The right to freedom of speech does not give you the right to ignore other rights

Ethan Reigns said:
What about students being taught to be tougher? So someone doesn't like you. If bullying is just verbal or just online, let's not treat this like a case of swarming where a kid is left fighting for his life.
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But time and time again, verbal and online abuse has been the cause for teen/children suicides. It has to be dealt with seriously, even if no punches are thrown.
 
ILLYRIAN
ILLYRIAN
Likes this
Verbal bullying is rarely done in whispers, it is usually shouted and if done in school that's several hundred kids who know about it. Online bullying will mean the rest of the world might know about it. And bullies rarely stop at bullying one person.
Show the victims that there are people who will help them.
Naming the bullies, shaming them by forcing the parents to do something is better than leaving a victim to resort to exact revenge later in life.
 
Freedom of speech is not absolute. There are numerous things not protected by the First Amendment- nor should they be. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences of that speech. If the bullying is deemed so severe that the school had to involve the police then by all means fine the parents. If that happens twice within three months, certainly double the fine. Do more if you have to.
 
I don't really have a problem with this, but I think it shoud be taken into account that bullying is a tactic often learnt in the home. The child is bullied (or worse) by parents, and takes those lessons into school, they feel powerless at home, so bully other children to give themselves a sense of power.

Punishing the parents financially may not be the best way to deal with this. Seeing the family as a unit, helping that unit function better would be a better, though much more expensive and long term way of dealing with these problems.

Bullying parents. punished because of their bullying children, will just bully their children more, who will then go on to bully other kids, it's a vicious cycle
 
The sad thing is that a lot of parents won't do anything about it (see: "boys will be boys") until it affects them. Where I generally agree something like this is kind of pointless, on the other hand, the fact that it hits parents where they live gives it a chance.

And if one kid doesn't get bullied as a result of it, then maybe it's worth it. Worth a shot anyway.
 
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